# Saudi Arabic: ياالله حيه - ياالله حيو



## Amoona

*Hello* 

I just want to know I hear this phrase a lot and I was wondering what it means.

*ياالله حيه or ياالله حيو*


is that it is like "Allah keep you alive"? Why it's not *الله يحييك* ?


----------



## Arabic_Police_999

it's a greeting phrase


----------



## Amoona

Like saying  "ya hala w Marhaba"?  can I say this phrase instead ya hala?


----------



## Arabic_Police_999

it means like welcome, I only heard it when someone come to a place like home(you own) or istraa7ah(you own or rent)
but use it with people of the same social level, 
I mean I wouldn't use it with my father it feels like an insult
I use it with my cousins friend when the come home
تفضلوا الله يحييكم
(الله يحييك means may god greet you)


----------



## كلمات

Amoona said:


> is that it is like "Allah keep you alive"? Why it's not *الله يحييك* ?



Because here it's directed towards God and not the person, "O God, keep him alive/give him life".


----------



## Arabic_Police_999

No it is not, الله يحييك in this context it means to greet
 الله يحييك is pronounce with shaddah, الله يحيّيك
from the verb حيّا one of the meaning of this verb is to greet


----------



## Bin Kahlan

it means literally " O' God, Greet this person" or it can be said in other words: يالله انك تحييه


----------



## كلمات

Arabic_Police_999 said:


> No it is not, الله يحييك in this context it means to greet
> الله يحييك is pronounce with shaddah, الله يحيّيك
> from the verb حيّا one of the meaning of this verb is to greet


What do you mean it is not? That was what was written in the original post.


----------



## Amoona

Ok thank you. It's clear now.  
So it's not may _Allah keep you alive_ but *O Allah greet him?* This is directly addressed to Allah, no?!
If it's O god greet them this will be *يالله حيهم*  ???


----------



## Schem

It's not actual supplication though. Just a phrase you would say when greeting people into your home.

And yes, the plural is يالله حيّهم.


----------



## Amoona

Ok thank you guys how it pronounce ? yaAllah 7ayyi / yaAllah 7ayyihom ?


----------



## Schem

In my region, we say yállah 7aiyuh (for a guy), yállah 7aiyah (girl), yállah 7aiyehum (male group) and yállah 7aiyehen (female group).


----------



## Amoona

Thank you Schem but just I don't understand why _7aiyah_ for a girl. Why not* 7ayiha*?


----------



## Schem

That only happens in my region and Hail though. It should be 7ayeeha or 7ayiha for the rest of the country.


----------



## Arabic_Police_999

كلمات said:


> What do you mean it is not? That was what was written in the original post.


الله يحييك the verb means here to greet it doesn't mean "keep him alive/give him life"


> That was what was written in the original post.


it was a question from a person who is STILL learning Arabic


----------



## كلمات

Arabic_Police_999 said:


> الله يحييك the verb means here to greet it doesn't mean "keep him alive/give him life"


Well there is a misunderstanding here. The core of my answer was to answer why is it with a ه and not a ك


> it was a question from a person who is STILL learning Arabic


It seems that he knows the difference between يحييه and يحييك and that’s why he was asking the question.

Furthermore, it seems that there is more than one way to say this greeting. I am familiar with the “give him life” version.


----------



## Arabic_Police_999

"Well there is a misunderstanding here. The core of my answer was" that the meaning of الله *يحييك *is *to greet * 
you said the verb means *to keep alive (*keep him alive/give him life), which is wrong here
I wasn't adressing the ه & ك
"It seems that he knows the difference between هاء and كاف and that’s why he was asking the question" about the meaning


> Because here it's directed towards God and not the person, "O God, keep him alive/give him life".


I did't get you there but both يالله حيّه yallah 7ayyah & الله يحيّيك are right


----------



## كلمات

Arabic_Police_999 said:


> "Well there is a misunderstanding here. The core of my answer was" that the meaning of الله *يحييك *is *to greet *



Whatever man...


----------



## Schem

The "give him life" version doesn't exist. That would be allah ye7yeek not allah ye7ayyeek.


----------



## Amoona

*Thank you guys !*

So : if I understand correctly _(my english is not really good)
I recapitulate: 

Allah *ye7a*yyeek , means -> May Allah greet you.
but
Allah *ye7*yeek, means -> May Allah keeps you alive
*So *: *Yallàh 7ayyo *it's from  the first sentence and it's sent directly to Allah ->
*O Allah greet him. 
*_
*It's not* O Allah keep him alive.

*do I understand correctly ? *


Bin Kahlan said:


> it means literally " O' God, Greet this person" or it can be said in other words: يالله انك تحييه


_it is pronounced like that _: *yaàllah enak te7ayyih ?*

_Finally, I have one last question_ : Why  يالله don't mean like yalla (go?)* يلا* .
I mean this can be : yallah 7ayyo yallah 7ayyo. Like_ (sorry for my english)_ _*go greet each other!*_ _*go ridges greetings*_!
Do you understand me?


----------



## Arabic_Police_999

first it's a *phrase*,
It's like saying Hi or hello, I'm an atheist & I still say it,
look at this example
in English Goodbye comes from God be with you, when we say goodbye we merely mean to say a farewell word, not praying or something
God be with you by time it turned to Goodbye
similarly
allah ye7ayyeek by time it became allah 7ayyah, but both are still used
ye7ayyeek, means to make alive, or greet
ye7yeek, mreans to make alive
they have the same meaning in english, my advise is look at it from Arabic respective rather than English, because they differ
go to almaany dictionary it is very good


----------



## Schem

Amoona said:


> So : if I understand correctly (my english is not really good)
> I recapitulate:
> 
> Allah *ye7a*yyeek , means -> May Allah greet you.
> but
> Allah *ye7*yeek, means -> May Allah keeps you alive


Exactly.


> *So *: *Yallàh 7ayyo *it's from  the first sentence and it's sent directly to Allah ->
> *O Allah greet him.
> *
> *It's not* O Allah keep him alive.
> 
> *do I understand correctly ?*


Yes.

Keep in mind, though, that the stress in the pronunciation in "yallah" is on the first syllable not the last. That is, the accent mark should be on the first 'a' (i.e. yállah 7ayyuh).


> _it is pronounced like that _: *yaàllah enak te7ayyih ?*


Yep.


> _Finally, I have one last question_ : Why  يالله don't mean like yalla (go?)* يلا* .
> I mean this can be : yallah 7ayyo yallah 7ayyo. Like_ (sorry for my english)_ _*go greet each other!*_ _*go ridges greetings*_!
> Do you understand me?


We pronounce Yalla (as in let's go) with a much softer H sound at the end and with no stress on the first syllable thus making it a different word. Basically, the same way it's pronounced in other Arabic dialects but with a semblance of a /h/ at the end. We'd rarely use the verb حيّ to actually greet someone as it's largely MSA but, for comparison's sake, if I wanted to tell someone to go great someone using that verb, I'd say: "yalla re7 7ayyuh" (يلّا رح حيُّه) not "yállah re7 7ayyuh" (يالله رح حيُّه) which wouldn't make any sense.

PS. I agree with Arabic Police btw. I'm an agnostic as a well and still use this as a greeting often. Unless emphasized, the greeting is devoid of any religious significance really.


----------



## Amoona

I know it is only phrases and there are not believers who use them.* Thank you**.*
you did not understand my last sentence but it does not matter, _thank you for helping me!_


----------

