Grammar term · Nahw · syntax
يَاء الْمُخَاطَبَة
ya' al-mukhataba
2nd-fem-sing ya
Nahw · syntaxAttached-pronoun letteradvanced term33+ in the Qur'an
In one line
The 'you (woman)' ya: the ي of تَكْتُبِينَ / ٱكْتُبِي — a rafa' pronoun that lives only on mudari' and amr.
Definition (modern)
يَاءُ الْمُخَاطَبَةِ مِنَ الضَّمَائِرِ الْخَمْسَةِ الَّتِي تَخْتَصُّ بِمَحَلِّ الرَّفْعِ، وَتَتَّصِلُ بِالْمُضَارِعِ وَالْأَمْرِ فَقَطْ.
“The ya of the addressed woman is among the five pronouns confined to the place of rafa'; it attaches to the present and command verb only.”
(النحو التطبيقي)
Key words in the Arabic
يَاءُ الْمُخَاطَبَةِthe ya of the woman addressed
فَقَطْonly
Understand it
Speak TO a woman and this ya appears on her verb: تَذْهَبِينَ (you go), ٱذْهَبِي (go!). It never touches the madi — ذَهَبْتِ uses the ta instead — and on the mudari' it completes the five-verbs set, keeping the nun in rafa' (تَفْعَلِينَ) and dropping it in nasb and jazm (لَنْ تَفْعَلِي). Keep it apart from ya al-mutakallim ('me/my'), which does nasb and jarr work.
How to spot it
Recognition test
Mudari' or amr + ي addressing a female = ya al-mukhataba in mahall rafa'. On a madi, a ya after kasra is never this pronoun.
In the Qur'an
يَٰنَارُ كُونِى بَرْدًا وَسَلَٰمًا عَلَىٰٓ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ
Al-Anbiya 21:69 — “O fire, be cool and safe for Abraham”
كُونِى — the ya addresses the fire as feminine: the pronoun is the ism of كان, in mahall rafa'.
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