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advanced · grammar

يا رَيت

If only - يا ريت

Wishing for something that isn't, with يا ريت

"يا رَيت" is the wish word, and it covers a lot of ground: if only, I wish, I hope, and a very soft way of asking someone for something.

It behaves like "لَو" from the conditionals section. For a wish about the present or the past, the verb after it goes in the past tense. For a polite request about the future, it doesn't.

Keywords

  • functional

Phrases

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