عَدَدُ الأَسْمَاء
THE NUMBER OF NOUNS
Unlike English, Arabic has three numbers: singular is termed wahid واحد or Mufrad مفرد, the dual or two of
anything is termed Muthanna مثنى , and more than two is plural called Jam' جمع.
1. Wahid (واحد) or Mufrad (مفرد) :
Examples of Wahid (واحد) or Mufrad (مفرد) are: الكتاب، الطالب، ولد ، سيارة etc.
2. Muthanna مثنى :
The dual form ends in aani (ان), e.g. الكتابان، الطالبان، ولدان، سيارتان, etc.
3. The Plurals of Nouns and Adjectives:
In English, adjectives have no plural form. We say “good man” and “good men”. But in Arabic even adjectives have dual and plural form. In English we have two kinds of plural form:
- Sound Plural: In sound plural the word retains its original form, e.g. book >> books, pen >> pens.
- Broken Plural: The original form of the word is changed to a great extent, e.g. Man >> men, woman >> women.
In Arabic too, we have these two kinds of plural forms; Sound and Broken.
a. The Sound Plural in Arabic الجمع السالم :
- The masculine plural of nouns are formed by adding (ون) to the singular form e.g. سارق ‘thief’ >> سارقون، صادق ‘truthful’ >> صادقون , etc.
- The feminine plural of nouns which end in ة , are formed by changing ‘و’ (ta) into ‘ات’ (aat) as, سارقة ‘♀ thief’ >> سارقات (plural), درجة ‘step/status’ درجات.
The ♀ plural of nouns which do not end in ة are also formed by adding ‘ات ’ to the singular as in سماء ‘sky’ سموات.
b. The Broken Plural جمع التكسير :
Unlike English, the broken plural is very widely used in Arabic. It is formed from the singular by the addition or elision of consonants, e.g. from رسول >> (plural) رُسُلٌ, from رَجُلٌ >> (plural) رِجَالٌ, or by the change of vowels, e.g. اَسَدٌ >> (plural) أُسُدٌ. There are many patterns of the broken plural. The following are commonly used patterns:
1 فُعٌولٌ as from نَجْمٌ ‘star’ >> نُجُوْمٌ
2 فُعُلٌ as from كِتَابٌ ‘book’ >> كُتُبٌ
3فِعَالٌ as from رَجُلٌ ‘man’ >> رِجَالٌ
4 اَفْعَال as from قَلَمٌ ‘pen’ >> أَقْلاَمٌ
5 أَفْعُلٌ as from عَيْنٌ eye’ >> أَعْيُنٌ
6 فُعَلاَءُ as from فَقِيْرٌ ‘poor’ فُقَرَاء
7 أَفْعِلاَء as from غَنِيٌّ ‘rich’ أَغْنِيَاء
8 فَعَالِيْلُ as from شَيْطَانُ ‘Satan’ شَيَاطِيْنُ
9 فَعَالِيْلُ as from مَنْزِلٌ ‘building’ مَنَازِلُ
10 فُعْلاَن as from بَلَدٌ ‘country’ بُلْدَان
11 فِعْلَة as from أَخٌ ‘brother’ إِخْوَة
12 فُعَّالُ as from تَاجِرٌ ‘trader’ تُجَّار
13 فُعُول as from قَصْرٌ Castil قُصُوْرٌ
14 فَوَاعِلُ as from فَائِدَة avail فَوَائد
15 etc
Note:
It is quite common for a noun in Arabic to have more than one broken plurals, e.g. the plural of أَخٌ ‘brother’ are أِخْوَان, إِخُوَة ، أَخَاء، or in some cases to have both the sound plural and broken plural e.g. in the case of نَبِيٌّ (prophet), its sound plural is نَبِيُّوْن and broken plural is أَنْبِيَاء.
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