Arabic: An Essential Grammar

respectively. This kind of anaphoric (back-referring) suffix pronoun is

called َأْل َعا ِئد

al-



a ̄

id ‘the returner’. The returner has no equivalent in

English, because in English it is possible to use a relative pronoun as

object or add a preposition or attribute to it. The following are the most

common uses of

al-



a ̄

id:

(a)

Al-



a ̄

id attached to a verb

ل ِ تي َسا َع ْد ُت َهاََّأْلـ َم ْر َأ ُة 




al-mar

atu llatı

• sa ̄



adtu-ha ̄

the woman whom I helped (her)

(b)

Al-



a ̄

id attached to a preposition

ل ِ ذي َس َأْل َت َع ْن ُهَُّه َو ْل ِك َتا ُب  ه َذا

ا

ha ̄d

̄

a ̄ huwa l-kita ̄bu llad

̄

ı

• sa

alta



an-hu.

This is the book that you asked for. (lit.... that you asked for it.)

(c)

Al-



a ̄

id attached to a noun

ل ِ ذي َق َر ْأ ُت َم َقاَل َت ُهَّي ُّ ّص َحا ِف

ِ

ه َذا ُه َو ل

ha ̄d

̄

a ̄ huwa s

̇

-s

̇

ih

̇

a ̄fiyyu llad

̄

ı

• qara

tu maqa ̄lata-hu.

This is the journalist whose article I read. (lit.... who I read his

article.)

27.7 Interrogatives used as relative pronouns

(a) The interrogative pronouns َم ْن man, ‘who?’ and َما ma ̄ ‘what?’ are

also used as relative pronouns in the following ways:

َم ْن (the one) who, whom (with reference to human beings)

َما (the thing) that, which, what (with reference to non-human beings

or things)

They differ, however, from the definite relative pronoun ل ِذيََّأ




allad

̄

ı ̄ in that they never take an antecedent سـا ِب ُقَّ َألـ. That

is to say, the antecedent is included in their meaning. Moreover,

they tend to be used with generalized or indefinite reference,

e.g.

204

Relative

pronouns

and relative

clauses