LESSON THIRTEEN : Plurals

[.: Anna :.]

LESSON THIRTEEN : Plurals

• Plurals in Arabic refer to three or more of something.
• In English plurals are usually formed by adding an S to the end of a noun, although there are some irregulars like "mice".
• In Arabic, it is actually more common for plurals to be 'irregular' [known as broken plurals] so each plural may have to be learned just like vocab.
• However, to make it easier there are some patterns which are often followed.

The most important rule to remember about Plurals in Arabic is that :

Non human plurals (for example "cats", "chairs", "books" ) are treated grammatically as if they were feminine singular (ie "she")

This means that...

• when describing them you would use a feminine adjective
• when referring back to them you use the pronoun "haa"
• if using them as a subject of a sentence, use a feminine verb

EG:

مساجد جميلة
(Masaajid jameela) beautiful mosques
كَتَبَ الكتبَ... كَتَبَها
(kataba alkutub... katabahaa) he wrote the books... he wrote them
ذَهَبَت الكلاب
(dhahabat al kilaab) the dogs went

Here are the plurals for some of the vocab given in previous lessons :

بيوت

(buyoot) houses

أولاد

(awlaad) boys

أبواب
(abwaab) doors

قلوب

(quloob) hearts

مكاتب

(makaatib) offices

مساجد

(masaajid) mosques

كلاب

(kilaab) dogs

قطط

(qutut) cats

كتب

(kutub) books

كراسي

(kuraasee) chairs

قمصان

(qumsaan) shirts

رجال

(rijaal) men

Two of the main patterns for plurals are known as:
فُعُولٌ
أفْعالٌ
The fa 3ayn and lam represent the root letters of the word.

An example of each is :

بيوت

(buyoot) houses

أولاد

(awlaad) boys

[.: Anna :.]

Exercises

1.) make up 5 equational sentences where the subject is a non human plural

2.) translate the following :

هذه قططٌ كبيرةٌ
تلعب الكلاب في الدكّان
القمصان جميلة
أين الكراسي؟
الرجال في المسجد والاولاد في المدرسة

3.) Replacing the root letters with fa ayn lam as shown in the lesson : find the "plural pattern" for the following:
قمصان
كتب
رجال
4.) If the following nouns follow the pattern أفْعالٌ then create their plurals:

قلم
(qalam) pen
ورق
(waraq) leaf
فلم
(film) film
ولد
(walad) boy