Lesson 2: Personal Pronouns & The Verb To Be
Let’s dive into the personal pronouns in Levantine Arabic and explore the "nonexistent" verb to be in Levantine Arabic. Are you ready?
PERSONAL PRONOUNS
Pronouns are often used, but sometimes they are dropped. In conversation, especially when the verb clearly shows the subject, people sometimes skip saying the pronoun like in other languages such as Spanish.
| English | Arabic | Transcription |
|---|---|---|
| I | أنا | ana |
| You (masculine singular) | إنتَ | enta |
| You (feminine singular) | إنتِ | ente |
| He | هو | hue |
| She | هي | hie |
| We | نحنا | ne7na |
| You (plural) | إنتو | ento |
| They | هنّ | hinne |
About the Verb "To Be"
- In present simple sentences, "to be" does not exist.
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There is no word for "am", "is", or "are" in sentences like:
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"I am a teacher." ➔ أنا أستاذ/ة (ana ustaadh / ustaadha)
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"You are a student." ➔ إنتَ طالب (enta taalib) / إنتِ طالبة (enti taaliba)
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→ You just put the subject + description, without a verb.
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But in past or future tense, the verb "to be" appears in different forms (you will learn that later).
Extra things you may have noticed
In Arabic, many words—especially adjectives and some nouns — have both masculine and feminine forms. We saw this in the last lesson when we answered to Keefak / Keefek? (كيفك؟) with mnii7 (منيح) or its feminine version mnii7a (منيحة).
We can also do this with nouns as we saw above. While ustaadh (أستاذ) is a male teacher, ustaadha (أستاذة) would be a female teacher.
The feminine form is made by adding ـة (taa marbuuTa) at the end, adding an -a or -e sound.
Ready to practice what you’ve learned? Here are a few questions to help you practice! Give them a try! Let's see if you can translate these sentences!