là

From Middle French la, from Old French la, from Latin illāc. The grave accent on the a was added to disambiguate with la (“the”).

• IPA^(key): /la/

• audio (France)

  (file)

• (Quebec), IPA^(key): (formal) /lɑ/, (informal) /lɔ/
• Homophone: la

là

1. there
2. (used with être) here, present

   Je suis là.

   I'm here.

• ici

• là-bas
• là-haut
• par là

• “là” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

From Latin illāc. Compare Spanish allá, Portuguese lá,

• IPA^(key): /la/, [l̺ä]

• Audio (Italy)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -a

là

1. there

   Synonym: lì

See usage notes at lì.

• al

là (Zhuyin ㄌㄚˋ)

1. Pinyin transcription of 剌
2. Pinyin transcription of 嘑
3. Pinyin transcription of 拉
4. Pinyin transcription of 揧
5. Pinyin transcription of 擶
6. Pinyin transcription of 攋
7. Pinyin transcription of 楋
8. Pinyin transcription of 爉
9. Pinyin transcription of 瓎
10. Pinyin transcription of 瘌
11. Pinyin transcription of 癞
12. Pinyin transcription of 癤
13. Pinyin transcription of 翂
14. Pinyin transcription of 腊
15. Pinyin transcription of 臈
16. Pinyin transcription of 臘
17. Pinyin transcription of 萺
18. Pinyin transcription of 蜛
19. Pinyin transcription of 蝋
20. Pinyin transcription of 蝲
21. Pinyin transcription of 蠟
22. Pinyin transcription of 辢
23. Pinyin transcription of 辣
24. Pinyin transcription of 鑞
25. Pinyin transcription of 镴
26. Pinyin transcription of 鬎
27. Pinyin transcription of 鯻
28. Pinyin transcription of 蜡

là

1. (late Middle French) Alternative form of la (there; at a given location)

• IPA^(key): /laː/

là

1. water

• leng

• José Antonio Salas, Diccionario mochica-castellano, castellano-mochica (2002)

là (not comparable)

1. Obsolete spelling of lá

From Latin illāc.

là

1. there

là m (genitive singular là, plural làithean)

1. Alternative spelling of latha

• Usually used for special days of the calendar.

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [laː˨˩]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [laː˦˩]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [laː˨˩]

là

1. fine silk

From Proto-Vietic *laː (“to work”). Doublet of làm.

là

1. (copula) to be

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.

• bị
• được
• ở

là

1. to iron

   Là trong "giặt là hơi" là là chứ không phải là là.

   The là in "giặt là hơi" means ironing, not being.