Arabic vocabulary
لِأَنْbecause in Arabic
لِأَنْ is how you say “because” in Arabic. Hear it pronounced and see it used in a real example sentence from classical texts below.
Root ل ي ن (l-y-n)conjunction (particle)Pronounced li-an
Meaning of because in Arabic
- because, for the reason that
لِأَنْ is a compound of the preposition لِ and the particle أَنَّ, used to introduce a causal clause ("because"). It is not semantically derived from the ل-ي-ن root family shown here (which covers softness/pliancy, e.g. لَيِّن, لَانَ) — the shared consonant skeleton is coincidental, arising from the undiacritized form of the hollow verb لَانَ "he became soft."
Words from the same root
- لَيِّنٌsoft, gentle, mild
- لَانَto become soft, to relent
- لِينٌsoftness, gentleness
- أَلَانَto soften, to make gentle
- مُلَيِّنٌa softening or laxative medicine
Common questions
- How do you say "because" in Arabic?
- لِأَنْ (li-an).
- Is لِأَنْ related to the root ل ي ن (softness)?
- No — despite the root tag, لِأَنْ is a compound particle (لِ + أَنَّ) and is unrelated in meaning to ل-ي-ن; the resemblance is purely orthographic.
Definitions synthesised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).
Example sentences
لِأَنَّهَا لَا تَدْعُو إِلا إِلَى مَا تَشْتَهِي
Because it only calls to what it desires.
لِأَنَّهَا — because indeed it. li- = 'because'; anna = 'that, indeed'; the ending '-ha' = 'it/she' — together 'because it'.
From: Resisting Temptation →
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