What Does “Yalla” Really Mean?

“Yalla”: almost the most famous word known in Arabic by non-Arabic speakers.

What does it mean? I think everyone who lived in the UAE or an Arabic country for a while knows the meaning of “yalla” as “let’s go,” and it does mean that. However, the word is a lot more versatile than you think. It can be said in many intonations and situations to mean a lot of things. Let us go through some of them.

Hurry up!
You can say this angrily or in frustration to ask someone to hurry up. You can say it twice, “yalla yalla,” meaning “hurry up, hurry up.”

Come on!
To encourage someone if they are doing something hard, like the last rep of a very difficult exercise in the gym. “Yalla! You can do it.” It is NOT, however, used to replace the English “Come on, I can’t believe you did this!” — “Yalla” (reproaching).

Alright! Okay!
You can simply say “yalla” if your friend asks you, “Would you like to meet for a coffee in 30 minutes?” and you just say, “Yalla!”

These are the main uses of “yalla” in short. And if you really want to geek out more, you might find it interesting where the word came from. “Yalla” in fact is “ya” + “Allah.”

In Arabic, we use “ya” as a prefix when we want to call out to people by their names. We don’t just call “Ahmed!”; we say “Ya Ahmed.” Or “Ya Johanna,” or ya + any name, really. And Allah is the word for God in Arabic.

So it is basically a call for God to help whatever situation move along, whether it is to hurry, achieve something difficult or simple, to kickstart and say “let’s go.” It is all with the blessing of God, in the Arabic Muslim culture.

I hope you enjoyed this!