Pronoun Suffixes after Prepositions | Arabic (Modern Standard) Grammar

English prepositions take separate pronouns: “with her,” “for you,” “from them.” In Modern Standard Arabic, a preposition normally takes an attached pronoun suffix instead: معها, لك, منهم. These forms are genitive complements of the preposition, even though English uses object forms such as him and us.

The suffix inventory is closely related to the possessive set, but the host matters. Some prepositions attach without much change, some change their vowel, and others reveal a different stem before a suffix. This is why the forms must be learned as combinations, not produced by placing a “short pronoun” after any unchanged preposition.

A practical paradigm

The following slice shows the most frequent persons across four core hosts. Unvocalized بك and لك look the same for a masculine and feminine singular addressee; their pronunciation is different.

Complement	بـ “with/by”	لـ “for/to”	مع “with”	عند “at/with”
me	بي — bī	لي — lī	معي — maʿī	عندي — ʿindī
you (m.sg.)	بك — bika	لك — laka	معك — maʿaka	عندك — ʿindaka
you (f.sg.)	بك — biki	لك — laki	معك — maʿaki	عندك — ʿindaki
him	به — bihi	له — lahu	معه — maʿahu	عنده — ʿindahu
her	بها — bihā	لها — lahā	معها — maʿahā	عندها — ʿindahā
us	بنا — binā	لنا — lanā	معنا — maʿanā	عندنا — ʿindanā
you two	بكما — bikumā	لكما — lakumā	معكما — maʿakumā	عندكما — ʿindakumā
them two	بهما — bihimā	لهما — lahumā	معهما — maʿahumā	عندهما — ʿindahumā
you (m.pl.)	بكم — bikum	لكم — lakum	معكم — maʿakum	عندكم — ʿindakum
you (f.pl.)	بكن — bikunna	لكن — lakunna	معكن — maʿakunna	عندكن — ʿindakunna
them (m.pl.)	بهم — bihim	لهم — lahum	معهم — maʿahum	عندهم — ʿindahum
them (f.pl.)	بهن — bihinna	لهن — lahunna	معهن — maʿahunna	عندهن — ʿindahunna

سأتصل بك غدا يا خالد.

sa-ʾattaṣilu bika ghadan yā khālid.

I will call you tomorrow, Khalid. (Addressing one man.)

سأتصل بك غدا يا ليلى.

sa-ʾattaṣilu biki ghadan yā laylā.

I will call you tomorrow, Layla. (Addressing one woman.)

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Whenever the spelling ends in ك, ask who is being addressed. Careful MSA retains -ka for one man and -ki for one woman after prepositions just as it does on nouns and verbs.

The short prepositions بـ and لـ

The one-letter prepositions بـ and لـ are inseparable prefixes before nouns and remain joined when a pronoun follows. بـ keeps bi-: به, بها, بنا. The masculine third-person form is pronounced bihi, because ـه takes i after the preceding i.

مررت به في الممر، لكنه لم يرني.

marartu bihi fī l-mamarri, lakinnahu lam yaranī.

I passed him in the corridor, but he did not see me.

The preposition لـ has a less transparent pattern. It is li- before an ordinary noun—للطالب “for the student”—but before most suffixes its vowel is a: له, لها, لك, لنا. The first-person form is the exceptional-looking لي lī.

هذه النسخة لك، والنسخة الأخرى لي.

hādhihi n-nuskhatu laka, wa-n-nuskhatu l-ʾukhrā lī.

This copy is for you, and the other copy is for me. (Addressing one man.)

المقاعد الأمامية لهم، وهذه المقاعد لنا.

ʾal-maqāʿidu l-ʾamāmiyyatu lahum, wa-hādhihi l-maqāʿidu lanā.

The front seats are for them, and these seats are for us.

مع and عند: noun-like hosts

مع “with” and عند “at, in the possession of” accept the suffix directly: معه, عندها. They retain their visible base, although the first-person forms end in long -ī.

ذهبت معها إلى المعرض وبقي أخوها عندنا.

dhahabtu maʿahā ʾilā l-maʿriḍi wa-baqiya ʾakhūhā ʿindanā.

I went with her to the exhibition, and her brother stayed with us.

عندي plus an indefinite noun is the ordinary MSA way to express many meanings of English “I have.” The suffix is grammatically the complement of عند, not a subject ending, and there is no present-tense copula.

عندي موعد بعد نصف ساعة.

ʿindī mawʿidun baʿda niṣfi sāʿa(h).

I have an appointment in half an hour.

Compare the independent subject pronoun with the attached prepositional complement:

أنت معنا اليوم، وسأسافر معك غدا.

ʾanta maʿanā l-yawma, wa-sa-ʾusāfiru maʿaka ghadā.

You are with us today, and I will travel with you tomorrow. (Addressing one man.)

أنت stands independently as the subject. نا and ك cannot stand alone; each is selected as the complement of مع.

Bases that change before suffixes

Several common prepositions have suffix forms that learners must memorize as stems:

Free preposition	Before a suffix	Examples
من min “from”	min-; nn before -ī	منه minhu, منها minhā, مني minnī
عن ʿan “about/from”	ʿan-; nn before -ī	عنه ʿanhu, عنها ʿanhā, عني ʿannī
إلى ʾilā “to”	ʾilay-	إليه ʾilayhi, إليها ʾilayhā, إليّ ʾilayya
على ʿalā “on”	ʿalay-	عليه ʿalayhi, عليها ʿalayhā, عليّ ʿalayya
في fī “in”	fī-; yy before -ī	فيه fīhi, فيها fīhā, فيّ fiyya

وصلت منه رسالة، فرددت عليه فورا.

waṣalat minhu risālatun, fa-radadtu ʿalayhi fawrā.

A message arrived from him, so I replied to him immediately.

أرسلت إليهم الجدول الجديد، ولم يصلني رد منهم.

ʾarsaltu ʾilayhimu l-jadwala l-jadīda, wa-lam yaṣilnī raddun minhum.

I sent them the new schedule, and I received no reply from them.

The connecting u in careful إليهمُ الجدول prevents an illicit consonant cluster before the article; it is contextual and is not written as a new base letter.

Verbs choose their prepositions

English translation alone does not tell you whether Arabic needs a direct-object suffix or a prepositional suffix. رآه means “he saw him,” but تحدث معه means “he spoke with him,” and بحث عنه means “he looked for him/it.” Learn the preposition with the verb.

The contrasting verb-attached series is explained on Direct-Object Suffixes on Verbs.

بحثنا عنها في كل مكان، ثم وجدناها في السيارة.

baḥathnā ʿanhā fī kulli makān, thumma wajadnāhā fī s-sayyāra(h).

We looked for it everywhere, then found it in the car. (The referent is grammatically feminine.)

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Record a verb together with its complement pattern: بحث عن, تحدث مع, اتصل بـ. When the complement becomes a pronoun, keep the preposition and attach the matching suffix.

Relative clauses and topics keep the preposition

English can strand a preposition at the end of a relative clause: “the person I spoke with.” Formal Arabic does not. It keeps the preposition beside a resumptive suffix that points back to the antecedent.

هذا هو الشخص الذي تحدثت معه أمس.

hādhā huwa sh-shakhṣu lladhī taḥaddathtu maʿahu ʾams.

This is the person I spoke with yesterday.

Topicalization follows the same logic:

هذه المسألة، تحدثنا عنها في الاجتماع.

hādhihi l-masʾalatu, taḥaddathnā ʿanhā fī l-ijtimāʿ.

As for this issue, we discussed it in the meeting.

The verbs themselves mark their unspoken subject (ـتُ “I,” ـنا “we”). The prepositional suffix marks a different role and cannot replace that subject marking.

Common Mistakes

Losing second-person gender

❌ سأتصل بك يا ليلى.

sa-ʾattaṣilu bika yā laylā

Incorrect reading — one woman requires bi-ki.

✅ سأتصل بك يا ليلى.

sa-ʾattaṣilu biki yā laylā.

I will call you, Layla.

Detaching the suffix

❌ تحدثت مع ه أمس.

Incorrect — the suffix is written directly on the preposition.

✅ تحدثت معه أمس.

taḥaddathtu maʿahu ʾams.

I spoke with him yesterday.

Confusing possession with عند

❌ عندي الكتاب جديد.

Incorrect for ‘my book is new’ — ʿindī means ‘at my place/in my possession,’ not the English possessive ‘my.’

✅ كتابي جديد.

kitābī jadīd.

My book is new.

Stranding the preposition in a relative clause

❌ هذا هو الشخص الذي تحدثت مع.

Incorrect — formal Arabic keeps maʿ attached to a resumptive suffix.

✅ هذا هو الشخص الذي تحدثت معه.

hādhā huwa sh-shakhṣu lladhī taḥaddathtu maʿah.

This is the person I spoke with.

Leaving the antecedent unclear

❌ وضعت التقرير قرب العقد ثم تحدثت عنه.

Potentially unclear — ʿanhu could refer to the report or the contract.

✅ وضعت التقرير قرب العقد ثم تحدثت عن التقرير.

waḍaʿtu t-taqrīra qurba l-ʿaqdi thumma taḥaddathtu ʿani t-taqrīr.

I put the report near the contract and then spoke about the report.

Key Takeaways

Attach the suffix directly to its preposition: معها, لكم, عنهم.
Learn host-conditioned forms: له but لي, منه but مني, and إليه from إلى.
The suffix is a genitive complement, not a subject; a finite verb independently marks its subject.
Keep a verb's required preposition when replacing a noun with a pronoun.
Formal relative clauses do not strand prepositions; they use forms such as معه and عنها to resume the antecedent.

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