هو
“هو” (хува) — he in Arabic. Pronoun, level A0, topic — pronouns. About two men the word is humaa: Arabic has a dual number even for "they two". In a live sentence: “هو من مصر” — He is from Egypt. Written with the characters ه, و. One of 27 words in the set “pronouns” in the Arabic course.
In short
| Written in Arabic | هو |
| Read in Latin letters | хува |
| Translation | he |
| Part of speech | pronoun |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
About two men the word is humaa: Arabic has a dual number even for "they two"
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- هو من مصرхува мин мисрHe is from Egypt
Nearby words: pronouns
I, you, we, they. There is a handful of them, they turn up in every sentence, and politeness rides on them: most of these languages keep a formal “you” apart from a familiar one, and choosing the wrong one is noticed faster than a mispronounced word.
- أناанаIDropped all the time in speech: the verb or the setting has already said who is talking. Kept for emphasis — "it was me"
- أنتантаyouTo a woman — anti with an i on the end: أنتِ. In writing the vowel mark keeps the difference, in speech the sound does
- أنتمантумyou (plural)To a group; to a group of women — antunna. There is no separate polite you: respect is carried by the plural alone
- هيхияsheAbout two women — also humaa: the dual does not care about gender
- نحنнахнуweOne "we" for every case: Arabic does not split "we including you" from "we without you"
- نحن الاثنانнахну аль-иснаанthe two of usThere is no separate pronoun for two people: they say "we, the two". The verb, though, has its own form for two, with -aani on the end
- همхумtheyFor a group of women — hunna, for any pair — humaa. Three forms of "they", and all of them are alive
- ليлиmineA cast of li — to me — and the word means "mine": al-kitaab lii is the book is mine. You have seen the suffix -ii (kitaabii); this is possession named on its own
- لكлякаyoursThe partner of lii: to you, hence yours. The same recipe builds lanaa and lakum — ours and yours (plural)
- لناлянаoursLiterally "to us": ours. Arabic does not keep a separate possessive word — possession lives in the preposition
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “pronouns”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “he” in Arabic?
About two men the word is humaa: Arabic has a dual number even for "they two"
- How do you say “they” in Arabic?
For a group of women — hunna, for any pair — humaa. Three forms of "they", and all of them are alive
- How do you say “you (plural)” in Arabic?
To a group; to a group of women — antunna. There is no separate polite you: respect is carried by the plural alone
- How do you say “ours” in Arabic?
Literally "to us": ours. Arabic does not keep a separate possessive word — possession lives in the preposition
- How do you say “the two of us” in Arabic?
There is no separate pronoun for two people: they say "we, the two". The verb, though, has its own form for two, with -aani on the end
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “he” in Arabic?
«هو», read “хува”. In a live sentence: “هو من مصر” — He is from Egypt. Pronoun, level A0, from the set “pronouns”; written with the characters ه, و.
How is “هو” written in Latin letters?
хува. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
About two men the word is humaa: Arabic has a dual number even for "they two". A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.