lkhrif لخريف
Moroccan Darija · noun
“lkhrif” (لخريف) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning autumn, fall.
Meanings
- autumn, fall
Usage
Lkhrif is the usual word for autumn. It is used alongside the other seasons: sif "summer", chta "winter", rbi3 "spring". People say f lkhrif for "in autumn". The word is masculine, and the article l- is almost always pronounced. Without the article, it is written khrif or 5rif. It comes up in conversation about the weather, the start of the school year, falling leaves or the first rains. For an English speaker, the only difficulty is pronouncing kh, which is close to the Spanish jota.
Example
فالخريف كيبدا البرد شوية
f lkhrif kaybda lberd chwiya
“In autumn, it starts to get a bit cold.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “lkhrif” but also “l5rif” and “lekhrif”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 5 is kha (خ), like the ch in Scottish loch.