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Three Very Common Arabic Words Posted by on Sep 4, 2019 in Arabic Language

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.

Image provided by Yasmine K.

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! 😊

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About the Author: yasmine

MarHaba! I am half Jordanian of Circassian descent and half American. I have a Master's in Second Language Teaching and I teach Arabic as a foreign language here in the US, both MSA and Levantine Arabic. I hope to help you become more familiar and interested in the Arabic language and culture.


Comments:

  1. Hasiefah:

    This is great! I love it. Do we use this in formal arabic too?

    • yasmine:

      @Hasiefah MaraHaba Hasiefah, 🙂
      يلا is not but يعني is and خلص is used to mean finished or concluded.

  2. Susan:

    Hello Yasmine- this looks very helpful

  3. Sonia:

    Amazing, thank you from your posts. You are awesome.

  4. Anne:

    This is great! Really helps me read better. I understand all words so being forced to recognize them untransliterated helps a lot!

  5. Abbas Oolikkara:

    Dear Yasmine , I feel your Arabic lessons are useful. pls send me more lessons.

  6. Aishah:

    I love it. Can you please share more Arabic with us.

  7. Shareefah:

    I love it. Can you please share more Arabic with us.

  8. Yasmin sharif:

    I think it would be most helpful to have the words
    Written in Arabic along with the transliteration for
    People who cannot read Arabic very well but have
    Some knowledge of the Arabic alphabet.