The list is large, detailed and entertaining. Here's just a sample because I hate leaving this blank while it's being completed.
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| Tayyeb, teb | "Good", "well" | To announce the end of a phone conversation or of a visit (like "all right"). Tayyeb… time for me to go. To express acceptance, agreement (like "all right"). In its abbreviated form, to express urgency, helplessness, outrage. When someone is protesting weakly, shyly or for form. |
| Ya3neh | "It means", in the sense of "that is to say" | This is an extremely versatile word.
In answer to questions such as "how are you?" or "How is your work going?" to express that they're not going so well. For reproachful or critical sarcasm To express something one has no words for, either amused, or shocked, etc. As a word that announces a reply that we're pondering, for instance during an interview (exactly like starting a sentence with "Well,...") |
| Yella | No literal translation anymore. | Etymologically, it is from the expression "ya Allah" ("O God!") that was used as far back as the Crusades as a battlecry, but this meaning is completely lost. All that remains is its rousing connotation: the closest English equivalent to it is "come on" (French "Allez!"). It is also very versatile, but note it always implies some kind of movement.
In the meaning of "Let's go!" The same but the interrogative version As an answer to the above To mean "Coming up!" or "Just a minute!" As a mock battlecry to imply an "attack" in a sentence To imply an avalanche of something As an impatient exhortation to action, implying we've demonstrated enough patience, especially towards someone who's whining To express that a situation will change To mean "oh come ON, give me a break" |
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