Lebanese يلي yalle introduces the relative clause that identifies or describes a definite person or thing: الزلمة يلي وصل “the man who arrived,” القهوة يلي طلبتها “the coffee that you ordered,” and المحل يلي حكينا عنه “the shop we talked about.” One form works with people and things, masculine and feminine, singular and plural.
That simplicity is only half the system. يلي marks the beginning of the relative clause, but the role of the head noun inside that clause is shown separately. A subject leaves a gap; an object, possessor, or prepositional complement normally leaves a resumptive suffix. English speakers must therefore learn not only where yalle goes but what must still appear later in the clause.
One invariable marker
Unlike formal Arabic الذي، التي، الذين, conversational Lebanese يلي does not agree with the head noun. Its form remains yalle throughout.
| Head | Lebanese phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | الزلمة يلي وصل | the man who arrived |
| feminine singular | البنت يلي وصلت | the woman/girl who arrived |
| human plural | الناس يلي وصلوا | the people who arrived |
| thing | الكتاب يلي وصل | the book that arrived |
الزلمة يلي وصل بكير ناطر برا.
ez-zalame yalle wiṣel bkīr nāṭer barra.
The man who arrived early is waiting outside. (informal; masculine subject relative)
البنت يلي وصلت بكير اسمها مايا.
el-bint yalle wiṣlet bkīr isma Māya.
The woman who arrived early is named Maya. (informal; feminine subject relative)
الناس يلي وصلوا بكير قعدوا حد الشباك.
en-nās yalle wiṣlo bkīr ʾaʿado ḥadd esh-shobbāk.
The people who arrived early sat by the window. (informal; plural subject relative)
The verbs agree with the missing subject—masculine وصل, feminine وصلت, plural وصلوا—while يلي never changes.
Definite heads normally take يلي
The core Beirut pattern places يلي after a definite head: a noun with الـ, a demonstrative phrase, a possessed phrase, or another expression already identifiable in context.
القهوة يلي طلبتها صارت باردة.
el-ʾahwe yalle ṭlibta ṣāret bārde.
The coffee you ordered has gone cold. (informal; definite object head with feminine resumptive clitic)
سيارة رامي يلي تعطلت واقفة قدام البيت.
sayyāret Rāme yalle tʿaṭṭalet wēʾfe ʾoddām el-bēt.
Rami's car that broke down is parked in front of the house. (informal; the possessive phrase is definite, with a feminine subject gap inside the relative)
هاد المحل يلي فتح جديد قهوته منيحة.
hād el-maḥall yalle fataḥ zhdīd ʾahweto mnīḥa.
This shop that just opened has good coffee. (informal; demonstrative makes the head definite)
An integrated restrictive relative with a genuinely indefinite head normally omits يلي in the Beirut baseline: بدي محل يفتح بكير “I want a shop that opens early.” That contrast is developed on indefinite relatives.
Subject gaps versus resumptive suffixes
If the head is the subject of the relative verb, do not insert an independent هو/هي in the neutral pattern. The verb agreement identifies the missing subject.
هاي البنت يلي بتشتغل هون جارتنا.
hāy el-bint yalle btishtaghel hōn zhāretna.
This woman who works here is our neighbor. (informal; subject gap, no هي)
If the head is a direct object, Lebanese normally resumes it with an attached suffix on the verb.
هيدا الفلم يلي حضرناه الأسبوع الماضي.
hayda l-film yalle ḥaḍarnēh el-osbūʿ el-māḍe.
This is the movie that we watched last week. (informal; masculine object resumed by ـه)
If the head is selected by a preposition, the preposition remains and carries the suffix.
هيدا المكتب يلي بشتغل فيه.
hayda l-maktab yalle bishtaghel fīh.
This is the office where I work / that I work in. (informal; obligatory preposition-plus-suffix resumption)
If the head is the possessor of a noun inside the relative, that noun carries a possessive suffix.
البنت يلي أخوها دكتور ساكنة فوقنا.
el-bint yalle akhūha doktōr sākne fōʾna.
The woman whose brother is a doctor lives above us. (informal; possessor resumed by ـها on أخوها)
English can strand a preposition or use whose. Lebanese instead keeps a normal Lebanese clause after يلي: بشتغل فيه “I work in it,” أخوها دكتور “her brother is a doctor.”
Near, far, masculine, feminine, and plural heads
The demonstrative agrees with and locates the head; يلي remains invariable.
| Near | Far | |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | هاد الزلمة يلي... hād ez-zalame yalle... | هيداك الزلمة يلي... haydāk ez-zalame yalle... |
| feminine | هاي البنت يلي... hāy el-bint yalle... | هيديك البنت يلي... haydīk el-bint yalle... |
| plural | هودي العالم يلي... hūde l-ʿālam yalle... | هيدوليك العالم يلي... haydōlīk el-ʿālam yalle... |
The course introduces near هاد، هاي first and also teaches common Lebanese هيدا، هيدي. Far هيداك، هيديك and plural هيدوليك are explicitly deictic: they point away from the speaker or contrast a more distant candidate. Demonstrative choice never changes يلي.
A deictic mini-dialogue
أي زلمة قصدك، هاد يلي حد الباب ولا هيداك يلي عند الشباك؟
ayy zalame ʾaṣdak, hād yalle ḥadd el-bēb walla haydāk yalle ʿind esh-shobbāk?
Maya: Which man do you mean, this one by the door or that one by the window? (informal; near/far masculine contrast)
هيداك يلي لابس جاكيت أسود، وهيدي البنت يلي معه.
haydāk yalle lābes zhākēt aswad, w-hayde l-bint yalle maʿo.
Nour: That one wearing a black jacket, and this woman who's with him. (informal; far masculine and near feminine reference)
The demonstratives can themselves serve as the nominal head: هيداك يلي... “that one who...” The following يلي clause restricts which one is meant.
Pronunciation, spelling, and regional labels
In this guide, written يلي has Beirut pronunciation yalle. You will also see Lebanese spelling يللي, which makes the doubled consonant more visible. Both can represent the same everyday form.
اللي/إللي with readings such as ille/elli is common in Syrian, Palestinian, and Jordanian speech and occurs for some Lebanese speakers too. These are (regional) and community-linked variants, not separate masculine and feminine relative pronouns. Keep one production form—يلي yalle—until you can style-shift consistently.
Do not import formal الذي/التي into an otherwise ordinary Beirut sentence. Those forms belong to MSA or deliberate formal reading (formal). The colloquial relative marker does not carry MSA gender, number, or case distinctions.
Clause boundaries
The relative begins at يلي and ends when the larger sentence resumes. In القهوة [يلي طلبتها] صارت باردة, طلبتها belongs inside the relative, while صارت باردة is the main predicate about القهوة. Agreement and resumptive clitics help the listener find that boundary.
السيارة يلي اشتريناها مبارح بدها تصليح.
es-sayyāra yalle shtarēnēha mbēreḥ badda taṣlīḥ.
The car we bought yesterday needs repairs. (informal; object clitic closes the relative before the main predicate)
Common Mistakes
Changing يلي for gender or number
❌ البنت يليها وصلت جارتنا.
Incorrect — يلي does not take a feminine suffix or change form to agree with البنت.
✅ البنت يلي وصلت جارتنا.
el-bint yalle wiṣlet zhāretna.
The woman who arrived is our neighbor. (informal; invariable يلي)
Omitting يلي after a definite head as English can omit “that”
❌ الاجتماع حضرناه مبارح كان طويل.
Not the intended integrated relative — without يلي, this is heard as a sequence of clauses or a left-dislocated topic.
✅ الاجتماع يلي حضرناه مبارح كان طويل.
el-izhtimēʿ yalle ḥaḍarnēh mbēreḥ kēn ṭwīl.
The meeting we attended yesterday was long. (informal; definite relative with object resumption)
Dropping a direct-object resumptive clitic
❌ القهوة يلي طلبنا صارت باردة.
Not the core Beirut object-relative pattern — طلبنا lacks the feminine object clitic resuming القهوة.
✅ القهوة يلي طلبناها صارت باردة.
el-ʾahwe yalle ṭlibnēha ṣāret bārde.
The coffee we ordered has gone cold. (informal; feminine object clitic)
Dropping the suffix after a preposition
❌ المكتب يلي بشتغل في بعيد.
Incorrect — في needs a suffix resuming المكتب.
✅ المكتب يلي بشتغل فيه بعيد.
el-maktab yalle bishtaghel fīh bʿīd.
The office I work in is far away. (informal; preposition-plus-suffix resumption)
Using one demonstrative for every gender
❌ هاد البنت يلي وصلت.
Incorrect in the course baseline — هاد is masculine, while البنت is feminine.
✅ هاي البنت يلي وصلت.
hāy el-bint yalle wiṣlet.
This woman who arrived. (informal; feminine demonstrative plus invariable يلي)
Key Takeaways
Use يلي yalle as the invariable relative marker after definite Lebanese heads. It does not distinguish “who” from “that,” or masculine from feminine. Subject relatives normally contain a subject gap marked by verb agreement; object, possessive, and prepositional roles normally contain the appropriate resumptive suffix. Demonstratives agree for gender, number, and distance, but يلي never does.
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Start learning Arabic →Related Topics
- Subject Relative ClausesA2 — Form Lebanese subject relatives with يلي plus a subject gap, using verbal agreement and aspect to identify the missing subject.
- Object Relatives and Resumptive CliticsB1 — Form Lebanese object relatives by attaching a resumptive clitic to the relative verb, with agreement for the head noun.
- Prepositional Relative ClausesB1 — Keep a Lebanese verb's selected preposition inside the relative clause and attach a suffix that resumes the head noun.
- Relative Clauses with Indefinite HeadsB1 — Build Beirut Lebanese restrictive relatives after indefinite heads without يلي, while retaining required resumptive suffixes inside the clause.
- Building a Definite Noun PhraseA1 — Build Lebanese definite phrases with repeated articles, demonstratives, possessors, proper names, and matching adjectives.
- The Lebanese Suffix-Pronoun InventoryB1 — Map the Beirut suffix-pronoun system across nouns, verbs, and prepositions, including its major host-conditioned forms and stress effects.