Learn Arabic › B2 › عَلَّ
عَلَّ
perhaps /ˈʕal.la/
particleB2#3525 most common
Also: maybe, it may be that, I hope that
Example sentences
عَلَّهُ يَنْجَحُ.
Perhaps he will succeed.
عَلَّكَ تَنَامُ بَاكِرًا اللَّيْلَةَ.
Perhaps you will sleep early tonight.
عَلَّ الجَوَّ يَصْفُو غَدًا.
Perhaps the weather will clear up tomorrow.
عَلَّنِي أَجِدُ حَلًّا لِهَذِهِ المُشْكِلَةِ.
Perhaps I will find a solution to this problem.
عَلَّ اللهَ يَرْحَمُ الفُقَرَاءَ وَيُفَرِّجُ هَمَّهُمْ.
Perhaps God will have mercy on the poor and relieve their distress.
عَلَّ مَا نَجْهَلُهُ اليَوْمَ يَنْكَشِفُ غَدًا فَنُدْرِكَ حِكْمَةَ مَا جَرَى.
Perhaps what we do not know today will be revealed tomorrow, and we will grasp the wisdom of what happened.
Word family
لَعَلَّperhaps, the standard form of the same particle
لَيْتَwould that, wish (sister particle)كَأَنَّas if (sister particle)
إِنَّindeed (sister particle)
لَكِنَّbut (sister particle)
Etymology
عَلَّ is a dialectal shortening of لَعَلَّ, the standard Arabic particle for hope and expectation. Early Arab grammarians, including Ibn Hisham, recorded several tribal pronunciations of this same particle, and عَلَّ was one of them, alongside forms like لَعَنَّ and رَعَنَّ. Grammarians disagree on which form came first, لَعَلَّ or عَلَّ, but they treat them as one particle with the same meaning and the same grammatical behavior. The word has no known origin outside Arabic.
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