اللي

See also: اللی

North Levantine Arabic

Alternative forms

• ياللي (yalli) (see usage notes below)

Etymology

From or related to Arabic اَلَّذِي (allaḏī) and اَلَّتِي (allatī).

Pronoun

اللي • (lli, illi)

1. (relative) who; whom; which; that; what

   هيدا المستشفى اللي بتشتغل إمي فيه

   Hayda l-mistašfa lli btištaḡil ʾimmi fīh.

   This is the hospital in which my mother works.

Usage notes

• In some phonetic environments, particularly in fast speech, the pronoun may be contracted to just -ll- or -l-.
• The variant ياللي (yalli) can be used interchangeably, but it occurs most often when used without an antecedent, that is in the senses “he who”, “that which”, etc.:

فيك تقول ياللي بدك

Fīk-i tʾūl yalli baddak.

You can say what you want.

South Levantine Arabic

Etymology

From or related to Arabic اَلَّذِي (allaḏī) and Arabic اَلَّتِي (allatī).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lli/, [ˈ(ɪ)l.li]

• Audio (Ramallah):

  (file)

Pronoun

اللي • (illi, lli)

1. (relative) who; whom; which; that

   البنت اللي شفتها مبارح بتشتغل معي.

   il-bint illi šuft-ha mbāreḥ btištḡel maʕi

   The girl I saw yesterday works with me.

   (literally, “The girl that I saw her yesterday works with me.”)

2. the person who, whoever; that which, whatever (at the beginning of a sentence)

Usage notes

• When referring back to a noun, which is the object of the verb that follows, a suffix pronoun should be added to that verb.
• اللي (illi) is used referring to a definite noun, but usually omitted if the noun is indefinite.