Demonstrative pronoun in Arabic: rules and examples

After studying personal pronoun in Arabic, we are going to learn ism al-isharah or demonstrative pronoun.

Definition of ism ishaarah

أَسْمَاءُ الإِشَارَةِ (asmaa-u al-ishaarah) or demonstrative pronouns are nouns we use to point out to something such as "this, that", etc.

Types of demonstrative pronouns in Arabic

There are two types of demonstrative pronouns in terms of the distance, they are near and far. Beside the distance, in Arabic we have another divisions they are masculine (مذكَر) and feminine (مؤنّث), then each gender is divided to three types: singular, dual, and plural.

The complete list of demonstrative pronouns

للقريب (near)

1. Masculine singular (mufrad mudhakkar): هَذَا
2. Masculine dual (mutsanna mudhakkar): هَذَانِ
3. Masculine plural (jam'mudhakkar): هَؤُلاَءِ
4. Feminine singular (mufrad mu-annath): هَذِهِ
5. Feminine dual (mutsanna mu-annath): هَاتَانِ
6. Feminine plural (jam' mu-annath): هَؤُلاَءِ

للبَعِيْد (far)

1. Masculine singular (mufrad mudhakkar): ذَلِكَ
2. Masculine dual (mutsanna mudhakkar): ذَانِكَ
3. Masculine plural (jam'mudhakkar): أُولَئِكَ
4. Feminine singular (mufrad mu-annath): تِلْكَ
5. Feminine dual (mutsanna mu-annath): تَانِكَ
6. Feminine plural (jam' mu-annath): أُولَئِكَ

List of complete demonstrative pronouns in a table

This table will make you easier to memorize and understand all the demonstrative pronouns.

Rules of demonstrative pronoun

There is an agreement between the demonstrative pronoun and its noun in terms of number and gender, except one condition. The exception is ⇒  demonstrative pronoun qualifying plural nouns referring to non-human beings (or broken plural) take the feminine singular form : هَذِهِ or تِلْكَ.

Examples:

هَذِهِ كُتُبٌ : These are books.

كُتُبٌ is a plural noun, and it's a non-human, so we use the demonstrative pronoun "هَذِهِ" (demonstrative pronoun for feminine singular).

Sentence examples using demonstrative pronoun/ism isharah

- هَذَا وَلَدٌ = This is a boy.
- هَذَانِ وَلَدَانِ = These are two boys.
- هَؤُلاَءِ أَوْلاَدٌ = These are boys.
- هَذِهِ بِنْتٌ = This is a girl.
- هَاتَانِ بِنْتَانِ = These are two girls.
- هَؤُلاَءِ بَنَاتٌ = These are girls.

- ذَلِكَ وَلَدٌ  = That is a boy.
- ذَانِكَ وَلَدَانِ = Those are two boys.
- أُولَئِكَ أَوْلاَدٌ  = Those are boys.
- تِلْكَ بِنْتٌ  = That is a girl.
- تَانِكَ بِنْتَانِ = Those are two girls.
- أُولَئِكَ بَنَاتٌ  = Those are girls.

The next lesson

This is an advanced lesson of the demonstrative pronoun: various examples of ism isharah (demonstrative pronoun) as the subject, doer, and object in sentences.