5.5: Possessive Pronouns

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Learning Objectives

In this section, you will learn:

The eight possessive forms and how to show possession or ownership for each one.

Possessive pronouns

The nouns الأَسْمَاء and verbs الأَفْعَال have three categories to classify them. 1st. person (speaker). 2nd. person (spoken to). 3rd. person (spoken about).

In Arabic, the attached pronouns (possessive pronouns) are different than separate pronouns (subjective pronouns). The attached pronouns are suffixes, they become possessive when they connected to a noun. The following table demonstrates the suffixes that relate to each separate pronoun before adding any noun to them.

Table of attached pronouns
Meaning	Attached pronouns/ "Possessive Pronouns"	Subject Pronouns/ Arabic	Subject Pronouns/ English	Gender & Number of people
My	ي----------	أنا	I	1st. Person Masculine/ Feminine
Our	نَا-----------	نحنُ	We	1st. Person Masculine/ Feminine plural
Your	كَ-----------	أَنْتَ	You	2nd. Person Masculine/ Singular
Your	كِ----------	أَنْتِ	You	2nd. Person Feminine/ Singular
Your	كُم-----------	أَنْتُم	You	2nd. Person Masculine/ Feminine Plural
His	ـهُ-----------	هو	He	3rd. Person Masculine/ Singular
Her	ـها-----------	هي	She	3rd. Person Feminine/ Singular
Their	ـهم----------	هم	They	3rd. Person Masculine/ Plural

Example of changing the noun to possessive pronouns using the noun House (بَيْت) for all the different subject pronouns.

Meaning & Pronunciation	The Possessive Pronouns	Subject Pronouns/ Arabic	Gender & Number of people
My house / bayty	بَيْتي	أنا	1st. Person Masculine/ Feminine
Our house / baytuna	بَيْتُنا	نحنُ	1st. Person Masculine/ Feminine plural
Your house / baytukum	بَيْتُكَ	أَنْتَ	2nd. Person Masculine/ Singular
Your house / baytuki	بَيْتُكِ	أَنْتِ	2nd. Person Feminine/ Singular
Your house / baytukum	بَيْتُكم	أَنْتُم	2nd. Person Masculine/ Feminine Plural
His house / baytuhu	بَيْتُهُ	هو	3rd. Person Masculine/ Singular
Her house / baytuha	بَيْتُها	هي	3rd. Person Feminine/ Singular
Their house / baytuhum	بَيْتُهُمْ	هم	3rd. Person Masculine/ Plural

Watch this video to learn more about the possessive pronouns in Arabic:

Possessive Pronoun ي

You already learned in the previous lessons about the possessive pronounce ي.

Examples: when introducing yourself اسمي (Ismee), your age عمري (Umree), birthday عيد ميلادي (Eid Miladee), and my phone number رقم تلفوني (Raqa Teliphonee)