See also: اللی

North Levantine Arabic edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

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

Pronoun edit

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 edit

  • 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 edit

Etymology edit

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

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /lli/, [ˈ(ɪ)l.li]
  • (file)

Pronoun edit

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 edit

  • 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.