Formal animate demonstratives (inân, ânân)

Formal Animate Demonstratives

In everyday Farsi, you can use این‌ها (these) and آن‌ها (those) to refer to both people and things. However, in formal, literary, or official contexts—such as diplomatic events or news reports—Farsi uses a special set of demonstrative pronouns exclusively for people.

By attaching the formal animate plural suffix ـان to the base demonstrative words این (this) and آن (that), you create elegant pronouns perfectly suited for high-level delegations.

To formally say "these people," use اینان.

To refer to "those people" in an official context, use آنان.

Because اینان and آنان are pronouns, they function exactly like standard nouns. They can take prepositions, act as the subject of a sentence, or be marked as direct objects using را.

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