ghre9 غرق
Tunisian Derja · verb
“ghre9” (غرق) is a verb in Tunisian Derja meaning to drown.
Meanings
- to drown
- to sink (boat)
- to be swamped (debts, work)
Usage
Ghre9 (or ghra9) means to drown when speaking of a person, and to sink or go down when speaking of a boat. The verb is intransitive. To say "to drown someone" or "to flood something", the form ghara9 is used. Figuratively, the construction "ghre9 fi" expresses being bogged down: "ghre9 fil dyoun" (to be sinking under debts), "ghre9 fil khidma" (to be buried in work). The corresponding noun is "ghar9a" (drowning). The word is very common in speech, particularly in accounts of migrant shipwrecks or of swims that go wrong in summer.
Example
الولد غرق في البحر
el weld ghre9 fil b7ar
“The boy drowned in the sea.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “ghre9” but also “ghra9”, “ghreg”, “ghara9” and “8re9”. 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; 9 is qaf (ق), a k pronounced at the back of the throat.
Type “ghre9” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “to sink”; “to drown”: ghre9 in Moroccan.