English freely leaves a preposition at the end of a relative or question: “the chair I sat on,” “who did you speak with?” Egyptian normally uses a different strategy. In a relative clause, the preposition stays inside the clause and takes a suffix that points back to the head noun: الكرسي اللي قعدت عليه.
This is not an optional stylistic flourish. The suffix fills the complement slot required by the preposition. Mainstream Cairene Egyptian (informal) uses the same principle with spatial relations, verb government, and adjective or participle government.
Rule 1: relatives resume the head with a suffix
Start with a complete independent clause, then replace the repeated noun after the preposition with a suffix.
| Independent clause | Relative phrase | Natural English |
|---|---|---|
| قعدت على الكرسي | الكرسي اللي قعدت عليه | the chair I sat on |
| اشتريت من الشركة | الشركة اللي اشتريت منها | the company I bought from |
| اتكلمت مع الناس | الناس اللي اتكلمت معاهم | the people I spoke with |
ده الكرسي اللي قعدت عليه طول الاجتماع
da l-kursi lli ʾaʿadt ʿaleh ṭūl il-igtimāʿ
This is the chair I sat on throughout the meeting.
دي الشركة اللي اشترينا منها الأجهزة
di sh-shirka lli shtarena minha l-ʾag-hiza
This is the company we bought the equipment from.
دول الجيران اللي اتكلمنا معاهم امبارح
dol il-gīrān illi tkallimna maʿāhum imbāriḥ
These are the neighbors we spoke with yesterday.
The English preposition is stranded at the clause edge. In Egyptian, عليه، منها، معاهم are complete preposition-plus-pronoun forms. For the general resumptive system, see resumptive pronouns.
Rule 2: the suffix agrees with the relative head
The suffix identifies the missing complement. It therefore follows the gender and number of the head noun, not the subject inside the relative clause.
| Head | على | من | بـ | مع | عن | لـ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | عليه | منه | بيه | معاه | عنه | ليه |
| feminine singular | عليها | منها | بيها | معاها | عنها | ليها |
| plural | عليهم | منهم | بيهم | معاهم | عنهم | ليهم |
فين الورقة اللي كتبت عليها رقم الطلب؟
fen il-waraʾa lli katabt ʿaleha raʾam iṭ-ṭalab?
Where’s the paper I wrote the order number on?
العملا اللي بعتنا ليهم الرسالة ردوا النهارده
il-ʿomala lli baʿatna lehum ir-risāla raddu n-naharda
The clients we sent the message to replied today.
Human plural العملا triggers ـهم. With a nonhuman plural, feminine singular resumption is often the neutral Cairene choice when the collection is construed as a grammatical nonhuman plural:
الطلبات اللي وافقنا عليها حتتنفذ الأسبوع الجاي
iṭ-ṭalabāt illi wāfaʾna ʿaleha ḥatitnaffiz il-ʾusbūʿ il-gāy
The requests we approved will be carried out next week.
Plural resumption can occur when individual items are strongly foregrounded (informal; discourse-sensitive). Feminine singular is the dependable neutral baseline here.
Rule 3: preserve lexical government
The resumptive strategy never decides which preposition to use. The governing predicate decides that first.
دي المشكلة اللي المدير مسؤول عنها
di l-mushkila lli l-mudīr masʾūl ʿanha
This is the problem the manager is responsible for.
ده القرار اللي محدش مقتنع بيه
da l-ʾarār illi maḥaddish moʾtaniʿ bīh
This is the decision nobody is convinced by.
English uses for after responsible and by/of after convinced. Egyptian preserves مسؤول عن and مقتنع بـ. Learn more on adjective and participle government.
Rule 4: wh-questions allow two native patterns
Egyptian can leave the questioned phrase in its ordinary position, or place مين first and use a resumptive suffix inside the clause.
اتفقت مع مين على الميعاد؟
ittafaʾt maʿ mīn ʿala l-mīʿād?
Who did you arrange the time with?
مين اتفقت معاه على الميعاد؟
mīn ittafaʾt maʿāh ʿala l-mīʿād?
Who was it that you arranged the time with?
The first is an in-situ question: مع مين remains together. The second fronts مين and resumes it with معاه. The fronted version often makes the identity more prominent, but both are ordinary (informal). What Egyptian does not copy is bare English-style fronting with an abandoned complement slot.
Rule 5: direct objects and prepositional complements behave differently
A direct-object relative may use an object suffix or, in some contexts, no overt resumptive object. A prepositional complement is less permissive because removing it would also erase the selected relation.
لقيت الكتاب اللي كنت بدور عليه من الصبح
laʾet il-kitāb illi kunt badawwar ʿaleh min iṣ-ṣubḥ
I found the book I’d been looking for since the morning.
Because the frame is دور على, عليه cannot simply disappear. English learners often hear the natural English translation and mistake for as an independent word that can be stranded. In Egyptian, it is part of the predicate frame.
A spatial scene
القهوة اللي مستنيك فيها قدام البنك اللي سألتني عنه
il-ʾahwa lli mistannīk fīha ʾuddām il-bank illi saʾaltini ʿannu
The café I’m waiting for you in is opposite the bank you asked me about.
The two suffixes encode different relations: فيها locates the waiting inside the café, while عنه completes سأل عن “ask about.” Literal English can reveal those relations; natural English may strand both prepositions.
Register and variation
Formal written Arabic often uses a relative pronoun inflected for gender and number and may favor pied-piping-like structures (formal). Everyday Egyptian uses invariant اللي plus resumption. A deliberately formal phrase such as الجهة التي تعاملت معها can occur in official speech, but importing its entire morphology into casual Cairo conversation creates a register shift, not “better grammar.”
Cairo معاكو / عليكو uses ـكو for “you all” (informal). ـكم is common in conservative orthography and formal code-switching; regional Egyptian and community repertoires vary (regional: Egypt). The core requirement—retain the preposition and supply its complement—remains stable.
Common Mistakes
1. Dropping the resumptive preposition.
❌ ده المكتب اللي اشتغلت السنة اللي فاتت
Incorrect for ‘the office I worked in’—the locative complement is missing.
✅ ده المكتب اللي اشتغلت فيه السنة اللي فاتت
da l-maktab illi shtaghlt fīh is-sana lli fātit
This is the office I worked in last year.
2. Repeating the full head noun instead of resuming it.
❌ دي الشركة اللي اشتريت من الشركة الأجهزة
Incorrect and needlessly repetitive—the relative needs منها.
✅ دي الشركة اللي اشتريت منها جهاز المطبخ
di sh-shirka lli shtaret minha gihāz il-maṭbakh
This is the company I bought the kitchen appliance from.
3. Separating the suffix.
❌ دول الناس اللي اتكلمت مع هم
Incorrect—the pronoun is bound to مع.
✅ دول الناس اللي اتكلمت معاهم بعد العرض
dol in-nās illi tkallimt maʿāhum baʿd il-ʿarḍ
These are the people I spoke with after the presentation.
4. Using a suffix that agrees with the clause subject.
❌ دي العربية اللي أخويا سافر بيه
Incorrect—the suffix refers to feminine العربية, not masculine أخويا.
✅ دي العربية اللي أخويا سافر بيها إسكندرية
di l-ʿarabiyya lli ʾakhūya sāfar bīha skindiriyya
This is the car my brother traveled to Alexandria in.
Key Takeaways
- Egyptian relatives normally use preposition + resumptive suffix, not English-style stranding.
- The suffix tracks the relative head; the predicate still determines the preposition.
- Questions can keep preposition + مين in place or front مين and resume it.
- Literal reconstruction of the full clause reveals the correct form.
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Start learning Arabic →Related Topics
- Resumptive PronounsB2 — Understand how Egyptian Arabic uses bound pronouns inside relative clauses and after fronted topics to point back to an accessible noun.
- Pronoun Suffixes after PrepositionsB1 — Attach Egyptian pronoun suffixes to prepositions and choose the host-specific forms used after على، مع، في، من، and لـ.
- Prepositional Relatives with ResumptionB1 — Keep an Egyptian preposition inside the relative clause and attach a suffix that resumes its antecedent.
- Adjective and Participle GovernmentB2 — Learn Egyptian adjectives and participles together with the prepositions that introduce their complements.
- على — on, over, and uponA1 — Use Cairene على for support, responsibility, schedules, and high-frequency predicate frames, with the correct suffixed stem.
- عن — about and away fromA1 — Use Cairene عن for topics, distance, defense, responsibility, and other lexical frames, with its geminating suffix forms.