Chapter 8 Duals and Plurals and Constructions In Arabic, words may be (singular), (dual) or (plural). 8.1 (The singular) We have encountered (a) (the singular noun) in its three cases: (i) As (subject) or (predicate) The house is big (ii) As (subject) The king sat (b) (i) As (predicate) of The house was not big (ii) As (object) He entered a vast place (c) (i) After a (preposition) In a new land (ii) As (possessor) The book of the student 87
8.2 (The dual) (the dual) is produced from (the singular. (in the dual), case is not indicated by vowles, but by the (letter) before the final letter. (the marfuu dual) is produced by suffixing - (aan i ) to (the singular) They (two) are teachers He is a teacher (the (alif) is the indicator of ) (the mansuub dual) is produced by suffixing - (ayn i ) to (the singular). (the majruur duals) is also produced by suffixing - (ayn i ) to (the singular). From two teachers From a teacher He understood two teachers He understood a teacher (and the (ya) is the indicator of and ) The compensates for the lack of on (the dual). When (definite), we simply add the definite article and the remains: (the dual) is made i Orthography and Pronunciation If an (singular noun) ends in / (taa marbuutah), it changes into an ordinary (taa maftuuhah) when the (singular) is made (dual). + (two) teachers A teacher 88
8.2.1 In the (dual) of feminine words ending in -, where the (hamza) is not a root letter, the changes into a. This is frequently found in female names. If the word is masculine or is a root letter, it remains. 8.2.2 Use of the (dual) An adjective describing a dual noun must be dual. two new books (a) We do not need to use the numeral two because the (dual) conveys its meaning. Hasan has two books (lit. Two books belong to Hasan) In two books He read two words We may place like a (adjective) after a (noun) to emphasise it. Hasan has two books In two books He read two words (b) For things that always come in twos, (the dual) must be used. Mary has two beautiful eyes From the feet to the eyes (c) A (adjective) describing two singular nouns is (dual). The small boy and girl 89
Rather than, The small boy and the small girl An (dual noun) may be described by (two singular adjectives). He read the two big and small books (lit. He read the two books. The big one and the small one) 8.3 (The plural) There are three types of (plural) in Arabic: 1. (the broken plural) 2. (the sound masculine plural) 3. (the sound feminine plural) 8.3.1 (The broken plural) (the broken plural) breaks the construction of dropping letters and/or changing the vowels: (the singular) by interpolating, Most of the (plurals) introduced in the vocabulary lists so far are (broken plural). 8.3.2 (the sound masculine plural) (the sound masculine plural), like singular). (the dual) is produced from Case is not indicated by vowels, but by the (letter) before the final letter. The sound masculine plural is produced by suffixing to the singular. (the They (two) are teachers is indicated by the letter He is a teacher The is produced by suffixing to the singular. 90
The is also produced by suffixing to the singular. From teachers He understood teachers From a teacher He understood a teacher and by the letter. The compensates for the lack of on (the sound masculine plural). When (the sound masculine plural) is made (definite), we simply add the definite article and the remains: (the sound masculine plural) is indicated in the dictionary by pl. ū n and will henceforth be indicated in the vocabulary lists by ( ). (the sound masculine plural), apart from a few exceptions, is used only for (male) human beings. (a) If a noun or adjective for a male human being has a (broken plural), the (sound masculine plural) is not normally used. The plural of is, not. There are, however, a few exceptions to this. The (broken plurals) for and are / and, but and are also possible. / / There are many teachers in the meeting / They are far from the truth (b) There are a number of words that do not refer to (male) human beings, but form a (plural) using -. We may annex them to (the sound masculine plural). Plural using Broken Plural Singular / / / 91
/ / ( ) does refer to male human beings but is placed in this list because the singular is broken to produce the plural so it is not sound. i The Opening The opening verse of the Quran, Praise belongs to Allah, The Lord of the worlds attached to elliptical agrees with because it is appositional to it. It is as though we are saying,. An appositional word is normally interchangeable with the word it is appositional to: I saw your brother, Hasan I saw Hasan, your brother. 8.3.3 (The sound feminine plural) (the sound feminine plural) is produced by suffixing to (the singular). If the singular ends in /, this is dropped. + Queens A queen In (the sound feminine plural) case is indicated by ordinary vowels. The is indicated by. They are teachers (f) She is a teacher 92
When (the sound feminine plural) is it is indicated by instead of. Here, (the kasra is the indicator of ). This is because the (the sound feminine plural) is never able to end in. He understood teachers (f) He understood a teacher (f) The teacher sent the new girls home The is indicated by. From teachers (f) From a teacher (f) (the sound feminine plural) is indicated in the dictionary by pl. at and will henceforth be indicated in the vocabulary lists by ( ). (b) (the sound feminine plural) applies to (feminine) human beings, and also to many (nouns and adjectives) that refer to (masculine) and (feminine) nonhuman beings. As a general rule, singular (nouns and adjectives) that end in / and are feminine take (the sound feminine plural). (students) should assume this to be so unless otherwise indicated. (c) (the sound feminine plural) is sometimes used for (male) human beings as (plural of plurals), although this is rare. Men Important men, leading personalities The leaders of the townspeople (lit. people of the town) sat in the council (d) As we have noted before, all non-human (plurals) are considered to be grammatically (feminine and singular). Any such (plurals) are therefore (verbs, pronouns and adjectives) referring to (feminine singular). The years have gone 93
They are difficult sciences Did the president attend many meetings? In the last example above, is (a mansuub object) but because it is a (sound feminine plural), it is unable to end in so it ends in instead. is its (adjective), so it is also but in the normal way with because it is (singular) and not (sound feminine plural). 8.4 (Possession involving the dual and plural) 8.4.1 (possession involving the broken plural and the sound feminine plural) behaves no differently (from possession of the singular). The houses of the men The gatherings of the teachers (f) 8.4.2 Duals and Sound masculine plurals as (possessor). The book of the (two) students Charles Dickens wrote A tale of two cities The book of the teachers 8.4.3 Duals and Sound masculine plurals as (possessed nouns). We know that the (possessed) always loses its. A is in fact a (nun) that is pronounced but not written., if written as it is pronounced, is. Therefore, when we drop the of the (possessed), we are in fact dropping an unwritten (nun). The (nun) of (the dual) and (the sound masculine plural) compensates for the loss of. For this reason, when plural) is a, the (nun) is dropped. (the dual) or (the sound masculine The two books of the student 94
inote that there is Pronunciation here:. This is avoided not by a liaison vowel, but by not pronouncing the so that it sounds like the singular: In the two books of the student. The listener deduces the fact that it is a dual from context. The is nevertheless written so the reader can distinguish it from the singular. i Pronunciation Note that there is here:. This is avoided by placing a liaison vowel on the. The teachers of the minister s son ( is avoided by pronouncing it like the singular: ) Maryam sat with the school teachers ( is avoided by pronouncing it like the singular: ) Summary Supplement Duals and Plurals Sound Feminine Plural Sound Masculine Plural Dual Singular They are teachers (f) They are teachers (m) They (two) are teachers He is a teacher He understood teachers (f) He understood teachers (m) He understood (two) teachers He understood a teacher From teachers (f) From teachers (m) From (two) teachers From a teacher 95
Vocabulary (, ) prophet nabiyy un (anbiyaa u, nabiyyuuna) (- ) he knew alima (ya lam u ) ilm an ( ) knowledge; science ilm un ( uluum un ) ( ) teacher (m) mu allim un (uuna) ( ) teacher (f) mu allimat un (mu allimaat un ) (- ) he went dhahaba (yadhhab u ) dhahaab an going dhahaab un ( ) difficult Sa b un (Si aab un ) (- ) he attended HaDara (yahdur u ) HuDuur an attendance HuDuur un / two (m/f) ithnaan i / ithnataan i three thalaathat un four arba at un five khamsat un six sittat un seven sab at un eight thamaaniyat un nine tis at un ten asharat un ( ) one hundred mi at un (mi aat un ) ( ) one thousand alf un (aalaaf un ) 96
(, ) water maa un (amwaah un, miyaah un ) very jidd an (, ) world aalam un ( awaalim u, alamuuna) ( ) year sanat (sinuuna, sanawaat un ) also ayd an (- ) he sent ba atha (yab ath u ) ba th an sending ba th un ( ) number adad un (a daad un ) (, ) 1. counted 2. limited ma duud un (uuna, aat un ) only faqat (, ) sound saalim un (uuna, aat un ) (, ) people, folk ahl un (ahaal in, uuna) (, ) earth, land, ground ard un (araad in, araduuna) ( ) minute daqeeqat un (daqaa iq u ) (, ) precise daqeeq un (uuna, aat un ) ( ) hour saa at un (saa aat un ) ( ) week usbuu un (asaabee u ) ( ) month shahr un (shuhuur un ) 97
Exercise 8.1 Express in English ( ),..٢.٣.٤.٥.٦.٧.٨.٩.١٠ ( 24:26) ( )..٢.٣.٤.٥.٦.٧.٨. ٩.١٠.١١.١٢.١٣ 98
Exercise 8.2 Express in Arabic (A) 1. Did anyone sit on the chairs? 2. Yes, one of the girls sat on a chair. 3. He read two of the books. 4. Hasan has limited wealth (pl.). 5. They are many men. 6. They are new (f) teachers. 7. The student read the professor s two books for three hours. 8. In the nine months. 9. He wrote a hundred words in eight minutes. 10. Noah ( ) was on the earth for a thousand years. (B) 1. They entered the two houses of the king. 2. Three students went to Damascus for knowledge. 3. Does Hasan know the good news too? 4. Did any of the presidents attend? 5. No, only two ministers attended. 6. Hasan read the two old and new books in two hours. 7. Hasan has very strong feet. 8. Muhammad goes to the important men of Makkah. 9. Mary has three boys and three girls. 10. The teacher sent the two boys home. 11. She read difficult sciences in many long years 12. A hundred (f) students went in one fell swoop 13. The student read one of the words in the sentence 14. He wrote many beautiful words in the book 15. The (f) student read seven of the new books in addition to the many old books in only four weeks. 99