le

See also: Appendix:Variations of "le"

Languages (56)

English

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English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French le (“the”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lə/

  • Audio (California):

    (file)

• (especially US) IPA^(key): /leɪ/
• (rare) IPA^(key): /liː/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ə, -eɪ, -iː
• Homophones: luh (with /ə/), lay, lei, ley (with /eɪ/), lea, Lea, Lee, leigh, Leigh, li (with /iː/)

Article

le

1. (informal, humorous) the
   • 1949, Michael Maltese, For Scent-imental Reasons, spoken by Penelope Pussycat:

     Le mew. Le purr.

   • 1996 September 28, Game Freak, Pokémon Blue, Nintendo, level/area: S.S. Anne:

     Waiter: 'Bonjour! I am le waiter on this ship! [...] Ah! Le strong silent type!'

   • 2001 June 24, LaManna, “My Weekend...”, in alt.punk‎ (Usenet):

     […] upon arrival, le girlfriend realizes she has left her ID back at my house (a 1 1/2 hour roundtrip on the Metro), […]

   • 2002 December 27, Amelia, “Re: Neat things SANTA brought me...”, in alt.fashion‎ (Usenet):

     And then le boyfriend perks up and names around 8 different brands (Stila, MAC, Becca, Nars etc..) - I was *SO* proud of him!! :)

   • 2003 January 10, johnny dupe (quoting nowhere man), “Re: I can walk with jezus...”, in alt.fan.wings‎ (Usenet):

     That was always OUR song (me and le girlfriend of the time).

   • 2012 October 1, Miranda Kenneally, Stealing Parker, Sourcebooks, Inc., →ISBN, page 63:

     That's when Waitress Seductress Extraordinaire comes back and gets our order. […] "We're sharing an order of à la Appalachia, he says, handing over the menus and turning his focus back to me. Le waitress stomps off. I ask, "Why are they called that?" "Because when they've got the fries stacked up they're higher than a mountain range." I groan and touch my stomach. "You're funny," he says, his eyes twinkling.

Usage notes

• Usually marks the speaker as pretending to be stereotypically French. For additional jocular effect, may be used where neither English nor French would place a definite article.
• Occasionally used with no association to French stereotypes, usually in certain online communities. In this context, initially associated with rage comics, with perceived overuse by apparent newcomers or outsiders (e.g. Redditors posting on 4chan) leading to ironic and caricatural use.

Derived terms

• le sigh

See also

• moi
• ze

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Old French lez (“side”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lə/, /li/, (sometimes) /leɪ/

Preposition

le

2. (obsolete) Next to, near (still used in some place names).

   Chester-le-Street is a town in County Durham near an old Roman road.

   Dalton-le-Dale, Hetton-le-Hole, Witton-le-Wear

Anagrams

• -el, EL, El, el

Afar

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈle/ [ˈlɛ]
• Hyphenation: le

Verb

lé

1. (transitive) have

Conjugation

Conjugation of le (irregular)
		1st singular	2nd singular	3rd singular		1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural
				m	f
present indicative I	V-affirmative	liyóh	litóh	léh	léh	linóh	litoonúh	loonúh
	N-affirmative	liyó	litó	lé	lé	linó	litón	lón
	negative	máliyo, máyyu	málito, mántu	máli	máli	málino, mánnu	máliton	málon
present indicative II		affirmative present indicative I + imperfective of én
past indicative I		lúk + perfective of én
past indicative II		lúk + perfective of sugé
present potential	affirmative	liyóm takkéh	litóm takkéh	lém takkéh	lém takkéh	linóm takkéh	litoonúm takkéh	loonúm takkéh
past conditional	affirmative	lúk + past conditional of sugé
		-h converb	-k converb	-in(n)uh converb	infinitive
		líh	lúk	línnuh	líyya

Derived terms

• -llih
• -lluk

References

• E. M. Parker; R. J. Hayward (1985), An Afar-English-French dictionary (with Grammatical Notes in English), University of London, →ISBN, page 284