jawda جودة
Moroccan Darija · noun
“jawda” (جودة) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning quality (of a product, service).
Meanings
- quality (of a product, service)
Usage
Jawda comes from Standard Arabic. It is used mainly in a formal or commercial register: advertising, media, administrative language, and sometimes by shopkeepers praising their goods (ljawda mzyana). In everyday conversation, people more readily say lkalite, borrowed from French: had sse3a fiha lkalite (this watch is good quality). The word is feminine and takes the article: ljawda. It refers only to quality in the sense of a product's value, not to a moral quality in a person. For that idea, people say akhlaq or mzyan instead.
Example
هاد الحانوت عندو الجودة ولكن غالي
had l7anout 3ndo ljawda walakin ghali
“This shop has quality, but it is expensive.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “jawda” but also “jaouda” and “jauda”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “jawda” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “quality (of a product)”: jawda in Tunisian.