The Word Yalla (يلا) in Egyptian Arabic: How To Use It

Today we are talking about the word yalla (يلا) in Egyptian Arabic.

This word is used often in Egyptian Arabic, and there are a couple different ways to use it.

Want to know more?

Let’s get started!

The Word Yalla (يلا): A Quick Background

Yalla is a common word throughout the Arabic-speaking world.

You will hear it a lot, and even though different countries sometimes use it in slightly different ways, there are a few main meanings.

Get these meanings down, and the word yalla starts to become much easier to use.

That said, while the word is easy to understand, it’s so wide-spread that you will often hear it in conversations with Egyptians.

The relatively “complex” thing about the phrase happens when you think about how many different kinds of phrases you can actually use the phrase in.

Want to learn Egyptian Arabic?

Then the word yalla is an important one to understand!

The Word Yalla (يلا): Different Ways to Use It

The word yalla, when it comes to how Egyptians use it (see the cultural insight), is actually quite simple.

Our resident Egyptian (Tarek) racked his mind to think about how Egyptians use it, asked his friends, chatted with his family…

And this is what we got…

There are three main ways to use the word yalla.

Because of that, this will be a relatively short post.

Here the three main ways to use yalla in Egyptian Arabic:

Yalla meaning #1: Let’s go

This is kind of how you would normally use the phrase “let’s go” in English.

Some examples: Let’s leave from this place now / Let’s do it / Heck yeah!

This last one is an interesting one because yalla (let’s go) is being used as encouragement.

In this context, you will often hear yalla as a form of encouraging somebody to keep trying or working hard.

A good example would be during a sports game.

Yalla meaning #2: Hurry up

This is the (slightly) less positive one.

When you use the word yalla like this, you are basically telling somebody to stop being so slow.

The person you are talking to isn’t moving fast enough, and you want them to speed things up.

A good “contextual clue” to clarify this use of yalla is that Egyptian bus drivers often scream this at cars that are in their way.

By saying yalla, they are hoping the other cars move a little faster.

Yalla meaning #3: Let’s… (as a suggestion)

This last use of the word yalla is basically saying “Let us (do this thing).”

The grammar construction here is very easy.

You say “yalla” and then conjugate the verb how you normally would for who is doing it.

So, if you want to say “Let’s play”:

Talk verb : يلعب

We play : نلعب

Let’s play. : .يلا نلعب

Simple as that!

Very similar to the way we speak in the Egyptian Arabic future tense.

The Word Yalla (يلا): Example Phrases

Here are a few examples of the word yalla in action.

Examples:

1) Are you up for going to the party (Lit. You come we go party)? : Tegy nrouh hafla?

تيجي نروح حفلة؟

Let’s go! . : Yalla beena!

!يلا بينا

Yalla beena basically means “Let’s go man / dude/ friend.”

You will definitely hear it a lot from Egyptians!

2) When are you going out? : Hatenzl emta?

هتنزل امتى؟

Now. : Dlwa2ty.

.دلوقتي

Ok, hurry up am waiting for you. : Tab yalla ana mstaneek.

.طب يلا انا مستنيك

The word tayeb (in this case tab) also has a few different way to use it.

3) Send the lecture. : Eb3at elmo7adra.

.ابعت المحاضرة

Ok. : Hader.

.حاضر

Hurry up and finish! : Yalla ekhlas!

!يلا اخلص

…

Happy learning,

Cleo Lingo