THE NUMBER OF NOUNS

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.

THE GENDER OF NOUNS

الجِنْس

THE GENDER OF NOUNS 

This lesson explains the different categories of gender used for Arabic nouns. According to the Arabic grammar the gender is classified into the following four categories:

1. الجِنْسُ الحَقِيْقِيُّ (Real Gender) :

The words related to the male sex are مُذَكَّرٌ (♂) masculine, and those related to the female sex are مُؤَنَّثٌ (female ♀), e.g. رَجُلٌ ‘man’ is a real masculine and اِمْرَأَةٌ ‘woman’ is a real feminine, دَيْكٌ ‘cock’, دَجَاجَةٌ ‘hen’, اِبْنٌ ‘boy’, بِنْتٌ ‘girl’, أَبٌ ‘father’, أُمٌّ ‘mother’, أَخٌ ‘brother’, أُخْتٌ ‘sister’, etc.

2. الجِنْسُ المَجَازِيُّ (Formal Gender):

The nouns which do not have the ‘concept of pair’ are termed as feminine or masculine by form الجنس المجازي. The identification of gender for such noun is that the words ending with ‘round-ta’ ( تاء مربوطة = ة ) are generally feminine, and those ending with some other letter are assumed as masculine gender, e.g. سَاعَةٌ‘watch’, مِرْوَحَة ‘fan’, شَجَرَةٌ ‘tree’, سَيَّارَة ‘car’, نَافِذَة ‘window’ are feminine gender by form, and جِدَارٌ ‘wall’, كِتَابٌ ‘book’, قَلَمٌ ‘pen’, مَسْجِدٌ ‘mosque’, نَهْرٌ ‘canal’, بَابٌ ‘door’, etc. are considered masculine gender by form.

It may also be understood that feminine gender is often formed from the masculine by suffixing ‘ة’, e.g. مسلم ‘Muslim’ (♂), مسلمة ‘Muslimah’ (♀), كَافِر ‘disbeliever’ (♂), كَافِرَة ‘disbeliever’ (♀), صَادِقٌ ‘truthful’ (♂), صَادِقَة ‘truthful’ (♀), صَالِحٌ ‘pious’ (♂), صَالِحَة ‘pious’ (♀), جَدِيْدٌ ‘new’ (♂), جَدِيْدَة ‘new’ (♀), كَثِيْرٌ ‘many’ (♂), كَثِيْرَة ‘many’ (♀), etc.

3. الجِنْسُ اللَفْظِيّ (Exceptional Cases):

The nouns which do not fall under the above-mentioned two categories are termed as exceptional cases. The following nouns are feminine by usage even though they have no ‘x’ (ta) ending nor have they ‘pair-concept’.

- سَمَاءٌ ‘sky’, حَرْبٌ ‘war, شَمْس ‘sun’, نَارٌ ‘fire’, رَيْحٌ ‘wind’, خَمْرٌ ‘wine’, نَفْسٌ ‘soul, person, self’.

- Proper names of countries and towns are feminine by signification, e.g. مِصْرُ ‘Egypt’, بَاكِسْتَان ‘Pakistan’, أَمْرِيْكَا ‘America’, etc.

- Many parts of the body, especially those that are in pair, are termed as feminine, e.g. يَدٌ ‘hand’, عَيْنٌ ‘eye’, قَدَمٌ ‘foot’, رِجْلٌ ‘leg’, سَاقٌ ‘shin’, أُذُنٌ_ ‘ear’, خَدٌّ ‘cheek’.

- The nouns ending in ‘ى ’_ called ألِفٌ مَقْصُوْرَة (short alif) or اء called ألِفٌ مَمْدُوْدَة (lengthened alif) are also feminine, e.g. حُسْنَى ‘good, beautiful’, كُبْرى ‘great’, صُغْرَى ‘small’, بُشْرَى ‘good news’, صَحْرَاءُ ‘desert’, ضَرَّاءُ ‘harm’, زَهْرَاءُ ‘blooming’, زَرْقَاءُ ‘blue’, etc.

- All Arabic letters of alphabet are considered as feminine.

- Some broken plurals, e.g. اليَهُوْدُ ‘the Jews’, الرُسُلُ ‘the messengers’, النَصَارَى ‘the Christians’ are treated as feminine.

- Some collective nouns, e.g. قَوْمٌ ‘people’, رَهْطٌ ‘tribe’ are used as feminine. However, اَهْلٌ ‘family’, آلٌ progeny’ are masculine.

- Exceptional Masculine: Some nouns have ta ‘ة’ ending but they are used as masculine, e.g. خَلِيْفَة ‘caliph’, عَلَّامَة ‘learned’, حُذَيْفَة ‘a male name’. Some parts of body (single), e.g. رَأْسٌ ‘head’, بَطْنٌ ‘belly’, صَدْرٌ ‘chest’, etc. are also considered exceptional masculine.

 4. اِسْمُ الجِنْس (Common Gender) :

Some nouns are used as masculine as well as feminine. These are termed as اسم الجنس, e.g. سَحَابٌ ‘clouds’, بَقَرٌ ‘cattle’, جَرَادٌ ‘locust’, ذَهَبٌ ‘gold’, نَحْلٌ ‘bees’, شَجَرٌ ‘trees’. These are masculine by form, feminine by signification.

An Explanation Regarding Exceptional Cases :

Here, I would like to clarify an important point regarding the exceptional cases in the grammatical rules. The learner should be mindful of the fact that the languages have not come into being through an academic process based on some predetermined sets of grammatical rules and forms but, on the contrary, the languages are spoken by the natives of the region long before the grammarians form the grammatical rules applicable to them. And the object of framing grammatical rules is essentially to facilitate the learning and better understanding of the languages by the non-natives or the foreigners. But, where they fail to apply uniform sets of grammatical rules, they categorize that as exceptional case. Hence, the exception-rule is a common feature to all the languages. Having said that, I must hasten to emphasis that the grammarians of Arabic language have contributed tremendously in facilitating the learning process of the language. In fact, they have developed an easy and effective method of learning the classic Arabic of the Holy Quran. Hence, their efforts cannot be undermined in any way.