ghras غرس
Tunisian Derja · verb
“ghras” (غرس) is a verb in Tunisian Derja meaning to plant (tree, plant).
Meanings
- to plant (tree, plant)
- to drive, stick into the ground
- to instil (formal)
Usage
Ghras means "to plant" in the concrete sense: you plant a tree, olive trees, a cutting. In the present tense, you say yoghres or yaghres. The noun ghraسa or ghrassa means a plantation or a young plant, and ghars the act of planting. In the press and in speeches, the verb also takes the figurative meaning of "to instil" values, but this use belongs more to Standard Arabic. In daily life it stays agricultural: it is often heard about the olive tree or the garden. It takes its object directly: ghras zitouna, "he planted an olive tree".
Example
بابا غرس زيتونة قدام الدار
baba ghras zitouna 9oddem eddar
“Dad planted an olive tree in front of the house.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “ghras” but also “ghres”, “8ras” and “ghrass”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 8 is light ha (ه) or ghayn (غ), depending on the writer.
Type “ghras” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “to plant (tree, plant)”; “to drive into the ground”: ghres in Moroccan.