Questions & Answers about هذا جوازي.
How does the word for "my" work in جوازي?
In Arabic, possessive pronouns like "my", "your", or "his" are not separate words. Instead, they are suffixes attached directly to the end of the noun. Here, the noun جواز (passport) takes the attached pronoun ي (which makes an "ee" sound) to become جوازي (my passport).
Where is the word for "is" in this sentence?
Arabic does not use a word for "is" or "are" in simple present tense sentences. You just place the subject and the description next to each other. You literally say "This my passport," and the "is" is automatically understood.
Why do we use هذا (this) instead of هذه?
هذا is the masculine form of "this". We use it here because the base noun it refers to, جواز (passport), is a masculine word. Adding a possessive suffix to the end of a word does not change its grammatical gender.
Could we add ال (the) to the beginning of جوازي?
No. When you attach a possessive pronoun like ي (my) to a noun, that noun automatically becomes definite (a specific, known thing). You never combine the definite article ال (the) with a possessive suffix on the same word.
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