Lesson 9
Relative Pronouns alladhī and allatī
الذي التي
الَّذِي (alladhī) means "who/which/that" for masculine nouns; الَّتِي (allatī) for feminine. They introduce relative clauses that describe a preceding noun in more detail.
Relative Pronouns
PronounArabicUsed forExample
who / which (m sg)الَّذِيmasculine singularالطَّالِبُ الَّذِي يَدْرُس
who / which (f sg)الَّتِيfeminine singularالْمَدْرَسَةُ الَّتِي فِي الْمَدِينَة
The Relative Clause How It Works
A relative clause must contain a pronoun referring back to the noun being described this is the ضَمِير الصِّلَة (linking pronoun). It must agree with the antecedent in gender and number.
Exception: when the relative clause subject IS the antecedent, no linking pronoun is needed the subject itself fills that role.
CaseExampleNote
Subject = antecedentالطَّالِبُ الَّذِي يَدْرُسno pronoun needed
Prepositional phraseالْمَدْرَسَةُ الَّتِي دَرَسْتُ فِيهَافِيهَا = linking pronoun
Object of verbالْكِتَابُ الَّذِي قَرَأْتُهُـهُ = linking pronoun
الْكِتَابُ الَّذِي عَلَى الْمَكْتَبِ لِأَحْمَد
Al-kitābu lladhī ʿalā l-maktabi li-Aḥmad
The book that is on the desk belongs to Ahmad.
هَذِهِ الْمَدْرَسَةُ الَّتِي دَرَسْتُ فِيهَا الطَّالِبَةُ الَّتِي تَكْتُبُ ذَكِيَّة
Hādhihi l-madrasatu llatī darastu fīhā Aṭ-ṭālibatu llatī taktubu dhakiyya
This is the school I studied in. The female student who is writing is intelligent.
Sample Dialogue
أ: مَنْ ذَلِكَ الطَّالِبُ؟ ب: هُوَ الطَّالِبُ الَّذِي يَسْكُنُ فِي الْمَدِينَةِ. أ: وَهَذِهِ الطَّالِبَةُ؟ ب: هِيَ الَّتِي دَرَسَتْ فِي مِصْرَ.
A: Man dhālika ṭ-ṭālib? B: Huwa ṭ-ṭālibu lladhī yaskunu fī l-Madīna. A: Wa-hādhihi ṭ-ṭāliba? B: Hiya llatī darasat fī Miṣr.
A: Who is that student? B: He is the student who lives in Madinah. A: And this female student? B: She is the one who studied in Egypt.
- The antecedent must be definite for الَّذِي/الَّتِي to be used indefinite antecedents use no pronoun.
- Linking pronoun must match antecedent gender and number: فِيهَا (f), فِيهِ (m), مِنْهُ/مِنْهَا.
- مَنْ؟ (man = who?) question for asking about a person's identity.
- الَّتِي can also introduce relative clauses for non-human feminine plurals covered in Lesson 13.
- الَّذِي and الَّتِي are both مَبْنِيّ (indeclinable) their form does not change by case.