là
French
Etymology
From Middle French la, from Old French la, from Latin illac. The grave accent on the a was added to disambiguate with la (“the”). Compare Spanish allá, Portuguese lá.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /la/
audio (France) (file) - (Quebec), IPA(key): (formal) /lɑ/, (informal) /lɔ/
- Homophone: la
Adverb
là
Antonyms
Derived terms
Further reading
- “là” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Italian
Etymology
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /la/, [l̺ä]
Audio (Italy) (file) - Rhymes: -a
Adverb
là
Usage notes
See usage notes at lì.
Anagrams
Mandarin
Romanization
là (Zhuyin ㄌㄚˋ)
- Pinyin transcription of 剌
- Pinyin transcription of 嘑
- Pinyin transcription of 拉
- Pinyin transcription of 揧
- Pinyin transcription of 擶
- Pinyin transcription of 攋
- Pinyin transcription of 楋
- Pinyin transcription of 爉
- Pinyin transcription of 瓎
- Pinyin transcription of 瘌
- Pinyin transcription of 癞
- Pinyin transcription of 癤
- Pinyin transcription of 翂
- Pinyin transcription of 腊
- Pinyin transcription of 臈
- Pinyin transcription of 臘
- Pinyin transcription of 萺
- Pinyin transcription of 蜛
- Pinyin transcription of 蝋
- Pinyin transcription of 蝲
- Pinyin transcription of 蠟
- Pinyin transcription of 辢
- Pinyin transcription of 辣
- Pinyin transcription of 鑞
- Pinyin transcription of 镴
- Pinyin transcription of 鬎
- Pinyin transcription of 鯻
- Pinyin transcription of 蜡
Middle French
Adverb
là
- (late Middle French) Alternative form of la (there; at a given location)
Mochica
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /laː/
Noun
là
Synonyms
References
- José Antonio Salas, Diccionario mochica-castellano, castellano-mochica (2002)
Portuguese
Adverb
là (not comparable)
- Obsolete spelling of lá
Romansch
Etymology
Adverb
là
Scottish Gaelic
Noun
là m (genitive singular là, plural làithean)
- Alternative spelling of latha
Usage notes
- Usually used for special days of the calendar.
Derived terms
- Là Bealltainn / Là Buidhe Bealltainn (“Beltane, May Day”)
- Là na Bliadhna Ùire (“New Year's Day”)
- Là nan Trì Rìghrean (“Epiphany”)
- Là Nollaige (“Christmas Day”)
Vietnamese
Pronunciation
- (Hà Nội) IPA(key): [laː˨˩]
- (Huế) IPA(key): [laː˦˩]
- (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA(key): [laː˨˩]
Etymology 1
Noun
là
Etymology 2
Verb
là
- (copula) to be
- to iron
- Là trong "giặt là hơi" là là chứ không phải là là.
- The là in "giặt là hơi" means ironing, not being.
Usage notes
As a copula verb that is somewhat semantically empty. It is not perfectly equivalent to copulae in other languages (such as English be, French être, Japanese です (desu)), as it only links the subject to a noun; it is completely incompatible with adjectives. In other words, one can say Tôi là mẹ nó "I be his mother", but not *Tôi là ngốc "*I be silly". Teachers of foreign languages typically translate copulae of those languages to là, but also to thì (for linking to adjectives) to compensate this incompatibility.