In this lesson, we will cover basic primary prepositions in Palestinian-Jordanian Arabic. We will cover secondary prepositions and other special-use prepositions in Level III, Lesson 4.
Table of Contents
- Primary vs. Secondary Prepositions in Arabic
- Primary Prepositions in Arabic
- Prepositions with Attached Pronouns
- “There is/are”
- Level II – Beginner II (A2)
Primary vs. Secondary Prepositions in Arabic
There are two types of prepositions in Arabic: primary (or true) prepositions and secondary prepositions.
1. Primary (or true) prepositions: These prepositions are not derived from a consonantal root and cannot be preceded by another preposition. Primary prepositions are sometimes used to form prepositional verbs, e.g., فَــكَّــرْ بِـــ (fakkar bi-) ‘he thought of,’ سَــلَّــمْ عَــلــى (sallam ‘ala) ‘he greeted,’ etc. In Arabic, these prepositions are called حُــرُوْف اِلْــجَــرّ (ḥurūf il-jarr).
2. Secondary prepositions: Most of these prepositions are adverbs of place or time that arise from a tri-consonantal root. They can sometimes be preceded by another preposition, e.g., مِــن فُـــوق (min fowq) ‘from above,’ مِـــن قَــبْــل (min qabl) ‘from before,’ لَــجُــوَّا (la-juwwa) ‘to the inside of,’ etc.
Primary Prepositions in Arabic
The most common primary prepositions in Palestinian-Jordanian Arabic are:
| Prep. | Meaning | Examples |
| عَـــنْ ‘an | about | .سِــمِــعْ عَــن اِلْــمَــوْضُــوْع simi‘ ‘an il-mawḍū‘ He heard about the topic. |
| عَـلـى ‘ala عَ † ‘a | on | .اِلْـمِـفْـتَـاح عَــلَـى الـطَّـاوْلِــة il-miftāḥ ‘ala -ṭ-ṭāwleh The key (is) on the table. |
| مَــع ma‘(a) | with | .أَنَــا مَــع مْــحَــمَّــد هَــلَّأ ’ana ma‘ mḥammad halla’ I (am) with Mohammad now. |
| فِــيْ fi … بِــ* bi- | in | .اِلْـبِــسِّــة فِــيْ الـصَّــنْــدُوْق il-bisseh fi -ṣ-ṣandūq The cat (is) in the box. |
| at | .لَاقِــيــت صَــاحْـبِـي فِــيْ الْـمَـقْـهَـى lāqeyt ṣāḥbi fi -l-maqha I met my friend at the coffee shop. | |
| on | .أَنَـــا فِــيْ الْـبَـاص ’ana fi -l-bāṣ I (am) on the bus. | |
| per | سِــتِّــيْــن كِــيْـلُـوْمِــتْــر فِــيْ الـسَّــاعَــة sittīn kīlūmit(i)r fi -s-sā‘ah 60 kilometers per hour | |
| with | شَـــاي بِــالْـحَــلِــيْــب shāy bi-l-ḥalīb tea with milk | |
| مِـــنْ min | from | .إِجَــى مِــن اِلــسُّــوْق ’ija min is-sūq He came from the market. |
| of | جُــزْء مِــن اِلْــمُــشْــكِــلِــة juz(u)’ min il-mush kileh part of the problem | |
| than | أَكْــثَــر مِــن يُـــومِــيــن ’akthar min yowmeyn more than two days | |
| … لَــ# la- | for | لَـــنَـــفْـــس اِلـــسَّـــبَـــب la-nafs is-sabab for the same reason |
| of | .هَـــايْ بَــس بِـــدَايِـــة لَــلْــقِــصَّــة hāy bas bidāyeh la-l-qiṣṣah This (is) just a beginning of the story. | |
| to | مِــن اِلْــبِــيــت لَــلْـمَـــسْـــجِـــد min il-beyt la-l-masjid from the house to the mosque | |
| into | .لَازِم أَتَـــرْجِــم اِلْــمَــقَــال لَــلْـعَـــرَبِـــيْ lāzim ’atarjim il-maqāl la-l-‘arabi I must translate the article into Arabic. |
† The preposition عَ (‘a) in Palestinian-Jordanian Arabic is simply short for the preposition عَــلـى (‘ala).
*In most regional dialects, people do not make a distinction between فـي (fi) and بِــ (bi-) and use the two prepositions interchangeably in most contexts.
#In MSA, there is also the preposition إِلـى (’ila), which is often replaced by the short لَـ (la-) in Palestinian-Jordanian Arabic.
Note that the prepositions … بِـ (bi-) and … لَـ (la-) attach to the noun that follows the preposition.
When a definite noun is preceded by … لَـ (la-), we drop the ا (’alif) in the definite article اِلــ in writing, regardless of whether the noun begins with a sun or moon letter.
| لَـ | + | اِلْـ | = | لَــلْـ |
| لَـ | + | اِلــّ | = | لَــلــّ |
Here are two examples:
| لَـ la- | + | اِلْــقَــمَــر il-qamar | = | لَــلْــقَــمَــر la-l-qamar |
| لَـ la- | + | اِلــشَّــمْــس ish-shams | = | لَــلــشَّــمْــس la-sh-shams |
Prepositions with Attached Pronouns
We have seen in Lesson 3 of this level how to suffix the preposition مِــن (min) with attached personal pronouns. The prepositions عَـــن (‘an) and مَــع (ma‘) are suffixed as follows:
| عَـــن (‘an) ‘about’ | مَــع (ma‘) ‘with’ | |||
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| 1st person (m/f) | عَــنِّــيْ ‘anni | عَــنَّــا ‘anna | مَــعِــيْ ma‘i | مَــعْــنَــا ma‘na |
| 2nd person masculine | عَــنَّــك ‘annak | عَــنْــكُــم ‘ankum | مَــعَــك ma‘ak | مَــعْــكُــم ma‘kum |
| 2nd person feminine | عَــنِّــك ‘annik | عَــنْــكِــن ‘ankin | مَــعِــك ma‘ik | مَــعْــكِــن ma‘kin |
| 3rd person masculine | عَــنُّــه ‘annuh | عَــنْــهُــم ‘anhum | مَــعُــه ma‘uh | مَــعْــهُــم ma‘hum |
| 3rd person feminine | عَــنْــهَــا ‘anha | عَــنْــهِــن ‘anhin | مَــعْــهَــا ma‘ha | مَــعْــهِــن ma‘hin |
In the first-person singular form, the prepositions عَـلَـى (‘ala) and فِــيْ (fi) are irregular and feature a شَــدَّة (shaddah) on the suffix.
Note that the preposition عَـلَـى (‘ala) changes the final ى (’alif maqṣūrah) into ــيــ (ey) in all gender and number forms.
| عَـلَـى (‘ala) ‘on’ | فِــيْ (fi) ‘in’ | |||
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| 1st person (m/f) | عَــلَــيِّ ‘alayye | عَــلِــيــنَــا ‘aleyna | فِـــيِّ fiyye | فِــيْـنَــا fīna |
| 2nd person masculine | عَــلِــيــك ‘aleyk | عَــلِــيــكُــم ‘aleykum | فِــيْــك fīk | فِــيْــكُــم fīkum |
| 2nd person feminine | عَــلِــيــكِ ‘aleyki | عَــلِــيــكِــن ‘aleykin | فِــيْــكِ fīki | فِــيْـكِــن fīkin |
| 3rd person masculine | عَــلِــيــه ‘aleyh | عَــلِــيــهُــم ‘aleyhum | فِــيْــه fīh | فِــيْـهُــم fīhum |
| 3rd person feminine | عَــلِــيــهَــا ‘aleyha | عَــلِــيــهِــن ‘aleyhin | فِــيْــهَــا fīha | فِــيْـهِــن fīhin |
The preposition … لَـ (la-) is preceded by إِ (’i) in all gender and number cases when suffixed with an attached personal pronoun.
| Singular | Plural | |
| 1st person (m/f) | إِلِــيْ ’ili | إِلْــنَــا ’ilna |
| 2nd person masculine | إِلَــك ’ilak | إِلْــكُــم ’ilkum |
| 2nd person feminine | إِلِــك ’ilik | إِلْــكِــن ’ilkin |
| 3rd person masculine | إِلُــه ’iluh | إِلْــهُــم ’ilhum |
| 3rd person feminine | إِلْــهَــا ’ilha | إِلْــهِــن ’ilhin |
When preceded by a verb, the initial إِ (’i) is dropped in all singular forms except the third-person feminine form. For example:
| Singular | Plural | |
| 1st person (m/f) | كَــتَــب لِــي katab li ‘he wrote to/for me’ | كَــتَــب إِلْــنَــا katab ilna ‘he wrote to/for us |
| 2nd person masculine | كَــتَــب لَــك katab lak ‘he wrote to/for you’ | كَــتَــب إِلْــكُــم katab ilkum ‘he wrote to/for you (all)’ |
| 2nd person feminine | كَــتَــب لِــك katab lik ‘he wrote to/for you’ | كَــتَــب إِلْــكِــن katab ilkin ‘he wrote to/for you (all)’ |
| 3rd person masculine | كَــتَــب لُــه katab luh ‘he wrote to/for him’ | كَــتَــب إِلْــهُــم katab ilhum ‘he wrote to/for them’ |
| 3rd person feminine | كَــتَــب إِلْــهَــا katab ilha ‘he wrote to/for her’ | كَــتَــب إِلْــهِــن katab ilhin ‘he wrote to/for them’ |
The preposition … لَـ (la-) can also be used to express inalienable possession, similar to the meaning of the verb ‘to have’ in English.
More on expressing possession will be discussed in Level III, Lesson 3.
“There is/are”
The preposition فِــــيْ (fī) is also used to convey the meaning of ‘there is’ or ‘there are.’ For example:
| فِــــيْ fī | there is | فِــــيْ حَــدَا بِــالْــبِــيــت؟ fī ḥada bi-l-beyt Is there anyone at home? |
| there are | .فِــــيْ نَــــاس كْــثِــيْـــر بِــالْــحَــدِيْـــقَـــة fī nās kthīr bi-l-ḥadīqah There are many people at the park. |
Other lessons in Level II: