English compresses several meanings into you and they. Formal Modern Standard Arabic keeps more of them apart: singular “you” distinguishes a male from a female addressee, plural pronouns distinguish all-female groups from masculine or mixed groups, and أنتما and هما refer specifically to two referents.
The pronoun is only one part of the pattern. Verbs, predicate adjectives, demonstratives, and some relative pronouns may also reveal gender and number. Learning to read the agreement around a pronoun is especially important because ordinary unvocalized writing spells masculine أنتَ and feminine أنتِ identically as أنت.
If the distinction between an overt pronoun and a subject already encoded in a verb is new, begin with Independent Subject Pronouns.
The forms that English merges
| Reference | Independent pronoun | Common attached suffix |
|---|---|---|
| one male addressee | أنتَ | ـكَ |
| one female addressee | أنتِ | ـكِ |
| two addressees, either gender | أنتما | ـكما |
| male or mixed plural addressees | أنتم | ـكم |
| all-female plural addressees | أنتن | ـكن |
| one male third person | هو | ـه |
| one female third person | هي | ـها |
| two third persons, either gender | هما | ـهما |
| male or mixed human plural | هم | ـهم |
| all-female human plural | هن | ـهن |
The suffix column is a useful preview, not an equation. ـكِ can attach to a noun as a possessor or to a verb or preposition as an object; أنتِ is an independent subject. The host determines both the suffix's function and, in some environments, its pronunciation.
Singular “you”: the agreement carries gender
Use أنتَ for one male addressee and أنتِ for one female addressee. Their vowels are normally omitted in everyday print, but predicate and verb forms can disambiguate them.
أنت مستعد لتقديم العرض.
ʾanta mustaʿiddun li-taqdīmi l-ʿarḍ.
You are ready to give the presentation. (One man.)
أنت مستعدة لتقديم العرض.
ʾanti mustaʿiddatun li-taqdīmi l-ʿarḍ.
You are ready to give the presentation. (One woman.)
أنت راجعت الحسابات أمس.
ʾanta rājaʿta l-ḥisābāti ʾams.
You reviewed the accounts yesterday. (One man; the pronoun is contrastive.)
أنت راجعت الحسابات أمس.
ʾanti rājaʿti l-ḥisābāti ʾams.
You reviewed the accounts yesterday. (One woman; the same unvocalized spelling.)
The last pair looks identical without vowels. A fully vocalized reading distinguishes راجعتَ rājaʿta from راجعتِ rājaʿti. In real prose, context usually supplies the answer; when it does not, a name, title, or explicitly gendered predicate makes the reference clear.
The dual: one pronoun, gender shown elsewhere
أنتما means “you two,” and هما means “they two.” Each can cover a masculine pair, a feminine pair, or a mixed pair; هما can also refer to two nonhuman entities. Agreement elsewhere can still distinguish masculine dual from feminine dual, while a mixed human pair conventionally takes masculine agreement.
أنتما المسؤولان عن التسجيل.
ʾantumā l-masʾūlāni ʿani t-tasjīl.
You two are responsible for registration. (Two men or a mixed-gender pair.)
أنتما المسؤولتان عن التسجيل.
ʾantumā l-masʾūlatāni ʿani t-tasjīl.
You two are responsible for registration. (Two women.)
هما وصلا إلى المحطة قبل الظهر.
humā waṣalā ʾilā l-maḥaṭṭati qabla ẓ-ẓuhr.
The two men arrived at the station before noon.
هما وصلتا إلى المحطة قبل الظهر.
humā waṣalatā ʾilā l-maḥaṭṭati qabla ẓ-ẓuhr.
The two women arrived at the station before noon.
The dual is productive in formal contemporary MSA, not an archaic ornament. News, administrative writing, and careful speech use it whenever exactly two referents are salient. Many colloquial varieties reduce parts of the dual system, but that regional fact should not be imported into a formal MSA paradigm.
Plural gender: masculine includes mixed groups
أنتم and هم refer to groups of men and conventionally to mixed-gender human groups. أنتن and هن are reserved for all-female human groups in formal MSA.
أنتم مدعوون إلى الجلسة القادمة.
ʾantum madʿuwwūna ʾilā l-jalsati l-qādima(h).
You are invited to the next session. (Men or a mixed group.)
أنتن مدعوات إلى الجلسة القادمة.
ʾantunna madʿuwwātun ʾilā l-jalsati l-qādima(h).
You are invited to the next session. (An all-female group.)
For nonhuman plurals, Arabic generally does not choose هم or هن by the grammatical gender of the singular noun. Nonhuman plural reference normally uses feminine singular agreement, often هي or an omitted pronoun when context permits. The masculine/feminine plural pronouns here primarily organize human reference.
Independent and attached forms do different jobs
Compare an independent subject with a suffix attached to a noun. The written suffix ـك is identical without vowels for a male and female addressee, just as أنت is, but careful speech distinguishes -ka from -ki.
أنت صاحب هذا الملف، وهذا توقيعك.
ʾanta ṣāḥibu hādhā l-malaffi, wa-hādhā tawqīʿuka.
You are the owner of this file, and this is your signature. (One man.)
أنت صاحبة هذا الملف، وهذا توقيعك.
ʾanti ṣāḥibatu hādhā l-malaffi, wa-hādhā tawqīʿuki.
You are the owner of this file, and this is your signature. (One woman.)
Dual suffixes do not distinguish gender: كتابكما can mean “the book belonging to you two men” or “to you two women,” and معهما can mean “with those two men” or “with those two women.” Surrounding agreement or discourse resolves the reference.
أرسلت إليهما النسخة النهائية.
ʾarsaltu ʾilayhimā n-nuskhata n-nihāʾiyya(h).
I sent the final copy to the two of them.
Tracking two antecedents in a longer sentence
Relative and topicalized clauses commonly use an attached pronoun to keep an antecedent visible. In the following formal sentence, هما and suffix ـهما both refer to the same two women:
المهندستان اللتان تحدثنا معهما، هما ستقدمان الخطة غدا.
al-muhandisatāni llatāni taḥaddathnā maʿahumā, humā sa-tuqaddimāni l-khuṭṭata ghadā.
As for the two engineers we spoke with, they will present the plan tomorrow.
The preposition مع cannot be left without an object in this structure; ـهما resumes the dual antecedent. The explicit هما then gives contrastive focus before the finite predicate. In plainer prose the sentence could omit that independent pronoun: المهندستان ... ستقدمان الخطة.
Common Mistakes
Losing gender and replacing the dual with a plural
❌ أنتم مستعدون يا ليلى وهند.
Incorrect — exactly two addressees require the dual, and an all-female pair requires feminine-dual agreement.
✅ أنتما مستعدتان يا ليلى وهند.
ʾantumā mustaʿiddatāni yā laylā wa-hind.
You two are ready, Layla and Hind.
Detaching an attached suffix
❌ أرسلت إلى هما الرسالة.
Incorrect — the dual object suffix joins directly to the preposition.
✅ أرسلت إليهما الرسالة.
ʾarsaltu ʾilayhimā r-risāla(h).
I sent the message to the two of them.
Copying English possessor order
❌ هم مشروع ناجح.
Incorrect for “their project is successful” — hum is an independent subject, not a prenominal possessive.
✅ مشروعهم ناجح.
mashrūʿuhum nājiḥ.
Their project is successful.
Omitting a prepositional resumptive
❌ هاتان الباحثتان اللتان عملنا مع.
Incorrect — formal MSA does not strand the preposition maʿ without its dual object suffix.
✅ هاتان الباحثتان اللتان عملنا معهما.
hātāni l-bāḥithatāni llatāni ʿamilnā maʿahumā.
These are the two researchers we worked with.
Leaving a dual antecedent unclear
❌ أخبرت سارة مريم بأنهما ستغادران.
Potentially unclear — humā could refer to Sarah and Maryam together or to some previously mentioned pair.
✅ أخبرت سارة مريم بأن سارة ومريم ستغادران.
ʾakhbarat sāratu maryama bi-ʾanna sārata wa-maryama sa-tughādirān.
Sarah told Maryam that Sarah and Maryam would leave.
Key Takeaways
- Singular and plural second-person pronouns distinguish gender; English you does not.
- أنتما and هما each cover both genders, but dual verbs and predicates may reveal gender.
- Masculine plural forms normally include mixed human groups; feminine plurals refer to all-female groups.
- Independent pronouns and attached suffixes occupy different grammatical positions.
- Agreement and explicit antecedents prevent ambiguity that the bare pronoun form cannot resolve alone.
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Start learning Arabic →Related Topics
- Independent Subject PronounsA1 — Use Arabic's independent subject pronouns for nominal clauses, contrast, and emphasis while allowing verbs to carry an unspoken subject.
- Pronouns in Present Nominal SentencesA1 — Build present-tense Arabic clauses without a copula and use third-person pronouns to separate or focus definite subjects and predicates.
- Two Objects and Clitic OrderingB2 — Express recipients and transferred information clearly when verbs of giving, showing, and telling license two objects.