Arabic does not have one all-purpose equivalent of English who, which, and that. After a definite antecedent, it chooses a relative pronoun from the الذي paradigm: الذي for masculine singular, التي for feminine singular, dedicated dual forms, and plural forms for rational groups, normally people. The choice follows the Arabic antecedent's grammatical gender and number, not the English relative word.
The paradigm is used after a definite antecedent. الرجل الذي اتصل is “the man who called,” but an indefinite رجل اتصل is “a man who called,” without الذي. This definite–indefinite division is the organizing logic behind Arabic relative clauses; Relative Clauses with Definite Antecedents develops the resulting clause pattern.
The full core paradigm
| Antecedent | Nominative | Accusative / genitive | Usual reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | الذي | الذي | a male person or masculine singular noun |
| feminine singular | التي | التي | a female person, feminine singular noun, or nonhuman plural |
| masculine dual | اللذان | اللذين | exactly two males or masculine nouns |
| feminine dual | اللتان | اللتين | exactly two females or feminine nouns |
| masculine / mixed rational plural | الذين | الذين | male or mixed groups, normally people |
| feminine rational plural | اللاتي | اللاتي | groups of women |
Singular الذي، التي and plural الذين، اللاتي have the same surface form in all cases. Only the dual makes the case contrast overt in this paradigm. Fully vocalized, the core forms are الَّذِي، الَّتِي، اللَّذَانِ، اللَّذَيْنِ، اللَّتَانِ، اللَّتَيْنِ، الَّذِينَ، اللَّاتِي.
وصل الطبيب الذي سيجري العملية غدا.
waṣala ṭ-ṭabību lladhī sayujrī l-ʿamaliyyata ghadā.
The doctor who will perform the operation arrived.
اتصلت المهندسة التي تدير المشروع.
ʾittaṣalati l-muhandisatu llatī tudīru l-mashrūʿ.
The engineer who manages the project called.
The relative pronoun is definite in form, but its job is not to add a second article. It marks the following clause as a description of an already definite antecedent.
Dual forms: agreement plus case
The dual is where English-speaking learners most often collapse the paradigm. Use اللذان/اللتان when the antecedent is nominative, and اللذين/اللتين when it is accusative or genitive. The case form follows the antecedent's position in the larger sentence.
حضر المترجمان اللذان عملا معنا العام الماضي.
ḥaḍara l-mutarjimāni lladhāni ʿamilā maʿanā l-ʿāma l-māḍī.
The two translators who worked with us last year attended.
كرمت الجامعة الباحثتين اللتين نشرتا الدراسة.
karramati l-jāmiʿatu l-bāḥithatayni llatayni nasharatā d-dirāsa(h).
The university honored the two researchers who published the study.
In the first sentence, المترجمان اللذان is nominative. In the second, الباحثتين اللتين is the direct object and therefore accusative. The verbs inside the relative clauses are dual because the paired people perform those actions.
Rational and non-rational plurals
Use الذين for a masculine or mixed rational group, most commonly people. Formal Arabic has several feminine rational-plural variants: اللاتي is a clear contemporary choice, while اللواتي is also standard (formal) and اللائي is frequent in elevated and legal prose (formal/literary). Do not mix variants within one passage without a stylistic reason.
الموظفون الذين أكملوا التدريب سيبدؤون يوم الأحد.
al-muwaẓẓafūna lladhīna ʾakmalū t-tadrība sayabdaʾūna yawma l-ʾaḥad.
The employees who completed the training will start on Sunday.
الطبيبات اللاتي شاركن في الحملة يعملن في مستشفيات مختلفة.
aṭ-ṭabībātu llātī shārakna fī l-ḥamlati yaʿmalna fī mustashfayātin mukhtalifa(h).
The doctors who took part in the campaign work in different hospitals.
Non-rational plurals—including the ordinary reference to objects, places, and abstractions—normally trigger feminine singular agreement, so their relative pronoun is التي, not الذين.
الطرق التي أغلقتها البلدية ستفتح مساء.
aṭ-ṭuruqu llatī ʾaghlaqat-hā l-baladiyyatu satuftaḥu masāʾ.
The roads that the municipality closed will reopen this evening.
Here الطرق is morphologically plural but non-rational, so both التي and the later passive verb ستفتح are feminine singular.
The relative clause after the pronoun
The relative pronoun introduces a complete clause, called صلة الموصول. When the antecedent is the understood subject of that clause, no separate subject pronoun is normally added.
أعجبني الفيلم الذي فاز بالجائزة.
ʾaʿjabanī l-fīlmu lladhī fāza bi-l-jāʾiza(h).
I liked the film that won the award.
When the antecedent has another role inside the relative clause, Arabic often uses a resumptive suffix. A direct-object suffix is the clearest neutral choice: قرأته “I read it.” In carefully controlled contexts, formal Arabic can omit some direct-object resumptives, leaving a recoverable surface gap. Prepositional and possessive resumptives are not optional in the same way.
أعدت الكتاب الذي استعرته الأسبوع الماضي.
ʾaʿadtu l-kitāba lladhī staʿartuhu l-ʾusbūʿa l-māḍī.
I returned the book that I borrowed last week.
هذه هي الشركة التي نعمل معها منذ ثلاث سنوات.
hādhihi hiya sh-sharikatu llatī naʿmalu maʿahā mundhu thalāthi sanawāt.
This is the company we have worked with for three years.
The suffix ـها completes معها and refers to الشركة. English can say the company we work with and strand the preposition; formal Arabic requires an object after مع.
قابلت الأستاذ الذي قرأت مقالته صباحا.
qābaltu l-ʾustādha lladhī qaraʾtu maqālatahu ṣabāḥā.
I met the professor whose article I read this morning.
The possessive suffix ـه on مقالته is obligatory because the article belongs to the professor. The English possessive relative whose is expressed by a noun plus a resumptive possessive suffix.
Definiteness selects the architecture
Compare a definite noun with an indefinite one. The meaning is similar, but the Arabic construction changes.
تحدثت إلى الخبير الذي يفهم النظام جيدا.
taḥaddathtu ʾilā l-khabīri lladhī yafhamu n-niẓāma jayyidā.
I spoke to the expert who understands the system well.
تحدثت إلى خبير يفهم النظام جيدا.
taḥaddathtu ʾilā khabīrin yafhamu n-niẓāma jayyidā.
I spoke to an expert who understands the system well.
The definite antecedent الخبير takes الذي. The indefinite خبير takes the descriptive clause directly. English uses who in both, so English does not signal the Arabic choice.
Demonstratives make an antecedent definite. Near هذه الباحثة therefore takes التي, and far ذلك الباحث takes الذي.
هذه هي الباحثة التي ذكرتها في رسالتك، وذلك هو الباحث الذي التقيته في المؤتمر.
hādhihi hiya l-bāḥithatu llatī dhakartahā fī risālatika, wa-dhālika huwa l-bāḥithu lladhī ltaqaytahu fī l-muʾtamar.
This is the researcher you mentioned in your message, and that is the researcher you met at the conference. (One male addressee.)
Relative pronouns as discourse links
A relative phrase can identify a previous discourse participant without repeating every detail. In أما القرار الذي..., the definite noun retrieves a known decision and the relative clause narrows or evaluates it.
ناقشنا عدة مقترحات. أما المقترح الذي خفض التكاليف فوافقت عليه اللجنة.
nāqashnā ʿiddata muqtaraḥāt. ʾammā l-muqtaraḥu lladhī khaffaḍa t-takālīfa fa-wāfaqat ʿalayhi l-lajna(h).
We discussed several proposals. As for the proposal that reduced costs, the committee approved it.
Common Mistakes
Using one form for every antecedent
❌ وصلت المديرة الذي طلبت الاجتماع.
Incorrect — the feminine singular antecedent al-mudīra requires allatī.
✅ وصلت المديرة التي طلبت الاجتماع.
waṣalati l-mudīratu llatī ṭalabati l-ijtimāʿ.
The manager who requested the meeting arrived.
Ignoring dual case
❌ سلمت على المعلمين اللذان ساعداني.
Incorrect — after ʿalā, the dual antecedent and relative pronoun are genitive: -ayni and alladhayni.
✅ سلمت على المعلمين اللذين ساعداني.
sallamtu ʿalā l-muʿallimayni lladhayni sāʿadānī.
I greeted the two teachers who helped me.
Using الذي after an indefinite antecedent
❌ نبحث عن مترجم الذي يتقن اليابانية.
Incorrect — mutarjim is indefinite, so the descriptive clause follows without alladhī.
✅ نبحث عن مترجم يتقن اليابانية.
nabḥathu ʿan mutarjimin yutqinu l-yābāniyya(h).
We are looking for a translator who is proficient in Japanese.
Stranding a preposition
❌ هذا هو الزميل الذي سافرت مع.
Incorrect — maʿ needs a masculine resumptive suffix referring to the colleague.
✅ هذا هو الزميل الذي سافرت معه.
hādhā huwa z-zamīlu lladhī sāfartu maʿahu.
This is the colleague I traveled with.
Using الذين with a nonhuman plural
❌ الأنظمة الذين اختبرناها تعمل بكفاءة.
Incorrect — a nonhuman plural takes feminine singular allatī.
✅ الأنظمة التي اختبرناها تعمل بكفاءة.
al-ʾanẓimatu llatī khtabarnāhā taʿmalu bi-kafāʾa(h).
The systems that we tested operate efficiently.
Key Takeaways
- Choose الذي/التي by singular gender, the dual form by gender and case, and الذين/اللاتي for rational plurals, normally groups of people.
- Non-rational plurals normally take feminine singular التي.
- The dual relative pronoun matches the case of its antecedent: اللذان/اللتان versus اللذين/اللتين.
- A definite antecedent takes a relative pronoun; an indefinite antecedent normally takes an unmarked descriptive clause.
- A direct-object resumptive can sometimes be omitted, but prepositional and possessive resumptives are obligatory.
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- حيث، عندما، يومَ as Relative and Linking ExpressionsA2 — Express where and when with headless linkers, explicit relative clauses, and the adverbial time noun يوم.
- Relative Clauses with Definite AntecedentsA2 — Build relative clauses after definite Arabic nouns with an agreeing relative pronoun and the right internal resumptive link.
- Near Demonstratives: هذا، هذه، هذان، هاتان، هؤلاءA1 — Choose near demonstratives by gender, number, case, and human reference, then combine them with definite nouns and relative clauses.