Prepositions 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 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.

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
1^st person (m/f)	عَــنِّــيْ ‘anni	عَــنَّــا ‘anna	مَــعِــيْ ma‘i	مَــعْــنَــا ma‘na
2^nd person masculine	عَــنَّــك ‘annak	عَــنْــكُــم ‘ankum	مَــعَــك ma‘ak	مَــعْــكُــم ma‘kum
2^nd person feminine	عَــنِّــك ‘annik	عَــنْــكِــن ‘ankin	مَــعِــك ma‘ik	مَــعْــكِــن ma‘kin
3^rd person masculine	عَــنُّــه ‘annuh	عَــنْــهُــم ‘anhum	مَــعُــه ma‘uh	مَــعْــهُــم ma‘hum
3^rd 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
1^st person (m/f)	عَــلَــيِّ ‘alayye	عَــلِــيــنَــا ‘aleyna	فِـــيِّ fiyye	فِــيْـنَــا fīna
2^nd person masculine	عَــلِــيــك ‘aleyk	عَــلِــيــكُــم ‘aleykum	فِــيْــك fīk	فِــيْــكُــم fīkum
2^nd person feminine	عَــلِــيــكِ ‘aleyki	عَــلِــيــكِــن ‘aleykin	فِــيْــكِ fīki	فِــيْـكِــن fīkin
3^rd person masculine	عَــلِــيــه ‘aleyh	عَــلِــيــهُــم ‘aleyhum	فِــيْــه fīh	فِــيْـهُــم fīhum
3^rd 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
1^st person (m/f)	إِلِــيْ ’ili	إِلْــنَــا ’ilna
2^nd person masculine	إِلَــك ’ilak	إِلْــكُــم ’ilkum
2^nd person feminine	إِلِــك ’ilik	إِلْــكِــن ’ilkin
3^rd person masculine	إِلُــه ’iluh	إِلْــهُــم ’ilhum
3^rd 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
1^st person (m/f)	كَــتَــب لِــي katab li ‘he wrote to/for me’	كَــتَــب إِلْــنَــا katab ilna ‘he wrote to/for us
2^nd person masculine	كَــتَــب لَــك katab lak ‘he wrote to/for you’	كَــتَــب إِلْــكُــم katab ilkum ‘he wrote to/for you (all)’
2^nd person feminine	كَــتَــب لِــك katab lik ‘he wrote to/for you’	كَــتَــب إِلْــكِــن katab ilkin ‘he wrote to/for you (all)’
3^rd person masculine	كَــتَــب لُــه katab luh ‘he wrote to/for him’	كَــتَــب إِلْــهُــم katab ilhum ‘he wrote to/for them’
3^rd 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?
فِــــيْ fī	there are	.فِــــيْ نَــــاس كْــثِــيْـــر بِــالْــحَــدِيْـــقَـــة fī nās kthīr bi-l-ḥadīqah *There are* many people at the park.

Next: Present Tense

Back to: Past Tense

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

Palestinian-Jordanian Levantine Arabic 2.7. Prepositions I

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)