ghsel غسل
Moroccan Darija · verb
“ghsel” (غسل) is a verb in Moroccan Darija meaning to wash (hands, face, dishes…).
Meanings
- to wash (hands, face, dishes…)
- to wash a deceased person ritually
Usage
Ghsel is the usual verb for "to wash". It is used for body parts (ghsel yeddik, "wash your hands"), dishes (ghsel lmwa3en) or an object. For laundry, sebben, "to soap, to do the washing", is preferred. The verb is directly transitive: the body part being washed follows the verb, with no reflexive pronoun as in French. In the present, one says kayghsel. The form tghsel means "to wash oneself, to perform full ablutions". In the imperative, one says ghsel for the masculine and ghesli for the feminine.
Example
سير غسل إيديك
sir ghsal idik
“Go wash your hands.”
Conjugation
Forms as recorded in DODa and reproduced in its spelling, which often leaves out short vowels.
| Imperfective (present) | Perfective (past) | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ana (I) | kanghsl | ghslt | |
| nta (you, m.) | katghsl | ghslti | ghsl |
| nti (you, f.) | katghsli | ghslti | ghsli |
| howa (he) | kayghsl | ghsl | |
| hiya (she) | katghsl | ghslat | |
| 7na (we) | kanghslo | ghslna | |
| ntouma (you, pl.) | katghslo | ghslto | ghslo |
| homa (they) | kayghslo | ghslo |
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “ghsel” but also “ghsl”, “ghssel” and “ghsal”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “ghsel” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “to wash”; “to wash (face, hands)”: ghsel in Tunisian.