لَيْلَةًone night

Example sentences

• قَالَتْ فَقُمْتُ لَيْلَةً أُصَلِّي،

  She said, "I rose one night to pray,"

  لَيْلَةً — one night. A time-noun in the object (accusative) shape, which turns it into an adverb 'one night' without any preposition; the -an ending does that work. It answers 'when' for the rising. The indefinite ending also gives the 'a certain, unspecified night' feel.

  From: Mothers and the Companions →

• فَلَبِثَ تِسْعًا وَعِشْرِينَ لَيْلَةً،

  He then remained for twenty-nine nights.

  لَيْلَةً — night. The thing being counted appears in the singular here even though English needs the plural 'nights'. With numbers in this higher range Arabic keeps the counted noun singular and marks it in a set object form, so its shape is governed by the number, not by how many there really are.

  From: Umar and the Prophet's Wives →

• خَرَجْتُ لَيْلَةً مِنَ اللَّيَالِي

  One night I went out.

  لَيْلَةً — one night. An indefinite noun marked with a final 'n'-type ending (tanwin), the Arabic way of saying 'a night' with no 'the'. Here it works adverbially to pin down when the going-out happened, standing in a set object form rather than as a plain subject.

  From: Paradise for the Sincere →

• فَلَمْ يُفَاجِئْ الْقَوْمَ لَيْلَةً بَعْدَمَا هَدَأَتْ الْعُيُونُ

  So the people were not surprised that night, after the springs had settled.

  لَيْلَة — that night. A time-noun, 'a night', pressed into adverb duty and wearing the object-style ending Arabic uses to turn a noun into a 'when'. It pins the (non-)event to that particular night.

  From: Sheba's Garden and Destruction →