Arabic Demonstrative Pronouns أَسْماءُ الإِشَارَةِ

Introduction – مُقَدِّمَةٌ

In this lesson, we will learn about the Demonstrative Pronouns أَسْماءُ الإِشَارَةِ and Relative Pronouns الأَسْمَاءُ الْمَوْصُولَةُ in detail.
In previous lessons we have learnt the basics of the Demonstrative Pronouns (see Lesson 1, Lesson 2, Lesson 6, Lesson 7|L007_001.html||, Lesson 13, & Lesson 18) and Relative Pronouns in (Lesson 9, & Lesson 12).
“A Demonstrative Pronoun is a noun that represents the near or the distant object.
- We know that in English “This” is used to point to the near singular object and “That” is used for the distant object and “These” is used to point towards the near Plural Objects and “Those” is used for the Distant Objects. However different nouns are not used for the Dual (in English language) and there is no difference of gender i.e., the same nouns are used for the masculine as well as the feminine.
- In Arabic however, different Demonstrative Pronouns are used for singular, dual and plural objects. Similarly different Nouns are used for the masculine as well as the feminine.

English	Transliteration	Gender/Number	Arabic	Demonstrative Nouns
This	Hādhā	Masculine/Singular	هَـٰذَا	أَسْمَاءُ الإِشَارَةِ (لِلْقَرِيبِ)
This	Hādhihi	Feminine/Singular	هَـٰذِهِ
These two	Hādhāni	Masculine/Dual	هَـٰذَانِ
These two	Hātāni	Feminine/Dual	هَـٰاتَانِ
These all	Hā’ulā’i	Masculine & Feminine/ Plural	هَـٰؤُلاءِ
That	Dhālika	Masculine/Singular	ذَلِكَ	أَسْمَاءُ الإِشَارَةِ (لِلْبَعِيدِ)
That	Tilka	Feminine/Singular	تِلْكَ
Those two	Dhānika	Masculine/Dual	ذَانِكَ
Those two	Tānika	Feminine/Dual	تَانِكَ
Those all	‘ulā’ika	Masculine & Feminine/ Plural	أُؤلَـٰئِكَ

“A Relative Pronoun is a noun which refers or relates to some noun preceding it”.
- The Arabic Relative Pronouns have different forms for singular, dual and plural as well as for masculine and feminine.

English	Transliteration	Gender/Number	Arabic	Relative Nouns
Who/That	Al-Ladhī	Masculine/Singular	الَّذِي	الأَسْمَاءُ الْمَوْصُولَةُ
Who/That	Al-Latī	Feminine/Singular	الَّتِي
Those two/Who (dual)	Al-ladhāni	Masculine/Dual	اللَّذَانِ
Those two/Who (dual)	Al-latāni	Feminine/Dual	اللَّتَانِ
Those all/Who (all)	Al-ladhīna	Masculine/ Plural	الَّذِينَ
Those all/Who (all)	Al-Lā’ī	Feminine/Plural	اللائِي

Let’s take some examples of the Relative Pronouns:

English	Arabic
This is Muhammad who has passed	هَـٰذَا مُحَمَّدٌ الَّذِي نَجَحَ.
This is the door which is in front of the mosque	هَـٰذَا الْبَابٌ الَّذِي أَمَامَ الْمَسْجِدِ.
That is the cat that has sat	هَـٰذَا الْقِطٌّ الَّذِي جَلَسَ.
Those are the brothers who went to the University	أُولَئِكَ الإِخْوَةُ الَّذِينَ ذَهَبُوا إِلَى الْجَامِعَةِ.