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In Arabic, there are two types of noun and adjective plural forms: sound (regular)
plurals, and broken (irregular) plurals. Masculine sound plural nouns end in
ون and feminine sound plural nouns end in ات.
Usually feminine inanimate nouns that end in ta marbuta take the feminine
sound plural.
There are some important exceptions to this rule though.
There are also some masculine nouns, usually borrowed words, that take the
feminine sound plural.
| televisions |
تلفزيونات |
television |
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| radios |
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radio |
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| telephones |
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telephone |
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The masculine sound plural is never used with inanimate nouns.
Adjectives
Adjectives that modify masculine nouns end in ون, and adjectives
that modify feminine nouns end in ات.
beautiful |
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| poor |
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tired |
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bad |
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sad |
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Irregular Plurals
Lots of irregular adjectives.
Irregular Plurals
Arabic has lots of irregular plurals- known as broken plurals. The plural form
is expressed by changing the stem of the singular form.
men |
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man |
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| women |
نِسوة |
woman |
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For people nouns that have both masculine and feminine forms, often the feminine
plural is regular and the masculine plural irregular.
Following are the plural subject pronouns.
They are teachers (f.). |
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| They are teachers (m.). |
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نحنُ is also used for dual 'we'. هؤلاء
is the both the masculine and the feminine form of these.
These are friends(feminine). |
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These are friends(masculine). |
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