Dual and Plural Pronoun Suffixes | Arabic (Modern Standard) Grammar

English uses separate words for plural possessors and objects: “your books,” “I met them,” “with you.” Formal Modern Standard Arabic normally expresses these relations with a suffix joined to its host: كتبكم “your books,” قابلتهم “I met them,” and معكم “with you.” The dual has its own suffixes as well, so Arabic distinguishes “you two” and “the two of them” from every plural form.

These suffixes are not shortened versions of the independent pronouns أنتم، أنتن، هم، هن. A suffix must have a host, and that host determines its grammatical role: possession after a noun, an object after a verb, or the complement of a preposition. Person, gender, and number then determine which member of the suffix series appears.

The six core forms

The dual does not distinguish masculine from feminine. The plural does: masculine plural forms also serve mixed-gender groups, while feminine plural forms refer to groups understood as entirely female.

Referent	Independent subject	Suffix	On كتاب “book”	Reading
you two	أنتما	ـكما	كتابكما	kitābukumā
you, masculine or mixed plural	أنتم	ـكم	كتابكم	kitābukum
you, feminine plural	أنتنّ	ـكنّ	كتابكنّ	kitābukunna
the two of them	هما	ـهما	كتابهما	kitābuhumā
them, masculine or mixed plural	هم	ـهم	كتابهم	kitābuhum
them, feminine plural	هنّ	ـهنّ	كتابهنّ	kitābuhunna

The vowel before a suffix in this table belongs partly to the host's grammatical shape. With a noun, case is pronounced before the suffix in fully inflected reading: كتابُكم، كتابَكم، كتابِكم. In ordinary unvocalized writing, all three appear as كتابكم. Do not memorize -ukum as though its first vowel were always an inseparable part of ـكم.

هذا مكتبكما، وهذه بطاقتاكما.

hādhā maktabukumā, wa-hādhihi biṭāqatākumā.

This is your office, and these are your two cards. (Addressing two people.)

هل هذه حقائبكم يا زملاء؟

hal hādhihi ḥaqāʾibukum yā zumalāʾ?

Are these your bags, colleagues? (Addressing men or a mixed group.)

هل هذه حقائبكن يا طالبات؟

hal hādhihi ḥaqāʾibukunna yā ṭālibāt?

Are these your bags, students? (Addressing an all-female group.)

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Arabic makes two distinctions that English “your” hides: dual versus plural, and masculine/mixed plural versus all-feminine plural. Identify the addressees before choosing ـكما، ـكم، or ـكنّ.

The host determines the job

Attach the same person-number choice to three different kinds of host and it performs three different syntactic jobs.

Host	Form	Analysis	Meaning
noun	مشروعهم	مشروع + ـهم	their project
verb	قابلتهم	قابلت + ـهم	I met them
preposition	معهم	مع + ـهم	with them

English places “their” before a noun but “them” after a verb or preposition. Arabic always joins the suffix after its host. That shared position does not erase the grammatical difference.

مشروعهم جاهز، وقد ناقشته معهم أمس.

mashrūʿuhum jāhizun, wa-qad nāqashtuhu maʿahum ʾams.

Their project is ready, and I discussed it with them yesterday.

Here ـهم on مشروعهم is possessive, ـه on ناقشته is a direct object referring to the project, and ـهم on معهم is the complement of a preposition. Translation alone cannot tell you which Arabic construction to use; the host and its valency do.

Independent pronouns instead occupy a subject or contrastive position of their own:

هم راجعوا الخطة، والمدير راجعها معهم.

hum rājaʿū l-khuṭṭata, wa-l-mudīru rājaʿahā maʿahum.

They reviewed the plan, and the director reviewed it with them.

The independent هم is the subject of راجعوا. The attached ـهم cannot replace it by standing alone, and independent هم cannot simply be placed after مع.

Third-person vowel variants

The h-initial third-person suffixes commonly have u after most sounds but front to i after i, long ī, or y in careful MSA. Thus the written forms بهم، بهن، بهما are read bihim, bihinna, bihimā, while معهم، معهن، معهما are maʿahum, maʿahunna, maʿahumā. The singular basis of this alternation is explained on Third-Person ـه and Vowel Harmony.

استعنت بهما في العرض، ثم تحدثت عنهما في النقاش.

ʾistaʿantu bihimā fī l-ʿarḍ, thumma taḥaddathtu ʿanhumā fī n-niqāsh.

I drew on both sources in the presentation, then spoke about them during the discussion. (Both sources are grammatically masculine.)

مررت بهن عند المدخل، ثم جلست معهن في القاعة.

marartu bihinna ʿinda l-madkhal, thumma jalastu maʿahunna fī l-qāʿa(h).

I passed the women at the entrance, then sat with them in the hall.

The referent has not changed between بهن and معهن. The phonological host changes the vowel, just as singular ـه alternates between -hu and -hi. Natural sentence-final pause may suppress a final short vowel, but it does not create a new suffix.

Object suffixes and unspoken subjects

A finite Arabic verb normally identifies its subject through its prefix or ending, so an independent subject pronoun is optional unless it adds contrast or emphasis. In دعوتكم, ـتُ expresses “I” and ـكم expresses “you all.”

دعوتكما إلى الاجتماع وأرسلت لكما جدول الأعمال.

daʿawtukumā ʾilā l-ijtimāʿi wa-ʾarsaltu lakumā jadwala l-ʾaʿmāl.

I invited you both to the meeting and sent you both the agenda.

سأقابلكم بعد المحاضرة يا طلاب.

sa-ʾuqābilukum baʿda l-muḥāḍara(h) yā ṭullāb.

I will meet you after the lecture, students. (Addressing men or a mixed group.)

سأقابلكن بعد المحاضرة يا طالبات.

sa-ʾuqābilukunna baʿda l-muḥāḍara(h) yā ṭālibāt.

I will meet you after the lecture, students. (Addressing an all-female group.)

The second-person gender contrast is audible in -kum versus -kunna and remains grammatical even when English translates both as “you.” The dual -kumā is gender-neutral.

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Segment long Arabic words from the inside out: first identify the verb and its subject marking, then identify the final object suffix. دعوتُكُنَّ is “I invited” + “you women,” not one unanalyzable form.

Tracking an antecedent

When a noun is placed outside a following clause as a topic, or when it is the antecedent of a relative clause, an attached pronoun inside the clause can point back to it. This “return link” is not redundant: it occupies the noun's grammatical position inside the clause.

هاتان هما الوثيقتان اللتان أرسلتهما إليكما أمس.

hātāni humā l-wathīqatāni llatāni ʾarsaltuhumā ʾilaykumā ʾams.

These are the two documents that I sent to you both yesterday.

The object suffix ـهما resumes the dual antecedent الوثيقتان. The prepositional suffix ـكما refers to the two addressees. One sentence can therefore contain two dual suffixes with different persons and roles.

أما الموظفات الجديدات، فقد سلمتهن بطاقاتهن صباحا.

ʾammā l-muwaẓẓafātu l-jadīdātu, fa-qad sallamtuhunna biṭāqātihinna ṣabāḥā.

As for the new employees, I handed them their cards in the morning. (All are women.)

Here the topic is feminine plural, so both the object suffix ـهنّ and the possessor suffix ـهنّ retrieve that group. If nearby nouns could fit the same suffix, repeat the intended noun rather than forcing the reader to guess.

Register and real-world use

The dual and feminine plural suffixes are normal and productive in written MSA, official speech, news, and careful presentations (formal). Some regional spoken varieties replace dual agreement or feminine plural forms with broader plural forms (regional). That does not make ـكما، ـكنّ، or ـهنّ optional in a guide to MSA. Use the form required by the formal antecedent and audience.

Common Mistakes

Losing second-person gender

❌ أرسلت لكن الدعوة يا موظفون.

Incorrect — an all-male or mixed plural audience takes ـكم, not feminine plural ـكن.

✅ أرسلت لكم الدعوة يا موظفون.

ʾarsaltu lakumu d-daʿwata yā muwaẓẓafūn.

I sent you the invitation, employees. (Men or a mixed group.)

Writing a suffix as a separate word

❌ قابلت هم بعد الاجتماع.

Incorrect — ordinary object ـهم is joined to the verb.

✅ قابلتهم بعد الاجتماع.

qābaltuhum baʿda l-ijtimāʿ.

I met them after the meeting.

Copying English possessor order

❌ هم مشروع جاهز.

Incorrect for ‘their project is ready’ — bound ـهم follows the possessed noun.

✅ مشروعهم جاهز.

mashrūʿuhum jāhiz.

Their project is ready.

Omitting the relative-clause resumptive

❌ هذان هما الطالبان اللذان قابلت أمس.

Incorrect for ‘the two students whom I met’ — the object link back to the dual antecedent is missing.

✅ هذان هما الطالبان اللذان قابلتهما أمس.

hādhāni humā ṭ-ṭālibāni lladhāni qābaltuhumā ʾams.

These are the two students whom I met yesterday.

Leaving an ambiguous antecedent

❌ قابل المدير المترجمين قرب الصحفيين ثم دعاهم.

Potentially unclear — ـهم could refer to the translators or the journalists.

✅ قابل المدير المترجمين قرب الصحفيين ثم دعا المترجمين.

qābala l-mudīru l-mutarjimīna qurba ṣ-ṣaḥafiyyīna thumma daʿā l-mutarjimīn.

The director met the translators near the journalists and then invited the translators.

Key Takeaways

Use ـكما / ـهما for dual referents regardless of gender.
Use ـكم / ـهم for masculine or mixed plural groups and ـكنّ / ـهنّ for all-feminine plural groups.
Join the suffix to its host; the host determines whether it expresses possession, an object, or a prepositional complement.
Let a finite verb express an unspoken subject unless an independent pronoun adds contrast.
Match resumptive suffixes to their antecedents and repeat a noun when two antecedents would be equally possible.

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