Classroom – Arabic

Subject pronouns (I, you, we, he, she, we, they) take the place of a noun and function as the subject of a sentence. 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 standard and Egyptian Arabic

	English	Standard Arabic	Egyptian Arabic
Singular	I	أنا (ana)
	you (masc.)	انتَ (anta)	انت (inta)
	you (fem.)	انتِ (anti)	انتى (inti)
	he	هو (howwa)
	she	هي (heyya)
Dual	we	نحن (naHnu)
	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)

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” (همand هن). Note that Egyptian Arabic 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.

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:

Object pronouns in standard and Egyptian Arabic

	English	Standard Arabic	Egyptian Arabic
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	Egyptian Arabic
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)