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WorldOfIslam.info - Intro
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Learn Arabic Online /
اللغة العربية
Arabic Nouns,
Feminine and Plural
In this lesson we will learn how to deal with
Arabic nouns, especially how to form the
feminine
from the masculine, than how
to form the
plural
from a singular,
once you learn how to do it, you will also be able to form them vice versa
easily.
Masculine to Feminine in Arabic:
To form a
feminine
word from the masculine in
Arabic, you simply add “taa’ marbuta” which looks like
(ة)
or
(
ـة
)
depending on the word it’s connected to. Usually for animals, humans
and professions… for example:
kalbكلب
(dog masculine)
è
kalba
كلبة(dog
feminine)
tefl
طفل (child masculine)
è
tefla
طفلة
(child feminine)
mohandes
مهندس (engineer masculine)
è
mohandesa مهندسة(engineer
feminine)
It’s possible also for most adjectives & some
other nouns:
Sadeeq
صديق
(friend
masculine) è
Sadeeqa
صديقة
(friend feminine)
Hazeen
حزين (sad masculine)
è
hazeena
حزينة
(sad feminine)
Kabeer
كبير
(big masculine)
è
kabeera
كبيرة
(big feminine)
However not all animals or humans masculines can take a “taa’ marbuta” ((ة,
ــة
in their feminine form, for example:
Asad
أسد
(lion) è
Labo’a لبؤة(lioness)
But
Walad
ولد
(boy) è
Bent
بنت
(girl)
In Arabic, words are
either masculine or feminine, so anything you may think of should take
either feminine or masculine form, now you can recognize if a word is
feminine or masculine by its ending, for example:
Qessa
قصة
(story (is
feminine because as you may have noticed it has “taa’ marbuta” ((ة,
ــة at the end of the word,
similar are:
Shajara
شجرة
(tree), Saheefa
صحيفة
(newspaper), Kora
كرة
(ball), Ghorfa
غرفة
(room), Bohaira
بحيرة
(lake)
… and therefore the adjective
following these feminine words should also take the feminine form (add a
“taa’ marbuta” ((ة,
ــة to them)
Most
Arabic nouns
are considered masculine
if no “taa’ marbuta” is connected to them, however like any other language
there are exceptions:
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Arabic Nouns |
|
Sky
سماء samaa’ is feminine even
if there is no “taa’ marbuta” ((ة,
ــة
at the end of the word,
Windريح
reeh is feminine even if it’s
not ending with a “taa’ marbuta”.
Also some masculine proper names are ending with “taa’ marbuta” but
still considered masculine name for example: osama
أسامة
,
hamza حمزة.
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The good news is that
they are not many, and the general rule is “add a
“taa’ marbuta” ((ة,
ــة
to form the feminine from a masculine word,
and omit it to form the masculine”.
Singular to Plural in Arabic:
In Arabic to form the
plural we use two methods: add a suffix
or change the body of the word (to form an irregular plural).
A suffix (aatات
) is added to form a plural
usually when a word ends with a “taa’ marbuta” ((ة,
ــة, but before adding the suffix
we first have to omit the existing ((ة,
ــة :
For example:
Shajara
شجرة
(a tree) è
Shajaraat
شجرات (trees). So the body here
is shajar
شجر
to form the feminine we add to it “taa’ marbuta” ((ة,
ــة, to form the plural we add the
suffix “aat ات ” as you can see in the
example above.
We can also add the
suffix (aatات
) even to words not ending with “taa’ marbuta” (( ة,
ــة, for example:
Qitar
قطار (train)
è
Qitaraat
قطارات
(trains)
Mashroob
مشروب (drink)
è
Mashroobaat
مشروبات(drinks)
Another suffix (een ين
) is added to form the plural
of
some words (especially nationalities, religions, professions…)
Amreki
أمريكي (American)
è
amrekieen أمريكيين(Americans)
Moslem
مسلم (Moslem)
è
Moslemeen مسلمين
(Moslems)
Motarjem
مترجم
(translator)
è
Motarjemeen مترجمين
(translators)
Now we will move to the
irregular forms, you will notice that there are many of them, so it’s
advised to learn words with their plurals, and most dictionaries write the
definition of words with their plural form, and it’s not that hard as it
seems, with practice all ambiguities will be clear.
The table below shows
most of forms that a plural can take in Arabic, the words with question
marks are our model words, and to convert a word the irregular way
you first need to: remove the question mark and add a consonant for each
question mark, for example the word “book” means ketaab
كتاب in Arabic, to form the plural I
wrote in the table below how to form it by showing you the form with
question marks (?u?u?), meaning
ketaab
è
?u?u? è
kutub.
If you remove the consonant of the word ketaab respectively and put them in
our model word, you will have kutub,
which is obviously the plural of ketaab (book), same thing with other
examples below:
Arabic Plural
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?u?uu?
فعول |
a??aa?
أفعال |
a??u?
أفعل
(rare) |
?u?a?
فُعَل |
|
Saqr
è
Suquur (falcons)
صقر
è
صقور
Dars
è
Duruus (lessons)
درس
è
دروس |
Nahr
è
Anhaar (rivers)
نهر
è
أنهار
Haram
è
Ahraam (pyramids)
هرم
è
أهرام |
Wajh
è
Awjuh (methods)
وجه
è
أوجه
Shahr
è
Ash-hur (months)
شهر
è
أشهر |
qubla
è
qubal (kisses)
قبلة
è
قبل
dawla
è
duwal (countries)
دولة
è
دول |
|
?a?a?e?a
فعاعلة |
??a?e? فعاعل |
?u?u?
فُعُل |
?u?aa?a
فعالا |
|
jabbaar
è
jababera (tyrants)
جبّار
è جبابرة
usquf
è
asaaqefa (bishops)
أُسقف
è أساقفة
|
madrasa
è
madares (schools)
مدرسة
è مدارس
markab
è
marakeb (boats)
مركب
è
مراكب |
ketaab
è
kotob (books)
كتاب
è
كتب
safeena
è
sufun (ships)
سفينة
è
سفن |
Wasiya
è
Wasaaya (wills)
وصية
è
وصايا
Hadiya
è
hadaaya (gifts)
هدية
è
هدايا |
|
?a?aa’e?
فعائل |
a??e?a
أفعلة |
?u??aa?
* فُعَال (rare) |
?u?a?aa’
فعلاء |
|
Qaseeda
è
qasaa’ed (poems)
قصيدة
è
قصائد
Hazeema
è
hazaa’em (losses)
هزيمة
è
هزائم |
Ghelaaf
è
aghlefa (covers)
غلاف
è
أغلفة
Hezaam
è
ahzema (belts)
حزام
è
أحزمة |
Nasek
è
Nussak (pious)
ناسك
è
نُسّاك
Tajer
è
Tujjar (merchant)
تاجر
è
تُجّار
* the second
consonant is doubled |
Sajeen
è
sujanaa’ (prisoners)
سجين
è
سجناء
Jabaan
è
jubanaa’ (cowards)
جبان
è
جبناء |
There are some other
forms of forming the plural in Arabic, but they are very rare, so you don’t
have to worry about them right now.
www.worldofislam.info
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The
Holy Quran Quotes
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“And they (polytheists, disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah and in His Messenger, Muhammad (saw) ) will not cease fighting you until they turn you back from your religion (Islamic Monotheism) if they can.”
(Al-Baqarah, 2:217)
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