Learn Arabic › A1 › يا
يا
O (vocative particle for direct address/calling) /ˈjaː/
particleA1#17 most common
Also: hey, oh, (untranslated marker before a name)
Example sentences
يا أُمّي، أنا جائع.
Mom, I'm hungry.
يا مُحمّد، تَعالَ هُنا.
Muhammad, come here.
يا أصدِقائي، مرحباً بكم في بيتي.
My friends, welcome to my home.
يا لَهُ مِن يَومٍ جميل!
What a beautiful day!
يا أيُّها النّاسُ، اسمَعوا جيّداً وانتبِهوا.
O people, listen well and pay attention.
يا لَيتَني دَرستُ أكثرَ عندما كنتُ شابّاً.
Oh, if only I had studied more when I was young.
Word family
أَيُّهَاO the…! (before a definite masculine noun, as in يا أيها)
أَيَّتُهَاO the…! (before a definite feminine noun)
نِدَاءa call; the vocative (grammar)
مُنَادَىthe one addressed; vocative noun
أَيَاO (vocative for a distant addressee)
Etymology
يا is the principal Arabic vocative particle (حرف نداء), used to call or address someone, and it is an inherited Proto-Semitic interjection rather than a word derived from a triliteral root. It is indeclinable and has no internal morphology. Through the spread of Arabic it was borrowed as a calling/address word into Persian, Urdu, Turkish, Swahili and other languages, but these are loans, not genetic cognates.
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