Pronoun
Arabic Pronoun

Arabic Pronoun

Subject and object pronouns in Arabic

 

  • Subject pronouns – ضمائر الفاعل 
  • Object pronouns – ضمائر المفعول به 

 


 

Subject pronouns

 

Subject pronouns (I, you, we, he, she, we, they) take the place of a noun and function as the subject of a sentence. Italic and Bold means (Harakat, the vowels on the letters)

أنا من أمريكا (Ana min America) – I am from the US.

 

هو مهندس (Whoé mohandis) – He is an engineer.

 

 

Note: In Arabic, the subject pronoun is frequently dropped. You can tell from a verb conjugation who the subject is, so it’s not really necessary to use the subject pronoun in such cases except for emphasis. However, in equational (verbless) sentences like the two above, you do need the subject pronoun.

Subject pronouns in Arabic

 

  English Standard Arabic In Dialects
Singular I
أنا (ana)
you (masc.) انتَ (anté)  
you (fem.) انتِ (anti) (inti)
he
هو (Whoé)
she
هي (Hieé)
Dual we نحن (naHn)  naHné
you أنتما (antuma)  
they هما (humaa)  
Plural we نحن (naHnu) احنا (eHna)
you (masc.) أنتم (antum) انتو (intu)
you (fem.) أنتن (antunna)
they (masc.) هم (homa) هم (homa)
they (fem.) هن (hunna)

 

Note 1: Strikethrough words means that you’re currently not at the level to learn this. Dual is advanced and is not used in dialects at all.

Note 2: In English, there is only one second-person pronoun, “you,” which is used whether you’re talking to one person, two people, or more. But in Arabic, as you see above, there are masculine and feminine versions of “you,” as well as singular, dual (standard Arabic only), and plural versions: انتَ\انتِ if you’re addressing one person, أنتما if you’re addressing two (in standard Arabic), and أنتم\أنتن if you’re addressing three or more people. Note that the dual “you” (أنتما) is the same regardless of gender. In standard Arabic, there is also a dual version of “they” (هما – which is gender-indiscriminate as well) and masculine and feminine versions of the plural “they” (هم and هن).

Note 3: that dialect has fewer pronouns than standard Arabic, since it has no dual pronouns; it just has plural pronouns that are used to talk about two or more people, of any gender. And the colloquial انتو and هم are gender-neutral.

 ——–Please Don’t read further without me——–


 

Object pronouns

 

Object pronouns (me, you, us, him, her, them) are used when you do something directly to someone or something else. In Arabic, these pronouns are suffixes that are attached to the verb:

ضربته (Darabatu)
She hit him.

يشكروني (yaškuruuni)
They thank me.

 

Object pronouns in Arabic

 

  English Standard Arabic Dialect
Singular me
ـني (-ni)
you (masc.) ـكَ (-ka) ـك (-ak)
you (fem.) ـكِ (-ki) ـك (-ik)
him
ـه (-u)
her
ـها (-ha)
Dual us ـنا (-na)  
you ـكما (-kuma)  
them ـهما (-huma)  
Plural us
ـنا (-na)
you (masc.) ـكم (-kum) ـكو\ـكم (-ku/-kum)
you (fem.) ـكن (-kunna)
them (masc.) ـهم (-hum) ـهم (-hom)
them (fem.) ـهن (-hunna)

 

Note: In colloquial Arabic, ـكو and ـكم are both used, but the former is more colloquial than the latter.

Here are some examples of object pronoun usage, using the verb سأل (sa’al) – “to ask.”

 

  English Standard Arabic Dialect
Singular He asked me
سألني (sa’alni)
He asked you (masc.) سألكَ (sa’alaka) سألك (sa’alak)
He asked you (fem.) سألكِ (sa’alaki) سألك (sa’alik)
He asked him
سأله (sa’alahu [more standard] or sa’alu [more colloquial])
He asked her
سألها (sa’alaha [more standard] or sa’alha [more colloquial])
Dual He asked us سألنا (sa’alna)  
He asked you سألكما (sa’alkuma)  
He asked them سألهما (sa’alhuma)  
Plural He asked us
سألنا (sa’alna)
He asked you (masc.) سألكم (sa’alkum) سألكو\ـكم (sa’alku/sa’alkum)
He asked you (fem.) سألكن (sa’alkunna)
He asked them (masc.) سألهم (sa’alhum) سألهم (sa’alhom)
He asked them (fem.) سألهن (sa’alhunna)

Ana

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