Relative pronouns, like ‘who’, ‘which’, ‘whose’, ‘what’, etc. are used at the beginning of relative clauses to describe a definite noun. In Arabic, relative pronouns come after definite nouns to introduce sentences that describe these nouns or provide additional information about them. Relative clauses that follow relative pronouns can be nominal or verbal sentences, e.g.

Relative pronouns in Arabic have to agree with the nouns they follow in number, gender and case, e.g. after a singular masculine noun, the pronoun (الذي) must be used after a singular feminine noun, the pronoun (التي) must be used, and after a plural masculine noun, the pronoun (الذين) must be used. As for case, this is related to dual nouns in particular. Relative pronouns must have the same case (marked by suffixes in dual) like the noun they modify. For instance, “two students” can either be (الطالبان) or (الطالبين) depending on their position in the sentence. The relative pronoun (اللذان) must be used with (الطالبان), and the other one (اللذين) must be used with (الطالبين), so that they have the same case, e.g.

Demonstrative pronouns, like ‘this, and ‘those’, are used in the same way like English demonstratives. However, Arabic has many more demonstratives than English due to the feminine and masculine differentiation and due to the dual case. It is very important to make sure that the demonstrative pronoun agrees with the noun it refers to in number, gender and case, e.g.

The following table shows the demonstrative and relative pronouns in Arabic.