English packages possession into the relative word whose: “the woman whose brother called.” Everyday Beirut Lebanese instead keeps an ordinary possessive phrase inside the relative clause: البنت يلي أخوها اتصل—literally, “the woman that her brother called.” The suffix on أخوها resumes the head noun البنت.
This is the possessor version of the wider Lebanese resumption system. يلي introduces a definite relative (neutral informal Lebanese), but it does not itself mean “whose.” The attached suffix identifies the head’s grammatical role inside the clause.
Build it from a complete clause
Start with an ordinary sentence, locate the possessor, and turn that possessor into the relative head.
| Complete clause | Possessor relative | English |
|---|---|---|
| أخوها اتصل | البنت يلي أخوها اتصل | the woman whose brother called |
| سيارته تعطلت | الشب يلي سيارته تعطلت | the guy whose car broke down |
| بيتهن بعيد | العيلة يلي بيتهن بعيد | the family whose house is far |
البنت يلي أخوها اتصل ساكنة حدنا.
el-bint yalle akhūha ttaṣal sākne ḥaddna.
The woman whose brother called lives next door. (informal; feminine possessor resumed by ـها)
الشب يلي سيارته تعطلت وصل متأخر.
esh-shabb yalle sayyārto tʿaṭṭalet wiṣel mtaʾakhkher.
The guy whose car broke down arrived late. (informal; masculine possessor resumed by ـه)
الجيران يلي بيتهن للبيع نقلوا الأسبوع الماضي.
el-zhīrān yalle bēthon lal-bēʿ naʾalo l-osbūʿ el-māḍe.
The neighbors whose house is for sale moved last week. (informal; plural possessor resumed by ـهن)
The suffix agrees with the possessor, the relative head: masculine ـه, feminine ـها, plural ـهن in this course’s Beirut baseline. The possessed noun controls its own predicate agreement. Thus feminine سيارة takes تعطلت, even though its possessor الشب is masculine.
The suffix sits on the possessed noun
Possessor resumption is different from object and prepositional resumption. Compare the hosts of the suffix:
| Head’s role | Lebanese relative | Suffix host |
|---|---|---|
| direct object | الكتاب يلي قريته | verb: قريته |
| after a preposition | الشخص يلي حكيت معه | preposition: معه |
| possessor | البنت يلي أخوها اتصل | possessed noun: أخوها |
الموظفة يلي مكتبها حد المصعد رح تساعدك.
el-mwaẓẓafe yalle maktaba ḥadd el-miṣʿad raḥ tsēʿdak.
The employee whose office is beside the elevator will help you. (neutral professional speech; feminine possessor suffix on مكتب)
هيدا الأستاذ يلي طلابه ربحوا المسابقة.
hayda l-ostēz yalle ṭollābo ribḥo l-msēbaʾa.
This is the teacher whose students won the competition. (informal; common Lebanese هيدا and masculine possessor suffix)
The possessive suffix inventory supplies the forms. Relative syntax does not create a special “whose suffix”; it reuses ordinary possession.
Nested possession: follow the ownership chain
The resumed possessor need not possess the first noun in the chain. In مفتاح سيارته “his car key,” the relative head owns the car, while مفتاح is the key belonging to that car. The suffix therefore appears on سيارته, not on مفتاح.
هيدا الشب يلي مفتاح سيارته ضاع بالمكتب.
hayda sh-shabb yalle miftēḥ sayyārto ḍāʿ bil-maktab.
This is the guy whose car key got lost at the office. (informal; possessor resumed inside a nested iḍāfa)
البناية يلي باب مدخلها مكسور قديمة كتير.
el-bnēye yalle bēb madkhala maksūr ʾdīme ktīr.
The building whose entrance door is broken is very old. (informal; feminine head resumed on مدخلها inside باب مدخلها)
English places whose at the left edge of the relative, which can hide the internal ownership chain. Lebanese makes that chain audible. Ask “who owns what?” and put the suffix on the noun immediately possessed by the relative head.
Longer chains are grammatical but genuinely hard to process. In spontaneous conversation, speakers often replace a three- or four-noun chain with تبع or split the thought into two sentences. That is clarity, not grammatical failure.
Definite and indefinite heads
A definite head takes يلي. An integrated indefinite head normally omits it in the conservative Beirut baseline, while the possessive suffix remains.
تعرفت على بنت أختها بتشتغل معنا.
tʿarrafet ʿala bint okhta btishtaghel maʿna.
I met a woman whose sister works with us. (informal; indefinite head without يلي, obligatory feminine possessor suffix)
البنت يلي أختها بتشتغل معنا وصلت.
el-bint yalle okhta btishtaghel maʿna wiṣlet.
The woman whose sister works with us arrived. (informal; definite head with يلي)
This division of labor matters: definiteness determines whether يلي appears; the grammatical possessor role determines whether the noun carries a suffix. See indefinite relatives for the broader pattern.
Near, far, masculine, feminine, and plural heads
The demonstrative agrees with the head and marks distance. The suffix inside the relative independently resumes that same head.
| Head | Near | Far |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | هاد الشب يلي أخوه هون | هيداك الشب يلي أخوه هون |
| feminine | هاي البنت يلي أخوها هون | هيديك البنت يلي أخوها هون |
| plural | هول الطلاب يلي أستاذهن هون | هيدوليك الطلاب يلي أستاذهن هون |
هاد/هاي are the course’s beginner singular near forms, with هول as the plural used here (informal); هيدا/هيدي are common Lebanese alternatives (regional: Lebanon). Far هيداك/هيديك/هيدوليك adds genuine distance or contrast. None of these choices changes invariable يلي.
A deictic mini-dialogue
أي بنت قصدك، هاي يلي بيها دكتور ولا هيديك يلي أمها مدرسة؟
ayy bint ʾaṣdak, hāy yalle bayya doktōr walla haydīk yalle imma mdaresse?
Maya: Which woman do you mean, this one whose father is a doctor or that one whose mother is a teacher? (informal; near/far feminine contrast)
هيديك يلي أمها مدرسة، وهول رفقاتها يلي صفهن بالطابق التاني.
haydīk yalle imma mdaresse, w-hōl rifʾāta yalle ṣaffon biṭ-ṭābeʾ et-tēne.
Nour: That one whose mother is a teacher, and these are her friends whose classroom is on the second floor. (informal; feminine and plural possessor resumption)
Common Mistakes
Copying English “whose” without a resumptive suffix
❌ البنت يلي أخو اتصل ساكنة حدنا.
Incorrect — أخو has no suffix connecting the brother to البنت.
✅ البنت يلي أخوها اتصل مبارح ساكنة حدنا.
el-bint yalle akhūha ttaṣal mbēreḥ sākne ḥaddna.
The woman whose brother called yesterday lives next door. (informal; feminine possessor resumption)
Putting the suffix on the wrong noun in a nested chain
❌ الشب يلي مفتاحه سيارة ضاع.
Incorrect for ‘the guy whose car key was lost’ — this makes مفتاحه ‘his key’ and leaves سيارة unattached.
✅ الشب يلي مفتاح سيارته ضاع.
esh-shabb yalle miftēḥ sayyārto ḍāʿ.
The guy whose car key was lost. (informal; the man possesses the car inside the chain)
Matching the suffix to the possessed noun
❌ البنت يلي بيتها بعيد أخوها هون.
Grammatical Arabic, but not ‘the girl whose brother’s house is far’; ـها says the house belongs directly to the girl.
✅ البنت يلي بيت أخوها بعيد ساكنة هون.
el-bint yalle bēt akhūha bʿīd sākne hōn.
The woman whose brother’s house is far away lives here. (informal; the feminine suffix resumes the woman on أخوها)
Omitting يلي because English can omit “that” elsewhere
❌ الموظفة مكتبها حد المصعد رح تساعدك.
Not the intended integrated definite relative — English relative omission does not license dropping يلي here.
✅ الموظفة يلي مكتبها حد المصعد رح تساعدك اليوم.
el-mwaẓẓafe yalle maktaba ḥadd el-miṣʿad raḥ tsēʿdak el-yōm.
The employee whose office is beside the elevator will help you today. (neutral professional speech)
Using one demonstrative for every gender
❌ هاد البنت يلي أخوها اتصل.
Incorrect in the course baseline — هاد is masculine, while البنت is feminine.
✅ هاي البنت يلي أخوها اتصل.
hāy el-bint yalle akhūha ttaṣal.
This woman whose brother called. (informal; feminine demonstrative and feminine possessor suffix)
Key Takeaways
Lebanese has no single everyday word equivalent to English whose. Build a normal possessive phrase inside the relative clause and attach a suffix to the noun possessed by the head: البنت يلي أخوها.... In nested possession, follow the ownership chain to the correct suffix host. Definite heads take يلي; indefinite integrated heads normally do not, but possessor resumption remains.
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Start learning Arabic →Related Topics
- يلّي as the Core Relative MarkerA2 — Use invariable Lebanese يلي yalle after definite heads, and keep the right gap or resumptive pronoun inside the relative clause.
- Prepositional Relative ClausesB1 — Keep a Lebanese verb's selected preposition inside the relative clause and attach a suffix that resumes the head noun.
- Stacked and Embedded Relative ClausesC1 — Build, interpret, and repair long Lebanese relatives with repeated يلي, nested clauses, and resumptive chains.
- Possessive Suffixes on NounsA2 — Attach Beirut possessive pronouns to consonant-final, feminine, vowel-final, and plural nouns, and contrast them with analytic possession.
- The Lebanese Iḍāfa ConstructionA1 — Build compact Beirut possessive phrases in possessee–possessor order and understand their article, definiteness, and pronunciation patterns.
- Resumptive Pronouns beyond Relative ClausesB2 — Track a fronted Lebanese topic inside its comment with an object, possessive, prepositional, or independent resumptive pronoun.