Pronouns in Arabic
27 words in Arabic on the topic “pronouns”: أنا — I, أنت — you, أنتم — you (plural), هو — he, هي — she.
27 words on the topic
- 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
- هوхуваheAbout two men the word is humaa: Arabic has a dual number even for "they two"
- 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
- لكمлякумyours (plural)Literally "to you (plural)": yours. The polite you asks for the same word — lakum is said to one respected person as well
- لهляхуhis; hers; theirsLiterally "to him": his. The feminine is lahaa, theirs is lahum — Arabic draws the same lines English does, one ending per owner
- خاصхаасownThere is no separate word for "own": the possessive suffix already sits on the noun — kitaabii is my book and my very own book. To underline it, khaas follows
- بنفسيби-нафсихиmyselfLiterally "with my soul": myself, in person. Nafs is the soul — the same word you may have met in writing about the East
- جميعджамииʿallStrictly about a set: all, the whole lot. It is never said of one thing; the next word must carry the article — jamiīʿ al-kutub
- كل واحد منкуль ваахид минeach ofThe familiar kull — each — plus waahid and min: each one of. The pronoun after it fuses: minna — of us
- أي واحدайй ваахидanyThe familiar ayy — which — plus waahid: any one you like. In a question, ayy waahid? sounds as "which one?"
- هذاхазаthisAbout what is in the hand or before the eyes. It changes by gender: about a woman and a feminine word — haadhihi
- ذلكзааликаthatAbout what is farther: behind the door, behind the back, in talk of the past. The partner of "this": nearby — hadhaa, far off — dhaalika
- مثل هذاмиль хазаsuch (like this)Literally "on the pattern of this". Mithl is an image and a likeness: to ask for "the same one" is to point at a sample
- آخرаахарotherAnother and one more at once: yawm aakhar is another day — and the same word counts "one more"
- على الإطلاقʿаля аль-итляакat all (not at all)Literally "on the letting go": not a drop, none whatsoever. Arabic keeps no separate "none" — it strengthens the negation after it: laa… ʿala al-itlaaq
- شخص ماшахс маsomebodyLiterally "a person indefinite". The particle maa makes the thing indefinite — and it is already "a certain one"
- شيءшайʾsomething (a thing)You have met it paired with maa — shayʾ maa; on its own it is about "something in the world" in general
- لا أحد منля ахад минnone ofThe familiar laa ahad — nobody — plus min. After it the pronoun fuses: minhum — of them; no second negation is needed
- لا شيءля шайʾnothingLiterally "there is no thing". The Arabic negation loves nouns: not "I see nothing" but "there is no thing"
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How it sounds in a sentence
A word list is a blank. Conversation is made of sentences, and these are the ones the words fit into most often.
What is worth knowing about these words
أنا (ана) — I. Dropped all the time in speech: the verb or the setting has already said who is talking. Kept for emphasis — "it was me".
أنت (анта) — you. To a woman — anti with an i on the end: أنتِ. In writing the vowel mark keeps the difference, in speech the sound does.
أنتم (антум) — you (plural). To a group; to a group of women — antunna. There is no separate polite you: respect is carried by the plural alone.
هو (хува) — he. About two men the word is humaa: Arabic has a dual number even for "they two".
Test yourself
Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than recognizing a familiar word — and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “I” in Arabic?
Dropped all the time in speech: the verb or the setting has already said who is talking. Kept for emphasis — "it was me"
- 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 “myself” in Arabic?
Literally "with my soul": myself, in person. Nafs is the soul — the same word you may have met in writing about the East
- How do you say “other” in Arabic?
Another and one more at once: yawm aakhar is another day — and the same word counts "one more"
- How do you say “you” in Arabic?
To a woman — anti with an i on the end: أنتِ. In writing the vowel mark keeps the difference, in speech the sound does
How to learn the set instead of just reading it
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.
A list is read in a minute and forgotten in a day. What works: hide the translation, try to recall, get it wrong — and come back to the same words tomorrow.
- 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.
- Study spread over days wins not only in experiments but in ordinary classrooms, with real students.checked many timesMawson & Kang, 2025, Behavioral Sciences 15(6):771 · 22 studies, d = 0.54 (confidence interval 0.31–0.77). The authors warn that individual studies disagree widely.
Frequently asked
How do you say “I” in Arabic?
«أنا», read “ана”. Dropped all the time in speech: the verb or the setting has already said who is talking. Kept for emphasis — "it was me". It is one of 27 words in the set “pronouns” — the rest are in the table above.
How many pronouns do you need to start?
The whole set on this page is 27 words, but there is no need to start with all of it: the words you will need in the next few days are enough. Take them a few at a time — five to seven new ones per session.