When a Lebanese relative head belongs after a preposition inside the clause, the preposition remains there and takes a resumptive suffix: الزلمة يلي حكيت معه “the man I spoke with,” الموضوع يلي حكينا عنه “the topic we talked about,” الشركة يلي بشتغل فيها “the company I work at.” The suffix agrees with the head.
English allows preposition stranding—“the man I spoke with”—and formal English can move the preposition—“the man with whom I spoke.” Ordinary Lebanese uses neither structure. It builds a normal clause such as حكيت معه “I spoke with him” after يلي, preserving both the preposition and its attached pronoun.
The core frame
| Independent clause | Relative phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| حكيت معه | الزلمة يلي حكيت معه | the man I spoke with |
| فكرت فيها | الفكرة يلي فكرت فيها | the idea I thought about |
| اعتمدنا عليهن | الناس يلي اعتمدنا عليهن | the people we relied on |
الزلمة يلي حكيت معه بيعرف بيي.
ez-zalame yalle ḥkēt maʿo byaʿref bayye.
The man I spoke with knows my father. (informal; masculine suffix on مع)
الفكرة يلي فكرت فيها ما زبطت.
el-fikra yalle fakkaret fīha ma zabaṭet.
The idea I considered didn't work out. (informal; feminine suffix on في)
الناس يلي اعتمدنا عليهن ساعدونا كتير.
en-nās yalle iʿtamadna ʿalēhon sēʿadūna ktīr.
The people we relied on helped us a lot. (informal; plural suffix on على)
The preposition-plus-suffix constituent is the Lebanese counterpart of the relativized role. Deleting either part breaks the verb’s ordinary frame.
Suffix agreement on common prepositions
| Head | مع | في | على | عن |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | معه maʿo | فيه fīh | عليه ʿalēh | عنه ʿanno |
| feminine singular | معها maʿha | فيها fīha | عليها ʿalēha | عنها ʿanna |
| plural | معن maʿon | فيهن fīhon | عليهن ʿalēhon | عنهن ʿanhon |
الموظفة يلي حكيت معها رح تبعتلك الجواب.
el-mwaẓẓafe yalle ḥkēt maʿha raḥ tibʿatlak el-zhawēb.
The employee I spoke with will send you the answer. (informal; feminine prepositional resumption)
الكرسي يلي قعدت عليه كان مكسور.
el-korse yalle ʾaʿadet ʿalēh kēn maksūr.
The chair I sat on was broken. (informal; masculine suffix after على)
المشاكل يلي حكينا عنهن بعدا بلا حل.
el-mashēkel yalle ḥkēna ʿanhon baʿda bla ḥall.
The problems we talked about are still unresolved. (informal; plural suffix after عن)
Verb frames, not English prepositions
The Lebanese preposition comes from the verb or expression. It does not have to match the English word used in translation.
| Lebanese frame | Relative example | English |
|---|---|---|
| حكى مع | الشخص يلي حكيت معه | the person I spoke with |
| سأل عن | الخبر يلي سألت عنه | the news I asked about |
| فكر في | الخطة يلي فكرت فيها | the plan I considered/thought about |
| اعتمد على | الطريقة يلي اعتمدنا عليها | the method we relied on |
| بعت لـ | البنت يلي بعتتلها الملف | the woman I sent the file to |
هيدا الخبر يلي سألتني عنه مبارح.
hayda l-khabar yalle sʾaletne ʿanno mbēreḥ.
This is the news you asked me about yesterday. (informal; سأل عن frame)
هاي الطريقة يلي اعتمدنا عليها بالمشروع.
hāy eṭ-ṭarīʾa yalle iʿtamadna ʿalēha bil-mashrūʿ.
This is the method we relied on in the project. (informal; اعتمد على frame)
There is no logical shortcut for every frame. Learn فكر في, سأل عن, اعتمد على, and حكى مع as lexical packages. The lexical preposition frames page expands this inventory.
No ordinary pied-piping
Formal English can say “the colleague with whom I spoke,” moving the preposition before the relative word. Ordinary Lebanese does not place مع before يلي as الزميل مع يلي حكيت. The preposition stays where its complement would occur in the Lebanese clause:
الزميل يلي حكيت معه أعطاني رقم المدير.
ez-zamīl yalle ḥkēt maʿo aʿṭāne raʾm el-mdīr.
The colleague with whom I spoke gave me the manager's number. (neutral spoken Lebanese; natural in both informal and professional conversation)
MSA has its own formal relative syntax (formal), but switching individual pieces into an otherwise colloquial clause does not make a more polite Lebanese relative. Keep the spoken frame intact.
Direct object, dative, and prepositional complement
Not every suffixed form is the same syntactic type. Compare:
الموظفة يلي شفتها وحكيت معها وبعتتلها الملف اتصلت فيي.
el-mwaẓẓafe yalle shifta w-ḥkēt maʿha w-baʿatetlha l-malaf ttaṣalet fiyye.
The employee whom I saw, spoke with, and sent the file to called me. (informal; object, prepositional, and dative resumption of one head)
شفتها contains a direct-object suffix; معها is a preposition plus suffix; بعتتلها contains recipient لـ plus suffix. English word order cannot decide among them—the Lebanese lexical frame does.
Indefinite heads still keep prepositional resumption
An indefinite restrictive head normally omits يلي, but the preposition and suffix stay.
بدي حدا احكي معه عن المشكلة.
badde ḥada iḥke maʿo ʿan el-mishkle.
I need someone I can talk with about the problem. (informal; indefinite head without يلي, masculine generic resumption)
عم دور على شركة اشتغلنا معها قبل.
ʿam dawwer ʿala sharike shtaghalna maʿha ʾabl.
I'm looking for a company we've worked with before. (informal; indefinite feminine head, prepositional suffix retained)
This proves that يلي and resumption do separate jobs: definiteness controls the former, the internal prepositional role controls the latter.
Possessive resumption follows the same logic
English whose can tempt learners to leave no pronoun inside the clause. Lebanese attaches the resumptive suffix to the possessed noun.
البنت يلي أخوها ساكن حدنا بتشتغل معي.
el-bint yalle akhūha sāken ḥaddna btishtaghel maʿe.
The woman whose brother lives next door works with me. (informal; possessor resumed by ـها on أخوها)
Prepositional معها and possessive أخوها place the suffix on different hosts, but both preserve the head’s grammatical role inside the relative.
Near, far, masculine, feminine, and plural
| Near | Far | |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | هاد الكرسي يلي قعدت عليه | هيداك الكرسي يلي قعدت عليه |
| feminine | هاي الطاولة يلي حطينا الكتب عليها | هيديك الطاولة يلي حطينا الكتب عليها |
| plural | هودي الكراسي يلي قعدنا عليهن | هيدوليك الكراسي يلي قعدنا عليهن |
The demonstrative agrees with the head, and the suffix inside the relative resumes that same gender/number set.
A deictic mini-dialogue
أي طاولة قصدك، هاي يلي قعدنا عليها ولا هيديك يلي حد الباب؟
ayy ṭāwle ʾaṣdak, hāy yalle ʾaʿadna ʿalēha walla haydīk yalle ḥadd el-bēb?
Maya: Which table do you mean, this one we sat at or that one by the door? (informal; near/far feminine contrast)
هيديك يلي حد الباب، وهيدوليك الكراسي يلي حطينا الشناتي عليهن.
haydīk yalle ḥadd el-bēb, w-haydōlīk el-karēse yalle ḥaṭṭēna sh-shanēte ʿalēhon.
Nour: That one by the door, and those chairs we put the bags on. (informal; far feminine and plural reference with resumption)
Common Mistakes
Stranding the preposition as in English
❌ الموظفة يلي حكيت مع رح تبعتلك الجواب.
Incorrect — مع cannot be left without its resumptive suffix.
✅ الموظفة يلي حكينا معها رح تبعتلك الجواب.
el-mwaẓẓafe yalle ḥkēna maʿha raḥ tibʿatlak el-zhawēb.
The employee we spoke with will send you the answer. (informal; feminine suffix on مع)
Copying formal English pied-piping
❌ الزميل مع يلي حكيت أعطاني الرقم.
Incorrect in ordinary Lebanese — do not move مع before يلي.
✅ الزميل يلي حكيت معه أعطاني الرقم.
ez-zamīl yalle ḥkēt maʿo aʿṭāne r-raʾm.
The colleague I spoke with gave me the number. (neutral spoken Lebanese; in-clause resumption)
Choosing a preposition from English
❌ الفكرة يلي فكرت عنها.
Wrong for the baseline frame ‘the idea I thought about’ — ordinary فكر takes في here.
✅ الفكرة يلي فكرت فيها.
el-fikra yalle fakkaret fīha.
The idea I thought about. (informal; فكر في frame)
Dropping a possessor suffix
❌ البنت يلي أخو ساكن حدنا.
Incorrect for ‘the woman whose brother...’ — أخو lacks the suffix linking the brother to the woman.
✅ البنت يلي أخوها ساكن حدنا.
el-bint yalle akhūha sāken ḥaddna.
The woman whose brother lives next door. (informal; possessive resumption)
Using one demonstrative for every gender
❌ هاد الطاولة يلي قعدنا عليها.
Incorrect in the course baseline — طاولة is feminine, so the demonstrative must be feminine.
✅ هاي الطاولة يلي قعدنا عليها.
hāy eṭ-ṭāwle yalle ʾaʿadna ʿalēha.
This table we sat at. (informal; feminine demonstrative and prepositional suffix)
Key Takeaways
Prepositional relatives preserve the Lebanese verb frame inside the clause: preposition plus an attached suffix agreeing with the head. Ordinary speech neither strands the preposition nor moves it before يلي. Definite heads use يلي and indefinite heads normally do not, but resumption remains obligatory in both. Learn each verb with its preposition and keep possessive resumption distinct from direct-object and prepositional suffixes.
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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.
- Object Relatives and Resumptive CliticsB1 — Form Lebanese object relatives by attaching a resumptive clitic to the relative verb, with agreement for the head noun.
- Possessor RelativesB2 — Express English ‘whose’ with a Lebanese relative clause whose possessed noun carries a resumptive suffix.
- Pronoun Suffixes after PrepositionsB1 — Use Beirut suffixed forms of مع، من، على، في، لـ, and بـ, including their irregular stems and verb-selected meanings.
- Learning Verb–Preposition FramesB2 — Learn Lebanese verbs together with their selected prepositions, suffix alternations, question forms, and meaning-changing frames.
- Resumptive Pronouns beyond Relative ClausesB2 — Track a fronted Lebanese topic inside its comment with an object, possessive, prepositional, or independent resumptive pronoun.