‫ُز ْرنَا‬

we visited

Zayn was visited by Umair.

‫َز َار ُع َمْيٌر َز ْينًا‬
‫َز َار عُ َمْيٌر َز ْينًا‬

Remember that although Arabic does have passive verbs (we'll see them in a later lesson, ‫إن شاء‬
‫)اهلل‬, you cannot use them if the doer is mentioned. You must use a normal verb if the doer is
mentioned. So, if you want to say "Zayn was visited." in Arabic, you must use a passive verb,
but if you want to say "Zayn was visited by Umair.", you just translate it the same way you
would translate "Umair visited Zayn.". In other words, both "Umair visited Zayn." and "Zayn
was visited by Umair." have the same translation in Arabic: ‫َز َار ُع َمْيٌر َز ْينًا‬

Zayn was visited by his friend.

You would like to translate this as ‫ َز َار َخلِْيلُهُ َز ْينًا‬but you cannot. The reason is there is a problem in
‫ َز َار َخلِْيلُهُ َز ْينًا‬. The problem is that a pronoun cannot occur before the word it refers to. What does
the pronoun ‫ ُه‬refer to in ‫ ? َز َار َخلِْيلُهُ َز ْينًا‬It refers to "Zayn", of course. The problem is "Zayn" occurs
after the pronoun that refers to it. This is not allowed in Arabic. So, we have no choice but to
move ‫ َز ْينًا‬to a position before the pronoun that refers to it. By the way, the technical term for
"what a pronoun refers to" is "antecedent", and henceforth we will use this term because it's
much shorter than the phrase "what the pronoun refers to". In the sentence above, the pronoun
is ‫ه‬, ُ and its antecedent is "Zayn".

Zayn was visited by his friend.

ِ
ُ‫َز َار َز ْينًا َخلْيلُه‬
ِ
ُ‫َز َار َز ْينًا َخلْيلُه‬

Zayd visited his beautiful mother.

َ‫َز َار َزيْ ٌد َُّأمهُ اجْلَ ِمْيلَة‬
َ‫َز َار َزيْ ٌد َُّأمهُ اجْلَ ِمْيلَة‬

This sentence is fine, because the pronoun's antecedent has already been mentioned, namely
"Zayd".

Zayd visited only his beautiful mother.

َ‫ار َز ْي ٌد إاَّل ُأ َّمهُ ْال َج ِم ْيلَة‬ َ ‫َما َز‬
َ‫َما زَ ا َر زَ ْي ٌد إاَّل ُأ َّمهُ ْال َج ِم ْيلَة‬
َ‫ِإمَّنَا َز َار َزيْ ٌد َُّأمهُ اجْلَ ِمْيلَة‬
َ‫ِإمَّنَا َز َار َزيْ ٌد َُّأمهُ اجْلَ ِمْيلَة‬
‫َُّأمهُ اجْلَ ِمْيلَةَ َز َار َزيْ ٌد‬
‫َُّأمهُ اجْلَ ِمْيلَةَ َز َار َزيْ ٌد‬

Let's examine the third sentence above: ‫ َُّأمهُ اجْلَ ِمْيلَةَ َز َار َزيْ ٌد‬. Isn't the pronoun occurring before its
antecedent? Well, yes, but originally this sentence was َ‫ َز َار َزيْ ٌد َُّأمهُ اجْلَ ِمْيلَة‬. What do I mean by
"originally"? I mean according to the default word order. What is the default word order? It is
verb-doer-receiver-everything else (see important rule #24). According to the default word
order, the pronoun is after its antecedent, because the default order is: َ‫ َز َار َزيْ ٌد َُّأمهُ اجْلَ ِمْيلَة‬. We
changed this word order to ‫ َُّأمهُ اجْلَ ِمْيلَةَ َز َار َزيْ ٌد‬in order to convey the meaning of "only" (see rule
#30), but the default word was َ‫ َز َار َزيْ ٌد َُّأمهُ اجْلَ ِمْيلَة‬. Now, in the default word, does the pronoun
occur after its antecedent? Yes, it does. So, there is no problem. In other words, if the pronoun
occurs after its antecedent in the default word order, there is no problem, even if later on you
change the default word order to a new word order where the pronoun occurs before its
antecedent, e.g. ‫ َُّأمهُ اجْلَ ِمْيلَةَ َز َار َزيْ ٌد‬. Remember, according to the default word order, this was ‫َز َار َزيْ ٌد‬
َ‫ َُّأمهُ اجْلَ ِمْيلَة‬.

But then what about:

Zayn was visited by his friend.

ِ
ُ‫َز َار َز ْينًا َخلْيلُه‬
ِ
ُ‫َز َار َز ْينًا َخلْيلُه‬

which we saw above? What was this sentence according to the default word order? It was ‫َز َار‬
‫ َخلِْيلُهُ َز ْينًا‬. We changed the order to a new one, i.e. ُ‫ َز َار َز ْينًا َخلِْيلُه‬, to avoid the problem of the
pronoun occurring before its antecedent. But that doesn't change the fact that according to the
default word, the pronoun occurred before its antecedent. But according to the new word
order, the pronoun occurs after the word it refers to, so there is no problem.

So, what's going on? Basically, if the pronoun occurs after its antecedent in the default word
order, there is no problem. No need to move anything around. But if the pronoun occurs
before its antecedent in the default word order, we must create a new word order in which the
pronoun is after its antecedent.

To summarize, if the pronoun is after the antecedent according to either the default word order
or the new one, there is no problem. The problem only occurs when the pronoun is before its
antecedent in the default word order and you refuse to create a new word order by moving the
pronoun to a position after its antecedent.
So, is َ‫ َز َار َزيْ ٌد َُّأمهُ اجْلَ ِمْيلَة‬okay? Yes, because the pronoun is after its antecedent. Is ‫ َُّأمهُ اجْلَ ِمْيلَةَ َز َار َزيْ ٌد‬okay?
Yes, because in the default word order, the pronoun was after its antecedent.

Is ‫ َز َار َخلِْيلُهُ َز ْينًا‬okay? No, because the pronoun is before its antecedent. How can we fix it? By
changing the default word order to a new one: ُ‫ َز َار َز ْينًا َخلِْيلُه‬.

So, we are generous: if the pronoun is after the antecedent in either the default word order or
the new one, there is no problem. The problem only occurs when the pronoun is before its
antecedent in the default word order and you refuse to create a new word order in which the
pronoun is after its antecedent.

Rule #32: A pronoun cannot occur before its antecedent. If it does, you must change the
default word order and create a new one in which the pronoun occurs after its antecedent. If the
pronoun is after its antecedent in either the default word order or the new one, there is no
problem.

A slave was sold by his owner.

We would like to translate this as ‫اع َمالِ ُكهُ غُالًَما‬

َ َ‫ب‬, but we cannot because the pronoun cannot occur
before its antecedent. So, we change the default word order and get:

A slave was sold by his owner.

ِ
ُ‫اع غُالًَما َمال ُكه‬
َ َ‫ب‬
ِ
ُ‫اع ُغالًَما َمال ُكه‬
َ َ‫ب‬

A man was betrayed by his companion.

ُ‫احبُه‬
ِ ‫ص‬َ ‫خَ انَ َر ُجاًل‬
ُ‫احبُه‬ِ ‫ص‬َ ‫خَ انَ َر ُجاًل‬

A girl was hit by her mother.

‫ت بِْنتًا ُُّأم َها‬
ْ َ‫ضَرب‬
َ
‫ت بِْنتًا ُُّأم َها‬ ‫ب‬‫ر‬
ْ َ ََ‫ض‬

A brother was hit by his sister.

ُ‫ُأختُه‬
ْ ‫َأخا‬
ً ‫ت‬ْ َ‫ضَرب‬
َ
ُ‫ُأختُه‬
ْ ‫َأخا‬
ً ‫ت‬ْ َ‫ضَرب‬
َ

Note that the marker of femininity is there at the end of the verb because the doer, ‫ت‬
ُ ‫ُأخ‬,
ْ is
feminine. The word ‫َأخا‬
ً is not the doer!