sghir صغير
Tunisian Derja · adjective
“sghir” (صغير) is an adjective in Tunisian Derja meaning small, little (size).
Meanings
- small, little (size)
- young, of a tender age
- child, little one
Usage
Sghir is the usual adjective for "small", for both size and age: weldi mezel sghir, "my son is still little". The feminine is sghira and the plural is sghar, which also means "the children" (sgharou, "his/her children"). The verb sghar means "to become small, to shrink", for example for a garment that has become too tight. It appears in set expressions such as el 3id es-sghir, the festival at the end of Ramadan. Note: applied to an adult, sghir can mean "young" or, depending on tone, "immature".
Example
ولدي مازال صغير
weldi mezel sghir
“My son is still little.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “sghir” but also “sghyr”, “sghayr”, “esghir”, “s8ir” and “sghiir”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Its Arabic spelling is not fixed either: you will find صغير and اصغير, all the same word.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 8 is light ha (ه) or ghayn (غ), depending on the writer.
Type “sghir” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “small, little (size)”; “young, child”: sghir in Moroccan.
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “small, little (size, quantity)”; “young, younger”: sghir in Algerian.