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أَنا

I /ˈʔa.naː/

otherA1#9 most common

Also: me (in 'it's me'), myself (emphatic)

Example sentences

أَنا طالِبٌ.
I am a student.
أَنا مِن مِصرَ وَأَنتَ مِن لُبنانَ.
I am from Egypt and you are from Lebanon.
أَنا أُفَضِّلُ القَهوةَ عَلى الشّاي.
I prefer coffee over tea.
أَنا الَّذي أَخبَرتُهُ بِالحَقيقةِ كامِلةً.
I am the one who told him the whole truth.
لَم أَكُن أَنا مَن فَعَلَ ذٰلِكَ، بَلْ كانوا هُم.
It wasn't I who did that; rather, it was them.
أَنا، وَإِنْ بَدَوْتُ هادِئًا، أُخفي في داخِلي قَلَقًا عَميقًا.
I, though I may appear calm, conceal a deep anxiety within me.

Word family

نَحنُwe
أَنتَyou (masc. sg.)
أَنتِyou (fem. sg.)
ـيmy / me (1sg possessive/object suffix)
إِيّايَme (1sg independent object pronoun)

Etymology

أَنا descends from Proto-Semitic *ʔanā, the independent first-person singular pronoun. It is among the most stable words in the Semitic family, surviving for millennia with little change. The related Akkadian form anāku preserves an older suffix (-ku) that Arabic dropped.

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More Arabic words

هٰذاthisكانto be (was/were)لاnoفِيinعَلَىonذٰلِكَthatماwhatقَدْ(with past verb) already, indeed; (with present verb) may, might, sometimes