Pronouns

Pronouns are short words that are used to replace nouns in spoken English and Arabic. They are used when both the speaker and listener know what noun they represent, for example if the noun has already been used in an earlier sentence. This makes our speech clearer and more concise. In this example, Ahmed and dog are the nouns and He and it are pronouns:

Ahmed has a dog. He walks with it every day

'ahmad Aanduh kalb wa huwwa biyitmashsha maAauh kul yoomaacHmad Aand-uh kalb wa huwwa biyitmashshY maAa[-uh] kul ywmأحمـَد عـَند ُه كـَلب و َ هـُوّ َ بـِيـِتمـَشّى مـَعـَ ُه كـُل يوم

There are four main groups of pronoun:

personal pronouns - I, me, mine, he, him, his etc
demonstrative pronouns - this, that
indefinite pronouns - somebody, anywhere
relative pronouns - who, which, that

Personal pronouns

In English, there are four versions of the personal pronoun (he, him, his, himself): in Egyptian, there is an additional version (to him).

English	Egyptian		Form
I, he	huwwahuwwa	هـُوَّ	subject
me, him	-uh_uh	ــُه	object
to me, to him	-luh_luh	ـلـُه	indirect object
mine	milk-imilk_y	مـِلكـي	posessive
myself, himself	nafsuhnafs-uh	نـَفسـُه	reflexive

In Egyptian, there are separate forms of you for masculine, feminine and plural, but there is no neuter (it): instead, it is necessary to use the he or she form, depending on the gender of the noun.

Subject pronouns

A subject is the noun that appears before the verb- the person or thing that is doing something.

I like to read

'ana baahib 'aktibaacnaa baaHib aacktibأنا َ با َحـِب أكتـِب

The subject pronouns are:

English	Egyptian
I	'anaaacnaa	أناَ
we	'ihnaiicHnaa	إحناَ
you(m)	'intaiicnta	إنتَ
you(f)	'intiiicnti	إنتِ
you(pl)	'intuiicntoo	إنتوا
he/it(m)	huwwahuwwa	هـُوَّ
she/it(f)	hiyahiya	هـِيَ
they	hummahumma	هـُمَّ

Personal pronouns are not needed with perfect and x-imperfect verbs, as it is clear from the verb, but it is common to use them, especially for emphasis. They are often used with participles to make it clearer who is the subject.

Pronoun suffixes

You can attach a pronoun as a suffix to a verb, preposition or conjunction. It is normally an object pronoun (me, him) when attached to a verb and a subject pronoun (I, he) when attached to a preposition or conjunction.

Element	English	Egyptian
verb object	I love her	'ana baahibbahaaacnaa baaHibbaha	أنا َ با َحـِبّ َهـَ
preposition subject	Do you have a lighter?	maAakwalaeAa?maAakwalaeAao?	مـَع َكو َلا َعـَة؟
conjunction subject	I think that you are wrong	'ana 'aftikir 'innak Galtanaacnaa aacftikir iicnn-ak GaltaaN	أنا َ أفتـِكـِر إنّ َك غـَلتاً

The pronoun suffixes are:

English	Suffix
me	-i_i	ـِ
us	-na_na	ـنَ
You(m)	-ak_ak	ــَك
You(f)	-ik_ik	ــِك
You(pl)	-kum_kum	ـكـُم
Him/it(m)	-u_u	ـُ
Her/it(f)	-ha_haa	ـهاَ
Them	-hum_hum	ـهـُم

Possessive pronoun

Words like mine and hers are possessive pronouns: they are used on their own to represent something that you own. They are similar to possessive determiners, which are used together with the noun they represent, for example my book. In Egyptian arabic, the equivalent of a possessive pronoun is formed by adding a possessive suffix to the owning-word milkmilk مـِلك.

that house is mine

ilbiyt dah milkiiil-biyt dah milk-yا ِلبـِيت د َه مـِلكي

Reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, himself)

Reflexive pronouns can be used after a noun or a verb. They are formed by adding a possessive suffix to the self-word nafsnafs نـَفس.

English	Egyptian
I can look after myself	haaKud baali min nafsihaaKud baaly min nafs-y	ها َخـُد با َلي مـِن نـَفسي
The man himself	ilraagil nafsuhiil-raagil nafs-uh	ا ِلرا َجـِل نـَفسـُه
He did it by himself	huwwa Aaamalha binafsuhhuwwa Aaamal-ha bi-nafs-uh	هـُوّ َ عا َمـَله َ بـِنـَفسـُه

Demonstrative pronouns

These are the words that you use when you want to point at something.

English	Egyptian
this (man)	dahdah	د َه
this (woman, thing)	didy	دي
those (men)	dooldwl	دول
those (women,things)	deehdyh	ديه

If you want to use one of these together with a noun, rather than to replace the noun, for example this book, you would use a demonstrative determiner in English and a demonstrative adjective in Egyptian.

Element	English	Egyptian
noun	how much is the book?	bikaam ilkitaab?bi-kaam iil-kitaab?	بـِكا َم ا ِلكـِتا َب؟
pronoun	how much is this?	bikaam dah?bi-kaam dah?	بـِكا َم د َه؟
adjective	how much is this book?	bikaam ilkitaab dahbi-kaam iil-kitaab dah	بـِكا َم ا ِلكـِتا َب د َه

Indefinite pronouns

These are words like anybody, something etc. In Egyptian, these are made up of two words, but they are used in exactly the same way as in English.

English	Egyptian
somebody	haddHadd	حـَدّ
anybody	'ai haddaacy Hadd	أي حـَدّ
nobody	wala haddwalaa Hadd	و َلا َ حـَدّ
something	haagaHaagao	حا َجـَة
anything	'ai haagaaacy Haagao	أي حا َجـَة
nothing	wala haagawalaa Haagao	و َلا َ حا َجـَة
somewhere	makaanmakaan	مـَكا َن
anywhere	'ai makaanaacy makaan	أي مـَكا َن
nowhere	wala makaanwalaa makaan	و َلا َ مـَكا َن

Relative pronoun

A relative pronoun forms a relative clause, which describes a noun in the main clause. The relative pronoun represents that noun within the relative clause. In this example, the who-clause describes man in the first clause and who replaces he in the second clause:

I know a man - main clause he sells flowers - relative clause I know a man who sells flowers

In English, there are three different relative pronouns, some of which have subject, object and possessive forms:

Subject	Object	Possessive
who	whom	whose
which	which	whose
that	that

The relative pronoun illiiil-ly ا ِلّي is used to represent that, who and which

take the right turn that is coming (ie the next left)

Kushsh ilyimeen illi gayiKushsh iil-yimyn iil-ly gayyخـُشّ ا ِليـِمين ا ِلّي جـَيي
I know the man who lives here

'ana Aaerif ilraagil illi saakin hinaaacnaa Aaerif iil-raagil iil-ly saakin hinaaأنا َ عا َر ِف ا ِلرا َجـِل ا ِلّي سا َكـِن هـِناَ
I know a man whose house is enormous

Aaarif raagil illi huwwa biytuh kibeerAaarif raagil iil-ly huwwa biyt-uh kibyrعا َر ِف را َجـِل ا ِلّي هـُوّ َ بـِيتـُه كـِبير

Note that illiiil-ly ا ِلّي is not used for whom:

I know a man whom you can trust

'ana Aaarif raagil yimkin tuthu'' feehaacnaa Aaarif raagil yimkin tuthuqq fyhأنا َ عا َر ِف را َجـِل يـِمكـِن تـُثـُقّ فيه

Note that, in English, that can also be a demonstrative pronoun, a demonstrative determiner or a conjunction.

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