Arabic pronouns (Damir) are essential for fluent conversation, used to avoid repetition and link ideas smoothly. There are multiple types, including personal, possessive, and relative pronouns, categorized by their form, attachment to words, and grammatical cases.
Learning pronouns in Arabic is your gateway to fluent speaking in daily conversations. When talking about any person or anything, you need to know the correct pronouns that refer to them. Using all pronouns in Arabic, you can convey the meaning more precisely.
After reading this topic, you will understand the types of pronouns in Arabic from many perspectives and how to use them inside sentences in the right grammatical case. I will provide also many Arabic pronouns with examples.
Pronouns in Arabic
Arabic pronouns (Damir) are specific nouns characterized by having a fixed end (mabniia). They are used to refer to another noun. Using them you can tell information smoothly. Imagine you say: “Ahmed is a good boy. You should know more about Ahmed, as Ahmed will….”. Using the pronouns will make this sentence smoother by removing repetitions and linking words and phrases.
Dispensing with the repetition of names to preserve the beauty of style shows you the importance of pronouns that make them abundant in all Arabic speech.
Fortunately, all Arabic pronouns are Mabniia as mentioned, this means that their grammatical case will affect neither their pronunciation nor their spelling. This makes their studying very easy as we will see.
How Many Pronouns Are in Arabic?
There are many Arabic pronouns. When we say pronouns, we usually mean the personal pronouns. There are 14 main personal pronouns in Arabic. They refer to 14 main cases in following the table, There are 12 pronouns actually as mentioned in Alfia Ibn Malik. Since there are overlapping in the dual form of the second person and the third person.
| Pronoun (الضمير) | Transliteration | Translation (الترجمة) | cases: |
| أنا | Ana | I | The first-person singular pronoun refers to the speaker |
| نحن | Nahnu | We | The first-person plural pronoun refers to the speaker and other |
| أنتَ | Anta | You | Second person singular, masculine pronoun when talking with one male. |
| أنتِ | Anti | You | Second person singular, feminine pronoun, when talking to one female. |
| أنتما | Antuma | You both male | A second-person dual pronoun is used to talk to two males. |
| أنتما | Antuma | You both female | Second-person dual pronoun, used for talking to two females |
| أنتم | Antum | You all | Second-person plural pronoun, used for talking to a group |
| أنتنّ | Antunna | You all | Second-person plural pronouns are used when speaking to a group of females. |
| هو | Huwa | He | Third person singular, masculine pronoun, referring to an absent male. |
| هي | Hiya | She | Third person singular, feminine pronoun, referring to an absent female. |
| هما | Huma | They both (masculine) | Third person dual pronoun, referring to two absent males. |
| هما | Huma | They both (feminine) | Third person dual pronoun, referring to two absent females. |
| هم | Hum | They (masculine plural) | Third person plural pronoun, referring to a group of males. |
| هنّ | Hunna | They (feminine plural) | Third person plural pronoun, referring to a group of females. |
Types of Pronouns in Arabic:
The Arabic pronouns are classified according to three aspects. Firstly, see if they appear in the text or if they are understood from the context. If they appear, ask yourself whether they are connected to the word or not. All Pronouns in Arabic grammar are very simple. They all have fixed diacritical marks but they differ according to their grammatical function in the sentence.
Types of pronouns according to “Appearance in the sentence”:
Arabic pronouns are classified into two types based on their appearance in sentences: Dama’ir Barizah (explicit pronouns) such as “هو” (he) and “أنا” (I), and Dama’ir Mustatirah (implicit pronouns), which are either obligatorily hidden, as in “نحب” (we love), or optionally hidden, depending on context.
1- Dama’ir Barizah ضمائر بارزة
The Dama’ir Barizah are explicit pronouns or visible pronouns. They compose the personal pronouns that refer to definite persons. For example, هو -هي-أنا
2- Dama’ir Mustatirah ضمائر مستترة
Dama’ir Mustatirah are implicit or hidden pronouns that are inferred in the mind. They may be Obligatorily hidden or optionally hidden according to the case.
A- he obligatorily hidden pronouns:
When the hidden pronouns refer to the speaker, the second or the third person, they must be hidden For example,
| sentence | The hidden pronouns | The type of this hidden pronoun |
| اكتب الدرس | I “أنا” | Second person “Mukhatab” |
| نحب العمل | We “نحن” | First-person “Mutakallim” |
| يلعبون الكرة | They “هم” | Third person “Gha’ib” |
B. The optionally hidden pronouns:
When the hidden pronouns can be mentioned or removed according to the context in the following cases:
- The pronoun refers to a visible noun such as: “القمر مضئ”. In another context, you can say “هو مضئ”
- In Past and Present Verbs Linked to a Third Person Singular (ماضي أو مضارع مسند إلى الغائب أو الغائبة). For example, (والدك بعث إليك رسالة).
Types of pronouns according to Attachment to the word:
The explicit pronouns are divided into attached or detached pronouns. Both attached and detached pronouns can be Nominative, causative, or genitive pronouns.
1. Arabic attached pronouns
The attached pronouns are pronouns that are connected to the word. They can not be alone in the sentence. For example,
| The example | The pronoun | Their grammatical case |
| كتبتُ | تُ | It serves as(I) “subjective” so it is a nominative case |
| رأيته | ه ُ | It serves as (him) “objective” so it is a causative case |
2. Detached Pronouns in Arabic
They are pronouns that can be found alone in the sentence. They are not connected to the previous word. They may be Personal pronouns or causative pronouns.
a) personal pronouns:
Personal pronouns are the main pronouns used to refer to a person. They are all nominative pronouns. They may be one of the following 3 types:
- The First-person: The person who talks.it is called in “Damir Mutakallim” = ضمير المتكلم.
- The Second person: refers to a person you talk to. It is called in Arabic “ Damir Mukhatab”= ضمير المخاطب
- The third person refers to an absent person you talk about. In Arabic, it is called “Damir Gha’ib ضمير الغائب.”
b) causative pronouns:
The rest of the detached pronouns have the causative case. They may be used to emphasize the pronouns. They include the following list.
| The pronouns | transliteration | their meanings |
| إياي | ʾIyāya | Me |
| إيانا | ʾIyānā | Us |
| إياكَ | ʾIyāka | You |
| إياكِ | ʾIyāki | You |
| إياكما | ʾIyākumā | You both |
| إياكم | ʾIyākum | You (masculine) |
| إياكن | ʾIyākunna | You (feminine) |
| إياه | ʾIyāhu | Him |
| إياها | ʾIyāhā | Her |
| إياهما | ʾIyāhumā | Them both |
| إياهم | ʾIyāhum | Them (masculine) |
| إياهن | ʾIyāhunna | Them (feminine) |
Types of pronouns according to The grammatical case:
Arabic pronouns stand in the place of nouns. Like nouns, Arabic pronouns can be either a subject or an object. This results in Arabic Subject and Object Pronouns. Nouns and thus pronouns also come in the genitive case.
Gender Pronouns in Arabic
You will notice that the Arabic language provides an accurate description of the gender. There are feminine and masculine pronouns. The following table shows some of them:
| Pronoun Type | Pronoun | Meaning | Gender | Example Sentence |
| Detached | هو | He | Masculine | هو يقرأ الكتاب. (He reads the book.) |
| هي | She | Feminine | هي تكتب الرسالة. (She writes the letter.) | |
| Attached (Verb) | كتبوا | They wrote | Masculine | الطلاب كتبوا الدرس. (The students wrote the lesson.) |
| كتبن | They wrote | Feminine | الطالبات كتبن الدرس. (The female students wrote the lesson.) | |
| Attached (Noun) | مدرسته | His school | Masculine | هذه مدرسته. (This is his school.) |
| مدرستها | Her school | Feminine | هذه مدرستها. (This is her school.) |
Arabic Possessive Pronouns
Arabic possessive pronouns are a special type of attached pronouns that are used to express the possessivity of something. They come in the genitive case. See the following table for more details. Note that you will not see these pronouns alone as written the second column. They resemble suffixes that are added to a noun or a preposition to explain possessivity.
| The pronoun | The possessive pronoun | example | transliteration | translation |
| my | ي | قلمي | Qalami | My pen |
| our | نا | قلمنا | Qalamuna | Our pen |
| your(male) | كَ | قلمكَ | Qalamuka | Your pen (masculine) |
| your(female) | كِ | قلمكِ | Qalamuki | Your pen (feminine) |
| Dual second person | كما | قلمكما | Qalamukumā | Your pen (dual) |
| Dual third person. | هما | قلمهما | Qalamuhumā | Their pen (dual) |
| their(masculine) | هم | قلمهم | Qalamuhum | Their pen (masculine plural) |
| their(feminine) | هن | قلمهن | Qalamuhunna | Their pen (feminine plural) |
| his | ه | قلمه | Qalamuhu | His pen |
| her | ها | قلمها | Qalamuha | Her pen |
| your(pleural masculine second person) | كم | قلمكم | Qalamukum | Your pen (masculine plural) |
| your(pleural feminine second person) | كن | قلمكن | Qalamukunna | Your pen (feminine plural) |
Arabic Relative Pronouns
six pronouns are used to relate two phrases together. For this reason, They are called relative pronouns in Arabic (الاسماء الموصولة).
| type | Relative pronoun | transliteration |
| Singular masculine | الذي | al-lazī |
| Singular feminine | التي | al-latī |
| Dual masculine | اللذان | al-lazān |
| Dual feminine | اللتان | al-latān |
| Pleural masculine | الذين | al-lazīn |
| Pleural feminine | اللاتي | al-lātī |
For example the following sentence, the man who gave me this, when translated “who” refers to the singular masculine word “man”, so it will be translated into “الذي”.
Arabic Demonstrative Pronouns Asmā’ al-ishirāh أسماء الإشارة
They are distinctive nouns that are used to point to something. They differ according to the number, the gender, and the distance of the thing that you refer to. This table gathers all of them simply.
| type | Near noun | Far |
| Singular masculine | هذا | ذلك |
| Singular feminine | هذه | تلك |
| Dual masculine | هذان | ذانك |
| Dual feminine | هاتان | تانك |
| Pleural masculine -feminine | هؤلاء | أولئك |
Arabic Interrogatives
The Arabic Interrogatives are fixed case nouns that are used to ask about something. Each one is used to inquire about something. For example, see the following table.
| Arabic Interrogatives | transliteration | translation | Ask about the |
| من | mn | who | subjective |
| ماذا | maza | what | objective |
| كيف | kayfa | how | manner |
| متي | matta | when | time |
| لماذا | lymaza | why | reason |
These interrogatives vary significantly in Egyptian dialects. If you are interested in learning the Egyptian dialect specifically, you can join our Learning Egyptian Arabic course With A Free Trial
Arabic Pronouns Chart
The following Arabic pronoun chart simplifies gathering all these aspects together. We can organize our thoughts in the following chart.
For the attached pronouns, I used a word to explain the pronoun in the subjective case I used the verb كتب which means (write). I refer this verb to the detached pronoun in the same raw.
I used also the verb كلم which means (talk to) in the same manner. I used the preposition “ل” to explain the possessive pronouns.
Arabic Pronouns Chart
| Type | Pronoun | Transliteration | Translation | Example |
| First Person Singular | أنا | Ana | I | أنا أقرأ الكتاب (I read the book) |
| First Person Plural | نحن | Nahnu | We | نحن نحب هذا (We like this) |
| Second Person Singular (M) | أنتَ | Anta | You (masculine) | أنت تكتب الدرس (You (masc.) write the lesson) |
| Second Person Singular (F) | أنتِ | Anti | You (feminine) | أنتِ تكتبين الدرس (You (fem.) write the lesson) |
| Second Person Dual (M) | أنتما | Antumā | You both (masculine) | أنتما تقرآن الكتاب (You both read the book) |
| Second Person Dual (F) | أنتما | Antumā | You both (feminine) | أنتما تكتبان الدرس (You both write the lesson) |
| Second Person Plural (M) | أنتم | Antum | You all (masculine) | أنتم تذهبون إلى المدرسة (You all go to the school) |
| Second Person Plural (F) | أنتنّ | Antunna | You all (feminine) | أنتنّ تذهبن إلى المدرسة (You all (fem.) go to the school) |
| Third Person Singular (M) | هو | Huwa | He | هو يدرس في المدرسة (He studies at the school) |
| Third Person Singular (F) | هي | Hiya | She | هي تدرس في المدرسة (She studies at the school) |
| Third Person Dual (M) | هما | Humā | They both (masculine) | هما يلعبان كرة القدم (They both play football) |
| Third Person Dual (F) | هما | Humā | They both (feminine) | هما تدرسان في المدرسة (They both study at the school) |
| Third Person Plural (M) | هم | Hum | They (masculine plural) | هم يدرسون في المدرسة (They (masc.) study at the school) |
| Third Person Plural (F) | هنّ | Hunna | They (feminine plural) | هنّ يدرسن في المدرسة (They (fem.) study at the school) |
| Possessive Pronouns | ي | – | My | قلمي (My pen) |
| نا | – | Our | قلمنا (Our pen) | |
| كَ | – | Your (masculine singular) | قلمكَ (Your pen, masculine) | |
| كِ | – | Your (feminine singular) | قلمكِ (Your pen, feminine) | |
| كما | – | Your (dual) | قلمكما (Your pen, dual) | |
| هُ | – | His | قلمه (His pen) | |
| ها | – | Her | قلمها (Her pen) | |
| هم | – | Their (masc. plural) | قلمهم (Their pen, masc.) | |
| هنّ | – | Their (fem. plural) | قلمهن (Their pen, fem.) | |
| Causative Pronouns | إياي | ʾIyāya | Me | إياي أن تذهب (It’s me who goes) |
| إيانا | ʾIyānā | Us | إيانا أن نذهب (It’s us who go) | |
| إياكَ | ʾIyāka | You (masculine singular) | إياكَ أن تذهب (It’s you (masc.) who go) | |
| إياكِ | ʾIyāki | You (feminine singular) | إياكِ أن تذهبي (It’s you (fem.) who go) | |
| إياكما | ʾIyākumā | You both (dual) | إياكما أن تذهبا (It’s you both who go) | |
| إياكم | ʾIyākum | You (plural masculine) | إياكم أن تذهبوا (It’s you all (masc.) who go) | |
| إياكن | ʾIyākunna | You (plural feminine) | إياكن أن تذهبن (It’s you all (fem.) who go) | |
| إياهُ | ʾIyāhu | Him | إياه أن يذهب (It’s him who goes) | |
| إياها | ʾIyāhā | Her | إياها أن تذهب (It’s her who goes) | |
| إياهما | ʾIyāhumā | Them both | إياهما أن يذهبا (It’s them both who go) | |
| إياهم | ʾIyāhum | Them (masculine plural) | إياهم أن يذهبوا (It’s them (masc.) who go) | |
| إياهن | ʾIyāhunna | Them (feminine plural) | إياهن أن يذهبن (It’s them (fem.) who go) |
For more details visit the article related to Arabic pronouns Chart and worksheets.
You can learn all Arabic grammar and master them in a short time in our Intensive Arabic Course Online.
Arabic pronouns worksheet
Using the Arabic pronoun chart, try to extract the pronouns in the following sentences and identify their type.
1.أنا أحب أبي وأمي
2.ذهبتُ إلى المدرسة كل يوم
3. ذهب ليلا إلى المنزل
4. جزاك الله خيرا
5.جزانا وإياكم
6.عدنا إلى المنزل
7. إياك العودة بمفردك
The model answer:
1. أنا: personal detached singular first person pronoun
“ي” in أبي and أمي attached possessive pronoun.
2. تُ inذهبت attached nominative pronoun.
3. This sentence may be tricky. Since it is a hidden pronoun. You understand from the context that he went.
4. ك in جزاك is attached second person objective pronoun.
5. نا in جزانا is attached first person objective pronoun. إياكم is a detached second-person masculine pleural pronoun.
6. نا inعدنا is attached first person objective pronoun.
7. إياك is a detached second-person objective singular masculine pronoun.
ك in بمفردك is an attached second-person masculine possessive pronoun.
You can practice more in any Arabic book for beginners or any Arabic text online. You can find many Arabic texts in our Arabic reading course.
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Conclusion:
We use pronouns in Arabic intensively in our daily conversation. For this reason, It is almost impossible to do without them. Learning Arabic pronouns with examples facilitates their memorization. They are classified according to 3 main criteria: their grammatical case, their presence in the sentence, and their connectivity to the word.
One of the beauties of the Arabic language is that Arabic Pronouns describe the dual number and the gender accurately. This helps you tell all the details you want smoothly.
