Arabic - object pronouns for verbs

[qhwh]

Hello, I have a couple of questions about Arabic grammar - hope that this is the right forum to ask them.

Do I correctly understand that if the verb's object is inanimate plural (for example, "I wrote them" - meaning "I wrote the books"), the pronominal suffix should be feminine singular (following the same agreement rules that adjectives and verbs follow) - i.e. كتبتها and not كتبتهم?

I am a bit confused since I have seen it both ways in Reverso, and the learning materials I have don't cover this topic in detail.

Also - what is the direct object for the verb كتب - is it only the thing that is being written (i.e., a message, a book, etc.), or can the addressee also be a direct object and be designated by an object suffix? I have seen examples in Reverso of كتبتك meaning "I wrote (to) you", but just wanted to confirm if this is standard language.

Thanks a lot!

[Maiwenn]

Do I correctly understand that if the verb's object is inanimate plural (for example, "I wrote them" - meaning "I wrote the books"), the pronominal suffix should be feminine singular (following the same agreement rules that adjectives and verbs follow) - i.e. كتبتها and not كتبتهم?

Yes! That's correct. Note, however, that the dual still exists for inanimates (as in, الكتابان the 2 books ;كتبتُهما I wrote them [the 2 books])

Also - what is the direct object for the verb كتب - is it only the thing that is being written (i.e., a message, a book, etc.), or can the addressee also be a direct object and be designated by an object suffix? I have seen examples in Reverso of كتبتك meaning "I wrote (to) you", but just wanted to confirm if this is standard language.

"كتبتك" is wrong. It should be كتبت لك though I suppose a poetic person could perhaps stretch it to mean I wrote you into existence? My partner (a native speaker and former Arabic translator) was very firm that it was wrong (even for the poetic interpretation). The direct object would only be a thing being written, not the entity being written to.

[Querneus]

I have seen examples in Reverso of كتبتك meaning "I wrote (to) you", but just wanted to confirm if this is standard language.

Maybe this was taken from a writer speaking to his book as a person. "Oh, my dear book! To think of all the headaches, of all the hours of writer's block you give me as I write you!"

Jokes aside, looking at the examples of كتبتهم katabtu-hum that Reverso gives as you say, it's very interesting to note that all the examples that are not so context-less seem to involve names, as if people's names were human enough to be referred to by هم hum while still being able to be the direct object of كتب:

أهل (بوبي تارجيت).(فرانك كلاى) لقد كتبتهم لك
Bobby Taggert's folks. Frank Clay. I wrote them down for you.

انهم من منطقتك هل أنت كتبتهم؟
They're from your area Did you write them out?

الأسماء الأولى والأرقام من كل الاشخاص كتبتهم بداخل كتابي
First names and numbers of all the people. I wrote them into my book.

The first example has parenthetical quotation marks, as if emphasizing that بوبي تارجيت Bobby Taggert and فرانك كلاى Frank Clay are new names for the listener. (Using parentheses for some of the things we use quote marks "..." for is normal in Arabic.)

The second one implies humans: انهم من منطقتك ʾinna-hum min minṭaqati-ka/ki = "they are truly/really/actually from your area", and then asks the listener whether he/she wrote them (the humans) down, surely their names or how many they were.

And the third example is of course very clear.

It looks like treating names and numbers of people as standing for the people themselves triggers human pronouns.

Similarly, some of the examples of كتبتك katabtu-ka/ki 'I wrote you' seem to involve writing a person too (أنت تماماً مثلما كتبتك ʾanta/ʾanti tamaaman miṯlamā katabtu-ka/ki 'You're just as I wrote you'), although I think a few of those might be genuine mistakes, e.g. إنتظري, كَتبتُك لكِ أغنية ʾintaẓarī katabtu-ki la-ki ʾaġnīya(tan) 'Wait. I wrote you a song', which has both ــك -ki and لك la-ki repeated in the sentence.

[qhwh]

Thanks a lot, that is very clear and detailed!

[Querneus]

Oh! I thought of including it but it looks like I forgot: as Maiwenn said, Arabic has a dual which is fairly important (and note it does have a presence in some or many dialects, even if only in nouns), so when you read about Standard Arabic grammar, the "plural" refers to three objects or more.