Lesson (9) Singular, Dual and Plural Either Feminine or Masculine Constructions in Arabic
Keywords for this title is unveiled in their special suffixes. Arabic has special suffixes that when added to the basic singular words coverts them to duals and/or plurals either Feminine or Masculine.1-Dual and/or Plural Suffixes of both kinds using the Singular word/mudaris/ مدرسfor "Teacher"
Indefinite Dual Masculine |
Indefinite Dual Feminine |
Indefinite Plural Masculine |
Indefinite Plural Feminine |
مُدَرِسَان |
مُدَرِسَتَان |
مُدَرِسٌون |
مُدَرِسَات |
/mudarisān/ |
/mudarisatān/ |
/mudarisun/ |
/mudarisātin/ |
Two teachers (M.) |
Two Teachers (F.) |
Teachers (M) |
Teachers (F.) |
Definite Dual Masculine |
Definite Dual Feminine |
Definite Plural Masculine |
Definite Plural Feminine |
المُدَرِسَان |
المُدَرِسَتَان |
المُدَرِسُون |
المُدَرِسَات |
/̛āl-mudarisān/ |
/̛āl-mudarisatān/ |
/̛āl-mudarisun/ |
/̛āl-mudarisāt/ |
The two teachers (M.) |
The two Teachers (F.) |
The teachers (M) |
The teachers (F.) |
Do you know that:
Definiteness is not a big issue in this lesson; both cases take same suffixes.
Only Plural Feminine will take the Nunation as seen above.
Sometimes the plurals is formed using letters ālif and hamza e.g. name names /̛ism/ /̛āsmā̛/ اِسم أسمَاء; but a reader/ learner will know them by hard the more he/ she go further in the language through reading and/or listening.
Sometimes Masculine words in Singular took the Feminine Plural Suffix in Plural and they are known by hard too e.g. مَطَار /matār/ for "airport" is /matarāt/ for "airports" مَطَارات The suffixes that may be added to such kind are three:
ة called " tā̛ Marbutah" |
اء called ālif Mamduda |
ىٰ called ālif Maksura
|
There are irregularities to those cases above and they are known by hard like irregular verbs in English as their rules are complicated and advanced for such a stage.
Feminine Gender Know-how Trick
Of Course, all of us know and use Google:
Type Google translate on the search tab.
Select Arabic and English language pairs and let the TL (Target Language) your native language (as you know it the best).
To know either the word is feminine or masculine just write it + another gender already known word for you.
Now, if the translation outcome is Feminine in gender then the word is Feminine and vice versa.