Levantine Arabic Pronouns: I, you, he, she, we, they

The eight pronouns at a glance

English has one word for 'you'. Levantine Arabic has three: one for a man, one for a woman and one for a group. That is why the full set is eight pronouns rather than seven. There is no separate 'it' either: every noun is masculine or feminine, so a table is he and a car is she.

The order above is the one used throughout the workbook and in its grammar drills: I, you (m.), you (f.), he, she, we, you (pl.), they. Learning the pronouns in that order makes the endings in later units much easier to memorise, because they follow the same pattern.

Tip: Many speakers say هُمّ (humme) or هُمّا (humma) for 'they', and you will hear هُوّ (huwwe) and هِيّ (hiyye) with a doubled consonant. These are all normal spoken variants, so do not worry if a friend's version sounds slightly different.

No verb 'to be' in the present

Here is some good news for beginners. In the present tense Arabic does not need a word for 'am', 'is' or 'are'. You simply put the pronoun next to the description. أنا أردني is literally 'I Jordanian', and it means 'I am Jordanian'.

• أنا أردنيana urduniI'm Jordanian (said by a man)
• إنتِ فلسطينية؟inti falasteeniyye?Are you Palestinian? (to a woman)
• هو سوريhuwwe sooriHe is Syrian
• هي أمريكيةhiyye amreekiyyeShe is American
• إحنا من الأردنi7na min il-urdunWe are from Jordan

To turn any of these into a question, keep the same words and raise your voice at the end, exactly as you might in English with 'You're Palestinian?'.

Formal Arabic versus what people actually say

If you have seen Modern Standard Arabic you may know أنتَ (anta), نحن (na7nu) and هم (hum). Levantine speakers almost never use نحن in conversation; they say إحنا. Likewise أنتَ becomes إنتَ with an i sound. The workbook teaches the spoken forms because those are what you will hear in Amman, Jerusalem or Ramallah.

Nationality words: adding -i

To make a nationality from a country, add the ending ـي (-i) for a man. If the country name ends in a vowel such as سوريا or أمريكا, drop that vowel first. The article الـ in الأردن is dropped too, so the nationality is simply أردني.

Making it feminine: -iyye

For a woman, add ة on top of the -i ending, which gives the sound -iyye. The workbook writes this compactly as فلسطيني(ة), meaning 'Palestinian, with ة for a woman'. So a man says أنا لبناني (ana lubnaani) and a woman says أنا لبنانية (ana lubnaaniyye).

The same masculine form often names the language or dialect as well. عربي means both 'Arab' and 'Arabic', and إسباني can mean 'Spanish'. With the preposition بـ you get بالإسباني, 'in Spanish'.

Tip: A common slip is using the masculine form about yourself when you are a woman. Listen to the end of the word: if you are female, it should finish with the -iyye sound.

Putting it together: a first conversation

With the pronouns and a few nationality words you can already hold a short exchange. Ask someone where they are from with من وين إنتَ؟ (min wein inta?) to a man, or من وين إنتِ؟ (min wein inti?) to a woman, and answer with أنا من plus your country, or أنا plus your nationality.

• من وين إنتَ؟min wein inta?Where are you from? (to a man)
• أنا من فلسطينana min falasteenI'm from Palestine
• إنتوا أردنيين؟intu urduniyyeen?Are you (all) Jordanian?
• هُم كويتيينhum kuwaitiyyeenThey are Kuwaiti

Notice that for a group the nationality takes the plural ending ـين (-een), so أردني becomes أردنيين. You do not need to master plurals yet, but it helps to recognise the pattern when you hear it.

Practice

Try these without looking at the tables, then check your answers. You can say them out loud or type them in Arabizi.