هي

See also: ہی

Arabic

Etymology

From Proto-Semitic *šiʔa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hi.ja/

• Audio:

  (file)

Pronoun

هِيَ • (hiya) f, enclitic form ـهَا (-hā)

1. she (subject pronoun).

   هِيَ طَبِيبَةٌ ― hiya ṭabībatun ― She is a doctor

2. it (subject pronoun, referring to animals and inanimate nouns of feminine gender)

   سَاحِلُ العَاجِ هِيَ دَوْلَةٌ تَقَعُ غَرْبَ أَفْرِيقْيَا

   sāḥilu l-ʕāji hiya dawlatun taqaʕu ḡarba ʔafrīqyā

   Cote d'Ivoire is a country that is located in West Africa

   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 69:16:

     وَانْشَقَّتِ السَّمَاءُ فَهِيَ يَوْمَئِذٍ وَاهِيَةٌ

     wa-nšaqqati s-samāʔu fa-hiya yawmaʔiḏin wāhiyatun

     The sky will then be so torn that it will be frail

   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 79:41:

     فَإِنَّ الْجَنَّةَ هِيَ الْمَأْوَى

     fa-ʔinna l-jannata hiya al-maʔwā

     Paradise will certainly be [their] home.

3. they (subject pronoun, non-human).
   • 2019 May 4, “ما هي القضايا التي ناقشها ترامب وبوتين في مكالمتهما؟”, in BBC Arabic‎:

Descendants

• Chadian Arabic: هي (hī)
• Egyptian Arabic: هي (híyya)
• Gulf Arabic: اِهْيَ (ehya)
• Hijazi Arabic: هِيَّ (hiyya)
• Maltese: hija, hi
• Moroccan Arabic: هي (hiyya)
• Tunisian Arabic: هي (hiyya)

See also

Arabic personal pronouns

Isolated nominative1 pronouns
		singular	dual	plural
1st person		أَنَا (ʔanā)	نَحْنُ (naḥnu)
2nd person	m	أَنْتَ (ʔanta)	أَنْتُمَا (ʔantumā)	أَنْتُمْ (ʔantum)
	f	أَنْتِ (ʔanti)		أَنْتُنَّ (ʔantunna)
3rd person	m	هُوَ (huwa)	هُمَا (humā)	هُمْ (hum), هُمُ (humu)2
	f	هِيَ (hiya)		هُنَّ (hunna)
Isolated accusative pronouns
		singular	dual	plural
1st person		إِيَّايَ (ʔiyyāya)	إِيَّانَا (ʔiyyānā)
2nd person	m	إِيَّاكَ (ʔiyyāka)	إِيَّاكُمَا (ʔiyyākumā)	إِيَّاكُم (ʔiyyākum)
	f	إِيَّاكِ (ʔiyyāki)		إِيَّاكُنَّ (ʔiyyākunna)
3rd person	m	إِيَّاهُ (ʔiyyāhu)	إِيَّاهُمَا (ʔiyyāhumā)	إِيَّاهُمْ (ʔiyyāhum)
	f	إِيَّاهَا (ʔiyyāhā)		إِيَّاهُنَّ (ʔiyyāhunna)
Enclitic accusative and genitive pronouns
		singular	dual	plural
1st person		ـنِي (-nī), ـنِيَ (-niya), ـي (-y), ـيَ (-ya)3	ـنَا (-nā)
2nd person	m	ـكَ (-ka)	ـكُمَا (-kumā)	ـكُم (-kum)
	f	ـكِ (-ki)		ـكُنَّ (-kunna)
3rd person	m	ـهُ (-hu), ـهِ (-hi)4	ـهُمَا (-humā), ـهِمَا (-himā)3	ـهُم (-hum), ـهِم (-him)4
	f	ـهَا (-hā)		ـهُنَّ (-hunna), ـهِنَّ (-hinna)3

1. Also used to emphasize attached pronouns and as a copula.
2. هُمْ (hum) becomes هُمُ (humu) before the definite article الـ (al--).
3. Specifically, ـنِي (-nī, “me”) is attached to verbs, but ـِي (-ī) or ـيَ (-ya, “my”) is attached to nouns. In the latter case, ـيَ (-ya) is attached to nouns whose construct state ends in a long vowel or diphthong (e.g. in the sound masculine plural and the dual), while ـِي (-ī) is attached to nouns whose construct state ends in a short vowel, in which case that vowel is elided (e.g. in the sound feminine plural, as well as the singular and broken plural of most nouns). Furthermore, -ū of the masculine sound plural is assimilated to -ī before ـيَ (-ya) (presumably, -aw of masculine defective -an plurals is similarly assimilated to -ay). Prepositions use ـِي (-ī) or ـيَ (-ya), even though in this case it has the meaning of “me” rather than “my”. The sisters of inna can use either form (e.g. إِنَّنِي (ʔinnanī) or إِنِّي (ʔinnī)).
4. ـهِـ (-hi-) occurs after -i, -ī, or -ay, and ـهُـ (-hu-) elsewhere (after -a, -ā, -u, -ū, -aw).

References

• Wehr, Hans (1979), “هي”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN

Chadian Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic هِيَ (hiya).

Pronoun

هي • (hī) f

1. she (subject pronoun)

Egyptian Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic هِيَ (hiya).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhijjæ/

Pronoun

هي • (híyya) f

1. she (subject pronoun)

See also

Egyptian Arabic personal pronouns
		singular	plural
1st person		أنا (ʔana)	إحنا (ʔiḥna)
2nd person	m	إنت (ʔinta)	إنتوا (ʔintu)
	f	إنتي (ʔinti)
3rd person	m	هو (huwwa)	هم (humma, hum)
	f	هي (hiyya)

Hijazi Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic هِيَ (hiya).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hij.ja/

Pronoun

هي • (hiyya) f, enclitic form ـهَا (-ha).

1. she (subject pronoun)
2. it (subject pronoun, referring to animals and inanimate nouns of feminine gender)

See also

Hijazi Arabic personal pronouns
		Singular	Plural
1st person		أَنَا (ʔana)	إِحْنَا (ʔiḥna) / نِحْنَ (niḥna)
2nd person	m	إِنْتَ (ʔinta)	إِنْتُو (ʔintu)
	f	إِنْتِ (ʔinti) / إِنْتِي (ʔinti)
3rd person	m	هُوَّ (huwwa)	هُمَّ (humma)
	f	هِيَّ (hiyya)

Moroccan Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic هِيَ (hiya).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hij.ja/

Pronoun

هي • (hiyya) f

1. she (subject pronoun)

See also

Moroccan Arabic personal pronouns
		Singular	Plural
1st person		آنا (ʔāna), أنا (ʔana)	حنا (ḥnā)
2nd person	m	انت (ntā), انتينا (ntīna), انتين (ntīn)	انتوما (ntūma), انتوم (ntūm)
	f	انت (ntī), انتينا (ntīna), انتين (ntīn)
3rd person	m	هو (huwwa)	هوما (hūma), هوم (hūm)
	f	هي (hiyya)

North Levantine Arabic

Etymology 1

From Arabic هِيَ (hiya).

Pronoun

هي • (hiyye) f

1. she (subject pronoun)

   Enclitic form: ـها (-(h/w/y)a)

See also

North Levantine Arabic personal pronouns
		Singular	Plural
1st person		أنا (ʔana)	نحنا (niḥna)
2nd person	m	انت (ʔinta, ʔinte)	انتو (ʔintu)
	f	انتي (ʔinti)
3rd person	m	هو (huwwe)	هن (hinne) / هنن (hinnen)
	f	هي (hiyye)

Etymology 2

From the form هَيِّي (hayye, hayyi) attested in Damascene (compare the development of شويّ (šwayy) and ميّ (ṃayy)), which may be an irregular lenition of an earlier form *هَيْذِي (hayḏe, hayḏi). In the Lebanese form هيدي (hayde, haydi), the ذ (ḏ) of *هيذي regularly evolved into د (d) instead of leniting.

Pronoun

هي • (hayy) f

1. (Syria) feminine of هاد (hād): this

   Synonym: (Lebanon) هيدي (haydi)

Determiner

هي • (hayy) f

1. (Syria) feminine of هاد (hād): this

   Synonyms: (Lebanon) هيدي (haydi), (before the definite article) هـ (ha-)

Sindhi

Etymology

This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Compare Punjabi ਇਹ (iha).”

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [hi]

Pronoun

هِي • (hī) (Devanagari ही)

1. he; masculine third-person singular proximal personal pronoun
2. this

References

• Khānu, Balocu (1960–1988), “هِي”, in Jāmiʻ Sindhī lughāta (in Sindhi), Hyderabad, Sindh: Sindhī Adabī Borḍ

South Levantine Arabic

Etymology 1

From Arabic هِيَ (hiya).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hij.je/, [ˈhij.je]

• Audio (Jerusalem):

  (file)

Pronoun

هي • (hiyye) f (enclitic form ـها (-ha))

1. she (third-person feminine singular subject pronoun)

See also

South Levantine Arabic personal pronouns
		Singular	Plural
1st person		أنا (ʔana)	احنا (ʔiḥna)
2nd person	m	انت (ʔinta)	انتو (ʔintu)
	f	انتي (ʔinti)
3rd person	m	هو (huwwe)	هم (homme)
	f	هي (hiyye)

Etymology 2

Determiner

هيّ • (hayy)

1. this here

   هيّ الكتاب اللي سألتني عنّه.

   hayy li-ktāb illi saʔalt-ni ʕanno

   This here is the book you asked me about.

2. (by extension) used to stress the current nature of an action

   هيّني جاي من البنك. ― hayy-ni jāy min il-bank ― I'm coming right now from the bank.

   هيّ فيه واحد طالع من ورا الشجرة.

   hayy fīh wāḥad ṭāleʕ min wara š-šajara

   There's someone coming out right now from behind the tree.

Inflection

Inflection of هي

base form			هيّ (hayy)
Personal-pronoun including forms
	singular		plural
	m	f
1st person	هيّني (hayyni)		هيّنا (hayyna)
2nd person	هيّك (hayyak)	هيّك (hayyek)	هيّكم (hayykom)
3rd person	هيّه (hayyo)	هيّها (hayyha)	هيّهم (hayyhom)

Tunisian Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic هِيَ (hiya).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hij.ja/

Pronoun

هي (hiyya) f

1. she (subject pronoun)