اینا

What it means

اینا (inâ) means these or these people. It is the colloquial contracted form of اینها (inha), the standard plural of این (in, this). In everyday spoken Persian the cluster ـنها (-nhâ) consistently reduces to ـنا (-nâ) across the near and far demonstratives: اینها becomes اینا, آنها becomes اونا, همینها becomes همینا. The result is shorter, easier to say at natural speech speed, and universal in informal registers from Tehran to Shiraz. When pointing at objects, اینا means these things; when referring to people, it means these people or they, making it a versatile pronoun. In formal writing and news broadcasts, اینها is the standard form.

How to use it

• اینا کین؟ (inâ kin?) “Who are these people?”
• اینا رو بذار اونجا (inâ ro bezâr unjâ) “Put these over there.”
• اینا همه خرابن (inâ hame kharâban) “All of these are broken.”
• اینا دوستای منن (inâ dustâye mannan) “These are my friends.”

Cultural note

The contraction of اینها to اینا is one of the clearest markers of spoken versus written Persian. A foreign learner who studies only textbooks will encounter اینها and be briefly confused when every Iranian around them says اینا. Learning these contractions early is not optional; it is essential for understanding real speech. The same pattern applies to آنها becoming اونا, which goes a step further because standard آنها already alternates with آنان and آنها in written Persian, creating three forms for the same pronoun depending on register.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab