Introduction
There are two types of plurals in Arabic:
- اَلْجَمْعُ السَّالِمُ — the regular plural
- اَلْجَمْعُ الْمُكَسَّرُ — the broken plural
The Regular Plural اَلْجَمْعُ السَّالِمُ
The Regular Masculine Plural
In forming the regular plural, the original form of the noun does not change. The regular plural has different endings for masculine and feminine nouns. For the masculine, in the nominative case, it is formed by adding:
وْنَ
and in the accusative and genitive cases:
يْنَ
Examples
Nominative Case
| مُسْلِمٌ — one Muslim |
| مُسْلِمَانِ — two Muslims |
| مُسْلِمُوْنَ — Muslims |
Accusative Case
| مُسْلِمًا — one Muslim |
| مُسْلِمِيْنَ — two or more Muslims |
Genitive Case
| مُسْلِمٍ — one Muslim |
The Regular Feminine Plural
For the regular feminine plural, we add:
اتٌ
in the nominative case, and:
اتٍ
in the accusative and genitive cases.
Examples
| مُسْلِمَةٌ — one Muslim woman |
| مُسْلِمَتانِ — two Muslim women |
| مُسْلِماتٌ — Muslim women |
Note
In the singular, the nominative, accusative, and genitive cases are indicated by the final vowel (haraka):
-ٌ, -ً, -ٍ
In dual and plural forms, the grammatical cases are marked by the ending letters such as:
وْنَ, يْنَ, انِ
Quranic Example
إِنَّ الْمُسْلِمِينَ وَالْمُسْلِمَاتِ.
The Muslim men and the Muslim women, the believing men and the believing women… Allah has prepared for them a great reward. (33:35)
The Broken Plural اَلْجَمْعُ الْمُكَسَّرُ
Unlike regular plurals, the broken plural changes the internal structure of the word by adding or removing letters.
Example with the word كِتَابٌ (book)
| كِتَابٌ — one book |
| كِتَابَانِ — two books |
| كُتُبٌ — books |
Other Examples
| Singular | Plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| وَلَدٌ | أَوْلَادٌ | Boy(s) |
| مَدِينَةٌ | مُدُنٌ | City(ies) |
| رَجُلٌ | رِجَالٌ | Man/Men |
| اِمْرَأَةٌ | نِسَاءٌ | Woman/Women |
| قَلَمٌ | أَقْلَامٌ | Pen(s) |
| بَيْتٌ | بُيُوتٌ | House(s) |
Quranic Examples
وَجَنَّاتٌ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ
And gardens beneath which rivers flow. (3:136)
أَأَرْبَابٌ مُّتَفَرِّقُونَ خَيْرٌ أَمِ اللَّـهُ الْوَاحِدُ الْقَهَّارُ
Are many lords better, or Allah, the One, the Dominant? (12:39)
وَالْجِبَالَ أَوْتَادًا
And the mountains as pegs? (78:7)
Conclusion
This free Arabic lesson is now complete. The next one will be about Arabic pronouns.
The Al-Dirassa Center offers you the opportunity to study the Arabic language with a qualified teacher. If you are interested, feel free to contact us.
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