Lesson 47 – الدَّرْسُ السَّابِعُ وَالأرْبَعُونَ

Pronouns 4 of 5 –الضَّمَائرُ (٤ من ٥)

Genitive attached pronoun - ضَّمير الجَّرَّ المُتَّصِل

The Genitive Attached Pronoun after preposition

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  • We learnt earlier that the Arabic pronoun is an indeclinable noun which replaces a preceding evident noun, so it's supposed that we find the pronoun able to occupy all the positions which the evident noun occupies.
  • One of these positions is that genitive case after a preposition. This is what we are studying at this point, and in the following table we can see the forms of the personal pronouns when they fall after preposition like مِنْ – عَنْ – إلى – على – في – لَـ – بِـ:

 

Singular مُفْرَدٌ

Dual مُثَنَّى

Plural جَمْعٌ

Masculine

مُذَكَّرٌ

Feminine

مُؤَنَّثٌ

Masculine

مُذَكَّرٌ

Feminine

مُؤَنَّثٌ

Masculine

مُذَكَّرٌ

Feminine

مُؤَنَّثٌ

3rd. person

غَائِبٌ

ـهُ (ـهِ)

ـهَا

ـهُمَا (ـهِما)

ـهُمْ (ـهِمْ)

ـهُنَّ (ـهِنَّ)

مِنْهُ – إِلَيْهِ

مِنْها

مِنْهُما – إِلَيْهِما

مِنْهُمْ – إِلَيْهِمْ

منْهُنَّ – إِلَيْهِنَّ

2nd. Person

مُخَاطَبٌ

ـكَ

ـكِ

ـكُمَا

ـكُمْ

ـكُنَّ

مِنْكَ

مِنْكِ

مِنْكُما

مِنْكُمْ

مِنْكُنَّ

1st. person

مُتَكَلِّمٌ

ـِي(ـني-يَ)

ـنا

لِي – مِنِّي – إِلَيَّ

مِنَّا

  • In the above mentioned table we notice the following:
    • That the letter (hā') in the pronouns of the third person (except for the feminine singular) has two forms, according to the phonetic situation of the preceding letter as follows:
      • With Min مِن, and ξan عَنْ, it's signed with đammah, because both of these preposition end with Sukūn.
      • With the preposition (li) the (hā') of these pronouns is signed with đammah also because this preposition when it's connected to a preposition it's signed with Fatħah (but with nouns it remains (li)).
      • With the rest of prepositions the Hā' is signed with Kasrah, because:
        1. (ilā – ξalā إلى – على) are ended with Yā' with sukūn when connected to a pronoun.
        2. (Bi بِـ) is signed with Kasrah,
        3. (fī في) is ended with long Yā'.
  • Here are some examples of the change of the Hā' sign according to the preceding sign:

Preposition

3rd. S. m.

هُـوَ

3rd. D.

هُـما

3rd. Pl. m.

هُـمْ

3rd. Pl. f.

هُـنَّ

Explanation

مِنْ – عَنْ

Min – ξan

مِنْهُ – عَنْهُ

From him – about him

مِنْهُما – عَنْهُما

From them – about them

مِنْهُمْ – عَنْهُمْ

From them – about them

مِنْهُنَّ – عَنْهُنَّ

From them – about them

The hā' of the pronoun is signed with đammah because it is preceded by Sukūn on consonant

لـ

Li

لَـهُ

For him

لَـهُما

For them

لَـهُمْ

For them

لَـهُنَّ

For them

The hā' of the pronoun is signed with đammah because it is preceded by Fatħah

إلى – على

Ilā – ξalā

إلَيْهِ – علَيْهِ

To him – on him

إلَيْهِما – علَيْهِما

To them – on them

إلَيْهِمْ – علَيْهِمْ

To them – on them

إلَيْهِنَّ – علَيْهِنَّ

To them – on them

The hā' of the pronoun is signed with Kasrah because the preceding letter is Yā' with sukūn

في

فيهِ

In him

فيهِما

in them

فيهِمْ

In them

فيهِنَّ

In them

The hā' of the pronoun is signed with Kasrah because the preceding letter is Yā'

بِـ

bi

بِهِ

By him

بِهِما

By them

بِهِمْ

By them

بِهِنَّ

By them

The hā' of the pronoun is signed with Kasrah because the preceding letter is signed with Kasrah

  • The second notice in the table of the genitive pronouns after prepositions is that we find three forms for the pronoun of 1st. person singular as follows:
    • (ī - ي) this one is used with the prepositions consisting of one letter (/بـ/  meaning by or with –/لـ/ meaning for) e.g. ( بي /bī/ by me), ( لي / lī/ for me).
    • (ni - ني), with the prepositions (Min (من and (ξan (عن. This is to keep the sound of the sukūn of the original Nūn of the preposition which is going to be combined with the Nūn of the pronoun as follows: (مِنِّي /minnī/ from me), ( عَنِّي /ξannī/ about me)
    • (ya -يَ) this is yā' letter signed with fatħah. It is used with the three prepositions ending with long vowel (إلى – على – في). Regarding (إلى – على) they end with Alif Maqŝūra (written yā' but pronounced Alif), but this Alif  Maqsūra, as we studied in the previous point, will be changed into (yā') with Sukūn when it is connected with any pronoun. In this case the pronoun (ya يَ) will be combined with the (yā') with sukūn which in the preposition. The same combination will happen with the preposition (fī في) ending with normal (yā'), e.g. (إِلَيَّ / Ilayya/ to me), (عَلَيَّ / ξalayya/ on me), (فِيَّ /fiyya/ in me).
  • These were the forms of the genitive attached pronouns, as possessive suffixes or after prepositions.