Demonstrative pronouns in Palestinian-Jordanian Levantine Arabic, like their counterparts in English, can be used independently to replace a noun, e.g., “I want this,” or as an adjective by preceding the noun, e.g., “I want this book.”
Demonstrative Pronouns in Arabic: Gender, Number, & Near vs. Far
The following are the demonstrative pronouns in Palestinian-Jordanian Arabic are:
| Singular | Dual & Plural | |
| near (masculine) this/these | هَــاذ ، هَــاذَا † hādh(a) this | هَــذُول ، هَــذُولَا hadhowl(a) these |
| near (feminine) this/these | هَــاذِيْ ، هَــاي * hāy, hādhi this | |
| far (masculine) that/those | هَــذَاك ، هَــذَاكَ † hadhāk(a) that | هَــذُولَاك ، هَــذُولَاكَ hadhowlāk(a) those |
| far (feminine) that/those | هَــذِيْـك ، هَــذِيْـكِ hadhīk(i) that |
† The long vowel ا (ā) sounds retracted and is pronounced like “a” in “harm.” The consonant ذ (dh) is pronounced emphatically as ظ (ẓ) by many Palestinians and Jordanians, i.e., هَــاذَا (hādha) هَـاظَـا (hāẓa), and هَــذَاك (hadhāk) هَـظَاك (haẓāk).
* The long vowel ا (ā) is pronounced like “a” in “have.”
Remember that in urban areas, the letter ذ (dh) is often pronounced د (d), e.g., هَــادَا (hāda) ‘this – masculine,’ هَــادِيْ (hādi) ‘this – feminine,’ هَــدُولَا (hadowla) ‘these,’ etc.
In general, near demonstrative pronouns are used to refer to nouns close to the speaker. On the other hand, far demonstrative pronouns are used to refer to nouns far away from the speaker.
Here are some examples:
| .هَــاذَا كْــتَـاب hādha ktāb This (is) (a) book. | .هَــاي سَـيّــارَة hāy sayyārah This (is) (a) car. |
| وِيــنْ هَــذَاك اِلْــقَــلَــم؟ weyn hādhāk il-qalam Where (is) that pen? | .سَــافَــرْنَــا هَــذِيْـك اِلــسَّــنِــة sāfarna hādhīk is-saneh We traveled that year. |
| .هَــذُولَا جِــيْــرَانِــيْ hadhowla jīrāni These (are) my neighbors. | مِــيْــن هَــذُولَاك اِلــنَّـــاس؟ mīn hadhowlāk in-nās Who (are) those people? |
The singular masculine demonstrative pronoun هَــاذ (hādh) or هَــاذَا (hādha) is also used to refer to an entire sentence or concept, or to point at something without mentioning it.
| .هَــاذَا إِشِــيْ غَــرِيْــب hādha ’ishi gharīb This (is) (a) strange thing. | شُـــوْ هَــاذْ؟ shū hādh What (is) this? |
When the predicate of the sentence is preceded by the definite article اِلْـ (il) ‘the,’ a detached personal pronoun must be added.
| .هَــاذَا هُــوِّ الِــكْــتَــاب hādha huwwe li-ktāb This (is) the book. | .هَــاذِيْ هِــيِّ الــسَّــيَّــارَة hādhi hiyye -s-sayyārah This (is) the car. |
When referring to non-human beings in the plural—such as animals, plants, objects, or concepts—we use either the feminine singular or plural demonstrative forms.
| .هَــاي/هَــذُول سَــيّــارَات سَـــرِيْــعَــة hāy/hadhowl sayyārāt sarī‘ah These (are) fast cars. | .هَــذِيْــكْ/هَــذُولَاكْ اِلْـكُــتُــبْ إِلِـــيْ hadhīk/hadhowlāk il-kutub ’ili Those books (are) mine. |
Note, however, that the predicate or adjective following the noun must be in the feminine singular form, i.e., سَـــرِيْــعَــة (sarī‘ah) ‘fast’ if feminine singular demonstrative pronoun is used.
Other lessons in Level II: