Introduction
There are two types of plurals in Arabic:
Sound plural | اَلْجَمْعُ السَّالِمُ |
Broken plural | اَلْجَمْعُ الْمُكَسَّرُ |
The sound Plural – اَلْجَمْعُ السَّالِمُ
Masculine sound plural
In the formation of sound plural, the original form of the noun does not change. It has different masculine and feminine forms and is formed by suffixing dammah, waw with sukoon, and noon with fatha in the nominative:
وْنَ -ُ
and Kasra, yaa with sukoon and non with fatha:
يْنَ -ِ
in the accusative and genitive cases to the end of the masculine nouns.
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Examples:
Nominative case:
Singular – مُفْرَد | Dual – مُثَنَّى |
Plural – جَمْع |
مُسْلِمٌ | مُسْلِمَانِ | مُسلِمُوْنَ |
A Muslim | Two Muslims | Muslims |
Accusative case:
Singular – مُفْرَد | Dual – مُثَنَّى |
Plural – جَمْع |
مُسْلِمًا | مُسْلِمِيْنَ | مُسْلِمِيْنَ |
A Muslim | Two Muslims | Muslims |
Genitive case:
Singular – مُفْرَد | Dual – مُثَنَّى |
Plural – جَمْع |
مُسْلِمِيْنَ | مُسْلِمِيْنَ | مُسْلِمٍ |
Muslims | Two Muslims | A Muslim |
Feminine sound plural
For feminine plurals fatha, alif, and taa with tanween dammah:
اتٌ -َ
is suffixed for nominative, and fatha, alif, and taa with tanwin kasrah:
اتٍ-ِ
for accusative and genitive cases.
Examples:
Nominative case:
Singular – مُفْرَد | Dual – مُثَنَّى |
Plural – جَمْع |
مُسْلِمَةٌ | مُسْلِمَتانِ | مُسْلِماتٌ |
Muslim woman | Two Muslim women | Muslim women |
Accusative case:
Singular – مُفْرَد | Dual – مُثَنَّى |
Plural – جَمْع |
مُسْلِمَةً | مُسْلِمَتَيْنِ | مُسْلِماتٍ |
Muslim woman | Two Muslim women | Muslim women |
Genitive case:
Singular – مُفْرَد | Dual – مُثَنَّى |
Plural – جَمْع |
مُسْلِمَةٍ | مُسْلِمَتَيْنِ | مُسْلِماتٍ |
Muslim woman | Two Muslim women | Muslim women |
Note: In the singular form, we observe that the nominative, accusative, and genitive cases are evident by the harakat (short vowel marks) on the last letter of:
مُسْلِمٌ
tanwin dammah
-ٌ
, tanwin fatha
-ً
and tanween kasrah
-ٍ
In the dual and plural forms, the grammatical cases (i’rab – الإِعْرَابُ) are not evident with harakat but represent the nominative, accusative, and genitive cases with the use of letters as :
وْنَ -ِ يْنَ -َانِ -ُ -ِ وْنَ -َ وْنَ
Example from the Noble Quran:
إِنَّ الْمُسْلِمِينَ وَالْمُسْلِمَاتِ وَالْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ وَالْقَانِتِينَ وَالْقَانِتَاتِ وَالصَّادِقِينَ وَالصَّادِقَاتِ وَالصَّابِرِينَ وَالصَّابِرَاتِ وَالْخَاشِعِينَ وَالْخَاشِعَاتِ وَالْمُتَصَدِّقِينَ وَالْمُتَصَدِّقَاتِ وَالصَّائِمِينَ وَالصَّائِمَاتِ وَالْحَافِظِينَ فُرُوجَهُمْ وَالْحَافِظَاتِ وَالذَّاكِرِينَ اللَّـهَ كَثِيرًا وَالذَّاكِرَاتِ أَعَدَّ اللَّـهُ لَهُم مَّغْفِرَةً وَأَجْرًا عَظِيمًا |
Indeed, the Muslim men and Muslim women, the believing men and believing women, the obedient men and obedient women, the truthful men and truthful women, the patient men and patient women, the humble men and humble women, the charitable men and charitable women, the fasting men and fasting women, the men who guard their private parts and the women who do so, and the men who remember Allah often and the women who do so – for them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward. (33:35) |
The broken plural – اَلْجَمْعُ الْمُكَسَّرُ
Unlike sound plurals, where the original form of the word is retained, the broken plural is formed by making internal changes to the noun’s structure by means of deletions, prefixes, and suffixes.
Examples of broken plurals for the word book – كِتَابٌ is as follows:
Nominative case:
Singular – مُفْرَد | Dual – مُثَنَّى |
Plural – جَمْع |
كِتَابٌ | كِتَابَانِ | كُتُبٌ |
Book | Two books | Books |
Accusative case:
Singular – مُفْرَد | Dual – مُثَنَّى |
Plural – جَمْع |
كِتَابًا | كِتابَيْنِ | كُتُبًا |
Book | Two books | Books |
Genitive case:
Singular – مُفْرَد | Dual – مُثَنَّى |
Plural – جَمْع |
كِتَابٍ | كِتابَيْنِ | كُتُبٍ |
Book | Two books | Books |
Here we see that the dual formation is the same as that of the sound plural in the nominative, accusative, and genitive cases.
Listed below are some examples of broken plurals:
Singular مُفْرَد |
Plural جَمْع |
وَلَدٌ | أَوْلادٌ |
Boy | Boys |
رَبٌّ | أَرْبَابٌ |
Lord | Lords |
مَالٌ | أَمْوَالٌ |
Property | Properties |
نَهْرٌ | أَنْهَارٌ |
River | Rivers |
زَوجٌ | أَزْواجٌ |
Wife | Wives |
رِجْلٌ | أَرْجُلٌ |
Foot | Feet |
عَيْنٌ | عُيُوْنٌ |
Eye | Eyes |
سَيْفٌ | سُيُوْفٌ |
Sword | Swords |
رَجُلٌ | رِجَالٌ |
Man | Men |
اِمْرَءَةٌ | نِسَاءٌ |
Woman | Women |
أَمْرٌ | أُمُورٌ |
Command/affair | Commands/affairs |
نَبِيٌّ | أَنْبِيَاءٌ |
Prophet | Prophets |
رُوْحٌ | أَرْوَاحٌ |
Soul | Souls |
شَهْرٌ | شُهُورٌ |
Month | Months |
مَدِيْنَةٌ | مُدُنٌ |
City | Cities |
سَفِينَةٌ | سُفُنٌ |
Ship | Ships |
قَلْبٌ | قُلُوْبٌ |
Heart | Hearts |
جَبَلٌ | جِبَالٌ |
Mountain | Mountains |
بَيْتٌ | بُيُوْتٌ |
House | Houses |
قَلَمٌ | أَقْلَامٌ |
Pen | Pens |
Examples from the Noble Quran:
وَتِلْكَ الْأَيَّامُ نُدَاوِلُهَا بَيْنَ النَّاسِ |
And these days [of varying conditions] We alternate among the people (3:140) |
وَجَنَّاتٌ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ |
And gardens beneath which rivers flow [in Paradise] (3:136) |
أَأَرْبَابٌ مُّتَفَرِّقُونَ خَيْرٌ أَمِ اللَّـهُ الْوَاحِدُ الْقَهَّارُ |
are separate lords better or Allah, the One, the Prevailing? (12:39) |
وَالْجِبَالَ أَوْتَادًا |
And the mountains as stakes? (78:7) |
لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ لَّا يَفْقَهُونَ بِهَا |
They have hearts with which they do not understand (7:179) |
فَانكِحُوا مَا طَابَ لَكُم مِّنَ النِّسَاءِ |
then marry those that please you of [other] women (4:3) |
This Arabic lesson is now finished. The next one will be insha’Allah about the pronouns in Arabic.
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