If you’ve had the opportunity to listen to Arabic speakers have everyday conversations or watch Arabic T.V shows, you most probably have heard three commonly used words. Can you try to guess what they could be? They are (يَعني، خَلَص، يَلّا). I myself use them for sure every day. In this post, I will be giving examples of how these common words are used in everyday dialectical Arabic.

Let’s begin with يَعني: You can consider يَعني to be somewhat of a filler similar to how “like” has become a filler in English.

🎇 يَعني basically means “to mean” or “meaning”. Other synonyms include, “so”, and “in other words”.

For example:

.بُكرة عندي كتير شُغل، يعني ما رَح أكون فاضي أطلَع

Tomorrow I have a lot of work, meaning/so/in other words I won’t be free to go out.

.أنا شوي تَعبانة بَس هدا لا يعني إنو ما بِدي أروح معكُم على الحديقة

I’m a bit tired but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to go with you to the park.

شو يعني؟

So what? or What does it/that/this mean?

.درست منيح، يعني المفروض أجيب علامة عالية

I studied well, so/meaning/in other words I should get a high grade.

 

🎇 The second word is خَلَص meaning “enough”, “that’s it”, “stop”, and as a verb “to finish”.

For example:

خَلَصت واجباتك؟

Did you finish your homework?

أعبيلك كمان شاي؟

.خَلَص، شكراً

Should I pour you more tea?

That’s enough, thank you.

في شي ثاني بدك تشتري؟

.لا، خَلَص

Is there anything else you want to buy?

No, that’s it.

!خَلَص تعمل هيك

Stop doing that!

 

🎇 The third word is يَلّا meaning “let’s go”, hurry up”, “coming/on my way”, and “let’s (any verb)” such as “Let’s eat/go out/dance, etc.

For example:

.يلّا على بَيت عَمَك نَشرَب مَعه شاي

Let’s go to your uncle’s house and have tea with him.

!يلّا رَح نِتأخَر

Hurry up we’re going to be late!

يا علي… ممكن تيجي تساعدني بالطبخ؟

.يلّا

Ali…could you please come and help me with the cooking?

Coming.

.يلّا نَرقُص مَع بَعَض

Let’s dance together.

I hope you found this useful. 🙋‍♀️ Be sure to listen for these words in Arabic conversations! 😊