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Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns in English include who, whom, whose, which, what and that. A relative pronoun links two clauses into a single complex clause. To this extent, it is similar in function to a subordinating conjunction, but unlike a conjunction, however, a relative pronoun stands in place of a noun.

Example:

This is the book which he bought.

A relative pronoun is called in Arabic a "noun of the connected" اِسْمُ الْمَوْصُوْلِ . Being nouns, relative pronouns have the characteristics of nouns, namely gender, number, and grammatical case. Relative pronouns are always definite words. Relative pronouns in English have some characteristics that are not present in Arabic as we are about to see.

In English, "that" is used for both humans and nonhumans. There is a similar word in Arabic, but it will have to change to modify different numbers and genders as follows:

General Relative Pronouns Who / Who / Which / That
S I N G U L A R	Masculine	'al-lathee	اَلَّذِيْ
S I N G U L A R	Feminine	'al-latee	اَلَّتِيْ
D U A L	Masculine (subject)	'al-lathaan(i)	اللَّذَاْنِ
	Masculine (object)	'al-lathayn(i)	اللَّذَيْنِ
	Feminine (subject)	'al-lataan(i)	اللَّتَاْنِ
	Feminine (object)	'al-latayn(i)	اللَّتَيْنِ
P L U R A L	Masculine	'al-latheen(a)	اَلَّذِيْنَ
	Masculine	'al-'ulaa (Archaic word)	الأُلَىْ
	Feminine	'al-laatee	اللاَّتِيْ
		'al-laa'ee	اللاَّئِيْ
		'al-lawaatee	اللَّوَاْتِيْ

These are the major relative pronouns in Arabic. The only case-inflected ones are the dual relative pronouns, the rest are "built words." Each one of those words can be translated as that, who, whom, or which.

Apart from "that," English uses specific relative pronouns for humans and for nonhumans.

"who" is used for humans.

I know who did that.

The Arabic equivalent would be:

Who / Whom

man

مَنْ

This word is specific for humans, and it has only this single form for all cases, numbers, and genders.

The relative pronoun "which" is specifically used for nonhumans in English. In Arabic, there is no such word and this word will be translated to the general relative pronouns mentioned first.

The relative pronoun "what" has also an equivalent in Arabic:

Example:

I know what you did.

What

maa

مَاْ

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