sfer صفر
Moroccan Darija · adjective
“sfer” (صفر) is an adjective in Moroccan Darija meaning yellow.
Meanings
- yellow
- pale, pallid (complexion)
- zero (pronounced sifr)
Usage
This spelling covers two distinct words. Pronounced sfer, it is the adjective "yellow": feminine sefra, plural sufer. Applied to the face, it means "pale, pallid", often because of illness or fear: wjhu sfer. Pronounced sifr, it is the number "zero", used mostly at school, for marks or temperatures. In speech, people very often say zero, the French way, as in bda mn zero ("start from zero"). The two words can therefore only be told apart from context. Online, this spelling is also found for sfer, "journey", which is normally written with a different s.
Example
شريت صباط صفر
chrit sbbat sfer
“I bought yellow shoes.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “sfer” but also “sfar”, “sfr”, “sifr” and “sefra”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “sfer” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “zero, nothing”; “worthless, terrible”: sifr in Algerian.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “zero”; “yellow (plural of asfer)”: sfer in Tunisian.