Personal Pronouns in Palestinian-Jordanian Levantine Arabic

Level I – A1 1. Arabic Alphabet & Pronunciation 2. Linguistic Features of Palestinian-Jordanian Arabic 3. Vowels 4. Hamzah 5. Spelling & Syllable Stress 6.Cardinal Numbers I 7. Word Patterns in Arabic Level II – A2 1. The Definite Article الـ (il) 2. Gender 3. Personal Pronouns 4. Dual & Plural 5. Demonstrative Pronouns 6. Past Tense 7. Prepositions I Level III – B1 1. Present Tense 2. Expressing Desire: “To Want” 3. Expressing Possession: “To Have” 4. Prepositions II 5. Phrases 6. Interrogatives 7. Cardinal Numbers II Level IV – B2 1. Future Tense 2. Negation 3. Relative Pronouns 4. Adjectives 5. Degrees of Comparison 6. Conjunctions 7. Ordinal Numbers Level V – C1 1. Giving Commands & The Imperative 2. Verbal Nouns 3. Active Participle 4. Passive Participle 5. Irregular Verbs I 6. Adverbs 7. Modal Verbs Level VI – C2 1. Passive Voice 2. Irregular Verbs II 3. Progressive & Perfect Tenses 4. Special-Use Particles 5. Special-Use Pronouns, Nouns, & Words 6. Nouns of Place 7. Nouns of Instrument, Intensity, & Repetition

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In Arabic, personal pronouns are classified into two types: detached and attached. Although the correspondence is not exact, detached personal pronouns often function like subject personal pronouns in English.

On the other hand, attached personal pronouns often function like possessive, object, and prepositional pronouns in English.

Unlike MSA, Palestinian-Jordanian Arabic does not have dual pronoun forms; only singular and plural forms are used. Thus, we have two genders, namely masculine and feminine, and two numbers, namely singular and plural.

Detached Personal Pronouns in Arabic

Here are the detached personal pronouns in Palestinian-Jordanian Arabic:

	Singular	Plural
1^st person (m/f)	أَنَــا ’ana I	إِحْــنَــا ’iḥna We
2^nd person masculine	إِنْــتَ ^† ’inta You	إِنْــتُــوْ ’intu You (all)
2^nd person feminine	إِنْــتِ ’inti You	إِنْـتِـنْ ’intin You (all)
3^rd person masculine	هُــوِّ ^* huwwe He	هُــمِّ ^# humme They
3^rd person feminine	هِــيِّ ^§ hiyye She	هِــنِّ hinni They

^†Sometimes shortened to إِنْــتْ (’int).
^*Sometimes shortened to هُــوْ (hū).

^#Sometimes shortened to هُــمْ (hum).
^§Sometimes shortened to هِــيْ (hī).

The feminine forms are used for groups that consist exclusively of feminine-gendered members, whereas the masculine forms are used for mixed-gender groups.

Many people, especially in urban areas, use the third-person masculine plural forms إِنْــتُــوْ (’intu) ‘you (all)’ and هُـــمِّ (humme)‘they’ with both male and female groups.

Some Palestinians, especially in West Bank villages, make the distinction between genders by using إِنْـتِـنْ (’intin) and هِــنِّ (hinni) with all-female groups.

Some Palestinians, especially in the Galilee and in cities like Haifa, use the feminine pronoun هِــنِّ (hinni) with both male and female groups.

While it is important to understand that these variations exist, the overall trend is toward the erosion of the feminine plural, not the expansion of its usage. We will use إِنْــتُــوْ (’intu) and هُــمِّ (humme) with both male and female groups throughout the book.

Let us consider some examples:

.أَنــا هُــون ’ana hown I (am) here.	.هُـــوِّ فِــيْ الْــمَــدْرَسِـــة huwwe fi -l-madraseh He (is) at school.
.إِنْــتُــوْ بِــتْـعِــيْــشُــوْ هُــنَــاك ’intu bit‘īshu hunāk *You* (all) live there.	.هُـــمِّ سَـافَــرُوْ humme sāfaru *They* traveled.
.إِنْـتَ مُـهَـنْـدِس ’inta muhandis *You*^(m) (are) (an) engineer.	.إِنْـتِ مُـهَـنْـدِسِــة ’inti muhandiseh *You*^(f) (are) (an) engineer.
.هِــيِّ مَــع إِمّْــهَــا hiyye ma‘ ’immhā *She* (is) with her mother.	.إِحْــنَــا نْــسِــيْــنَــا ’iḥna nsīna We forgot.

Note that the detached personal pronoun may be omitted, since the verb conjugation ending often suffices to indicate the subject. We will discuss this in more detail in Lesson 6 of this level.

Attached Personal Pronouns

On the other hand, attached personal pronouns appear as suffixes that can attach to verbs, nouns, prepositions, and some conjunctions. Here are the attached personal pronouns in Arabic:

	Singular	Plural
1^st person (m/f)	ـنِــيْ ، … ـــيْ … -i, -ni my, me, I	ـــنَــا … -na our, us, we
2^nd person masculine	ـَـك … -ak your, you	ــكُــم … -kum your, you (all)
2^nd person feminine	ـِـك … -ik your, you	ــكِـن … -kin your, you (all)
3^rd person masculine	ـُـه … -uh his, him, he, its, it	ــهُــم … -hum their, them, they
3^rd person feminine	ــهَــا … -ha her, she, its, it	ــهِــن … -hin their, them, they

In the first-person singular, the suffix ـنِــيْ… (-ni) is generally used with verbs, whereas ـــيْ … (-i) is used in most other cases.

As mentioned earlier, attached personal pronouns can be used as suffixes to:

1. Nouns (similar to English possessive pronouns).

2. Verbs (similar to English object personal pronouns).

3. Prepositions (similar to English prepositional pronouns).

4. Some conjunctions (no English equivalent).

Here are some examples. Note that if a preposition or conjunction ends with ن (n), it is often doubled in all singular forms—except the third-person feminine.

Noun	Verb	Preposition	Conjunction
كْــتَـابْ ktāb book	شَــكَــر shakar he thanked	مِـــن min from	… لَإِنْــ la’in … because …
كْــتَـابِــي ktābi my book	شَــكَــرْنِــي shakarni he thanked me	مِـنّــــي minni from me	لَإِنِّـــي la’inni because I …
كْــتَـابَــك ktābak *your*^(m.s.) book	شَــكَــرَك shakarak he thanked you^(m.s.)	مِــنَّـــك minnak from you^(m.s.)	لَإِنَّـــك la’innak because you^(m.s.)…
كْــتَـابِــك ktābik *your*^(f.s.) book	شَــكَــرِك shakarik he thanked you^(f.s.)	مِــنِّـــك minnik from you^(f.s.)	لَإِنِّـــك la’innik because you^(f.s.)…
كْــتَـابُــه ktābuh *his* book	شَــكَــرُه shakaruh he thanked him	مِــنُّـــه minnuh from him	لَإِنُّــه la’innuh because he …
كْــتَـابْــهَـا ktābha *her* book	شَــكَــرْهَــا shakarha he thanked her	مِــنْــهـا minha from her	لَإِنْــهَـــا la’inha because she* …*
كْــتَـابْــنَـا ktābna *our* book	شَــكَــرْنَــا shakarna he thanked us	مِـــنَّــا minna from us	لَإِنَّـــا la’inna because we …
كْــتَـابْــكُــم ktābkum *your*^(m.p.) book	شَــكَــرْكُــم shakarkum he thanked you^(m.p.)	مِـنْـــكُــم minkum from you^(m.p.)	لَإنْـــكُــم la’inkum because you^(m.p.)…
كْــتَـابْــكِــن ktābkin *your*^(f.p.) book	شَــكَــرْكِــن shakarkin he thanked you^(f.p.)	مِـنْــكِــن minkin from you^(f.p.)	لَإنْـــكِــن la’inkin because you^(f.p.)…
كْــتَـابْــهُــم ktābhum *their*^(m.p.) book	شَــكَــرْهُــم shakarhum he thanked them^(m.p.)	مِـنْــهُـم minhum from them^(m.p.)	لَإِنْـــهُــم la’inhum because they^(m.p.)…
كْــتَـابْــهِــن ktābhin *their*^(f.p.) book	شَــكَــرْهِــن shakarhin he thanked *them*^(f.p.)	مِـنْــهِــن minhin from them^(f.p.)	لَإِنْـــهِــن la’inhin because they^(f.p.)…

Next: Dual and Plural

Back to: Gender

Other lessons in Level II:

Level II – Beginner II (A2)

1. The Definite Article الـ (il)

2. Gender

3. Personal Pronouns

4. Dual and Plural

5. Demonstrative Pronouns

6. Past Tense

7. Prepositions I