Introduction
In English, there is only singular and plural. However, there are three numbers in Arabic, Singular, plural, and dual.
Singular | المُفْرَدُ |
Dual | الْمُثَتَّى |
Plural | الْجَمْعُ |
Its formation
It is formed by adding the suffix fatha, alif, and noon with kasrah:
انِ -َ
in the nominative case (حَالةُ الرَّفَعِ) and fatha, sukoon and noon with kasra:
يْنِ -ِ
in both the accusative and genitive cases for masculine nouns.
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Masculine dual
Examples
Nominative case:
Singular – مُفْرَد | Dual – مُثَنَّى |
مُسْلِمٌ | مُسْلِمانِ |
A Muslim | Two Muslims |
Accusative case:
Singular – مُفْرَد | Dual – مُثَنَّى |
مُسْلِمًا | مُسْلِمَيْنِ |
A Muslim | two Muslims |
Genitive case:
Singular – مُفْرَد | Dual – مُثَنَّى |
مُسْلِمٍ | مُسْلِمَيْنِ |
A Muslim | two Muslims |
Example from the Quran:
وَأَمَّا الْجِدَارُ فَكَانَ لِغُلَامَيْنِ يَتِيمَيْنِ فِي الْمَدِينَةِ |
“And as for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the city” (18:82) |
Feminine dual
For feminine in Arabic, the nouns end in (Ta Marbouta):
ة
This changes in dual to an ordinary (Ta maftooha):
ت
The suffixes:
انِ -َ يْنِ -ِ
will be added as in masculine duals.
Examples:
Nominative case:
Singular – مُفْرَد | Dual – مُثَنَّى |
مُسْلِمَةٌ | مُسْلِمَتَانِ |
A Muslim | Two Muslims |
Accusative case:
Singular – مُفْرَد | Dual – مُثَنَّى |
مُسْلِمَةً | مُسْلِمَتَيْنِ |
A Muslim | two Muslims |
Genitive case:
Singular – مُفْرَد | Dual – مُثَنَّى |
مُسْلِمَةً | مُسْلِمَتَيْنِ |
A Muslim | two Muslims |
Examples from the Quran:
جَعَلْنَا لِأَحَدِهِمَا جَنَّتَيْنِ مِنْ أَعْنَابٍ |
We granted to one of them two gardens of grapevines (18:32) |
وَلِمَنْ خَافَ مَقَامَ رَبِّهِ جَنَّتَانِ |
But for he who has feared the position of his Lord are two gardens (55:46) |
This Arabic lesson is now finished. The next one will be insha’Allah about the plural in Arabic.
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