Arabic Pronouns and their Types -اَلضَّمَائِرُ وَأَنْوَاعُهَا

Pronouns and their Types – اَلضَّمَائِرُ وَأَنْوَاعُهَا

• In this section we will learn the Pronouns, In-Shā’-Allâh (God-willing).
• In the previous lessons we have learnt that in Arabic language there are two types of Pronouns namely Attached Pronouns اَلضَّمائِرُ الْمُتَّصِلَةُ and Detached Pronouns اَلضَّمَائِرُ الْمُنْفَصِلَةُ.
• Similar to the English Language, the Arabic Pronouns are divided by 1st. person ( I / We), 2nd. person (You) and 3rd. person (He / She / They).

• We can see the detached pronouns that we normally use for the different persons below as well as the attached pronouns which we will cover in more detail below.

o   The Attached Pronoun for 1st Person Singular is ي for both masculine and feminine e.g., حَقِيبَتِي  (my bag (fem.)) and for Plural it is نَا for both the masculine and feminine دِينُنَا  (our religion)

• The Attached Pronouns for 2nd Person are as follows:
  • 2nd Person Singular Male = كَ e.g., بَيْتُكَ meaning “Your house”
  • 2nd Person Singular Female = كِ e.g., كِتَابُكِ meaning “Your book”
  • 2nd Person Dual for both masculine and feminine = كُمَا e.g., مَكْتَبُكُمَا meaning “Desk of both of you”
  • 2nd Person Plural masculine = كُمْ e.g., أُسْتَاذُكُمْ meaning “The teacher of all of you”.
  • 2nd Person Plural feminine = كُنَّ e.g., غُرْفَتُكُنَّ meaning “The room of all of you”
• The Attached Pronouns for 3rd Person are as follows:
  • 3rd Person Singular Male = هُ e.g., مِسْطَرَتُهُ meaning “His ruler”
  • 3rd Person Singular Female = هَا e.g., مَطْبَخُهَا meaning “Her kitchen”
  • 3rd Person Dual for both masculine and feminine = هُمَا e.g., مَدْرَسَتُهُمَا meaning “School of both of them”
  • 3rd Person Plural masculine = هُمْ e.g., مَلْعَبُهُمْ meaning “Their play ground”.
  • 3rd Person Plural feminine = هُنَّ e.g., وَاجِبُهُنَّ meaning “Their duty” 
• It must be remembered however that the noun followed by the attached pronoun is always a definite noun and therefore it does not take a double vowel.  
• Let’s review some examples to understand this rule: