voilà

See also: voila

English

Alternative forms

• voila

Etymology

Borrowed from French voilà.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /vwæ.ˈlɑː/, /vwɑː.ˈlɑː/, /vwʌ.ˈlɑː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /(v)wɑˈlɑ/

Interjection

voilà

1. Lo, there it is; see here; ta-da; presto; behold!

Translations

behold!

• Arabic:

  Egyptian Arabic: أهو‎ m (ʔahu), أهي‎ f (ʔahe), أهم‎ pl (ʔahum)

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 睇 (tai²)

  Mandarin: 瞧 (zh) (qiáo)

• Dutch: voilà
• Finnish: noin (fi), kas tässä, no niin, avot
• French: voilà (fr)

• German: voilà (de)
• Latin: ecce
• Latvian: lūk, āre, re (lv)
• Portuguese: eis (pt)
• Russian: вуаля́ (vualjá)
• Spanish: he ahí, he aquí, helo ahí, helo aquí, vualá (es)
• Turkish: işte (tr)

Anagrams

• Ivalo, Viola, oliva, viola, volia

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French

Etymology

From vois (“see!, look!”), second-person singular imperative of voir (“to see, to look”) and là (“there”), literally meaning "look there!".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vwa.la/
• Homophones: voila, voilât

Verb

voilà

1. There (it) is.
   • Beckett, Samuel

     Voilà l’homme tout entier, s’en prenant à sa chaussure alors que c’est son pied le coupable.

     There is man in his entirety, blaming his shoe when his foot is guilty.

2. Here (it) is.

   Voilà le fromage

   Here's the cheese

3. That is.

   Voilà ce que je lui ai demandé, et voici sa réponse : « ... »

   That's what I asked her and this is her answer: "..."

Usage notes

• voilà is a defective verb. Its only conjugation is in the present indicative tense, even though it can appear in phrases that imply another tense.
• It is mainly used to introduce a slightly distant person or object, in contrast to voici which is used to designate a person or object near the speaker.
• In face-to-face conversations where both participants can see the subject of the conversation, voilà often supersedes voici (thus its additional definition: Here is).

See also

• revoilà
• voici

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• lovai, viola, volai