ma ماء
Moroccan Darija · noun
“ma” (ماء) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning water.
Meanings
- water
- liquid, juice (of a fruit)
Usage
In darija, the word is almost always used with the article: lma. The spelling ماء is the Standard Arabic one. In speech, it is more often written الما. It is masculine: lma sokhon, "the water is hot". People say lma dyal ṣ-ṣenbir for "tap water" and lma m3denni for "mineral water". For a quantity, people say chwiya d lma, "a little water". The word also refers to the juice of a food, for example lma dyal l-limoun, "lemon juice". It appears in many common expressions.
Example
عطيني شوية ديال الما
3tini chwiya dyal lma
“Give me a little water.”
Forms
| plural | miman |
|---|
Forms as recorded in DODa, in its spelling.
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “ma” but also “ma2” and “elma”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 2 is hamza (ء), a glottal stop.