voilà

See also: voila and voilá

English

Alternative forms

• voila
• wallah (misspelling)

Etymology

Borrowed from French voilà.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /vwæˈlɑː/, /vwɑːˈlɑː/, /vwʌˈlɑː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /(v)wɑˈlɑ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Interjection

voilà

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

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:lo

Translations

behold!

• Arabic:

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

  Hijazi Arabic: أهو‎ m (ahō), أهي‎ f (ahē), أهم‎ pl (ahum)

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 睇 (yue) (tai²)

  Mandarin: 瞧 (zh) (qiáo)

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

• German: voilà (de)
• Latin: ecce
• Latvian: lūk, āre, re (lv)
• Polish: oto (pl), ot (pl), voilà (pl)
• Portuguese: eis (pt)
• Russian: вуаля́ (ru) (vualjá), на (ru) (na)
• 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.
   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, En attendant Godot

     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).

Derived terms

• et voilà le travail

See also

• revoilà
• voici

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• lovai, viola, volai

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Italian

Interjection

voilà!

1. voilà

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Polish

Etymology

From French voilà.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvwa.la/

Interjection

voilà

1. voilà, woe, behold!

Further reading

• voilà in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• voilà in Polish dictionaries at PWN