اللي

• لي (li) (Lebanon)
• الي (lli, illi) (alternative spelling)
• ال (l-); يلي ,ياللي (yalli); هاللي (halli) (see usage notes below)

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

اللي • (lli, illi)

1. (relative) who; whom; which; that; what

   هيدا المستشفى اللي بتشتغل إمي فيه

   hayda l-mistašfa lli btištaḡil ʔimmi fī.

   This is the hospital that my mother works in.

• Generally requires a resumptive object pronoun in the relative clause if referring to an object.
• The pronoun can be contracted to just -ll- or -l-. In the latter case, it may merge entirely with ال (l-, the definite article) in assimilating to sun letters, or it may remain distinct by retaining the لـ (l-) before them. See usage notes at ال (l-).
• The variant يلي (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 يلي بدك ياه ― fīk tʔūl yalli baddak yā. ― You can say what you want to.

• The form هاللي (halli) incorporates هَـ (ha-, “this, that”, demonstrative) and typically means "this one that" or "that one that", but is used by some speakers interchangeably with اللي (illi, lli).

اللي • (illi, lli)

1. that

   Synonym: إنو (ʔinno)

• Extremely restricted in usage compared to إنو (ʔinno). The only universal use of this sense of اللي (illi, lli) is in the phrase منيح اللي (mnīḥ lli, “good thing that...”):

  منيح اللي فيقتني كنت مكوبسة

  mnīḥ lli fayyaʔtni kint mkawbse

  Good thing you woke me up, I was having a nightmare

  (literally, “Good that you woke me up, I was having a nightmare”)

• However, speakers may also extend this usage to terms with similar connotations to produce phrases like مبسوط اللي (mabsūṭ lli, “glad that..., happy that...”) and حمدلله اللي (ḥamdilla lli, “thank goodness that..., thank God that...”).

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

• IPA^(key): /lli/, [ˈ(ɪ)l.li]

• Audio (Ramallah):

  (file)

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)

• 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.