The relative pronouns (2/2)
العاقلُ مَن اتَّعظ بغيره : The wise person is he who takes heed from others' deeds
- "مَنْ" here is a relative pronoun that means "who"
- " مَنْ" is used mostly with people.
Ex. يعجبني من يتقن عمله / I admire he who does his work well.
- "ما" is used mostly with animals and objects and means which/that .
Ex. راجع ما درست / Review that which what you have learned.
مَنْ and مَا are invariable and do not change according to the number or the gender..
Examples :
- فاز من اجتهد / Succeeds whoever works hard. (he).
- فازت من اجتهدت / Succeeds whoever works hard. (she)
- فاز من اجتهدا / Succeed the two who work hard (masculine/dual)
- فاز من اجتهدتا / Succeed the two who work hard (feminine/dual)
- فاز من اجتهدوا / Succeed those who work hard. (masculine/plural)
- فازت من اجتهدن / Succeed the two who work hard. (feminine/plural)
- يعجبني ما عندك من علم / I am impressed by the knowledge you have. (masc.)
- يعجبني ما عندك من علوم / I am impressed by the amount of knowledge you have (fem.)
- يعجبني ما عندك من خبرة / I am impressed by the experience you have. (masc)
- يعجبني ما عندك من خبرات / I am impressed by the experiences you have (fem.).