Arabic dual form Nouns الْمُثَنَّى

Arabic dual form Nouns

Introduction – مُقَدِّمَةٌ

• In this lesson we will learn the following In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing):
  • The dual form (الْمُثَنَّى) of the Arabic Nouns – i.e. the form that relates to two of something.   This is very important within the Arabic language and is used frequently.

• We will also learn the dual form of the Demonstrative Pronouns for the near objects for both the masculine and the feminine objects (i.e. these and those):

• And we will learn the Dual form of the Personal Pronouns for the third person:

• We will also learn a new interrogative Article in this lesson In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing):

The Dual – الْمُثَنَّى  

• In Arabic, nouns fall into three categories namely

• Singular – which relates to a single noun
• Dual – which indicates two of something
• Plural – which indicates more than two of something

• In order to change a singular Arabic noun to the Dual the following steps are involved:
  • Nominative Case:
    • To change a singular masculine noun to the case of dual the following changes occur:
      • The last letter of the word has its vowel replaced with a single /fatħah/ (i.e. replacing /the đammah/ or /dammatain/)
      • The suffix of انِ is added to the word.

See some examples below:

• طَالِبٌ will become طَالِبَانِ 
• الطَّالِبُ will become الطَّالِبَانِ 

• To change a singular feminine noun with nominative case to the Dual, the following changes occur:
  • The last letter ة /tā’ marbūŧah/ is changed to the letter ت  
  • The last letter (which is now) ت has its vowel replaced with a single fatħah  (i.e. replacing /the đammaħ/ or /dammatain/),
  • The suffix of انِ is added to the word.

See some examples below:

•  طَالِبَةٌ will become طَالِبَتَانِ 
• الطَّالِبَةُ will become الطَّالِبَتَانِ 

• Genitive and Accusative Case:
  • To change a singular masculine noun with accusative or genitive case to the Dual:
    • A single /fatħah/ is added on the last letter instead of the accusative case with a /fatħah/ or genitive case with a kasrah/
    • The suffix /Ya’-Nūn/ يْنِ i.e., a Ya’ with /Sukūn/ and /Nūn/ with a /Kasrah/ is added.

See some examples below:

• مَعَ مُدَرِّسٍ will become مَعَ مُدَرِّسَيْنِ
• عِنْدَ الْمُدَرِّسِ will become عِنْدَ الْمُدَرِّسَيْنِ

• To change a singular feminine noun with accusative or genitive case to the Dual:
  • The last letter ة /tā’ marbūŧah/ is changed to the letter ت
  • A single fatħah is added on the last letter instead of the accusative case with a /fatħah/ or genitive case with a /kasrah/
  • The suffix /Ya’-Nūn/ يْنِ i.e., a /Ya’/ with /Sukūn/ and /Nūn/ with a /Kasrah/ is added.

See some examples below:

• فِي حَقِيبَةٍ will become فِي حَقِيبَتَيْنِ
• فَوْقَ الشَّجَرَةِ will become فَوْقَ الشَّجَرَتَيْنِ 
• Let’s look at some more examples for a better understanding of the rule: 

Continued

• In this part of lesson we will learn the dual form of the personal pronouns (he, she). In Arabic language all types of pronouns have a dual form, not only demonstrative pronouns. We have already learnt the singular form of masculine and feminine personal pronouns for the third person (he / she) in (Lesson 4 section 7)
• In this part of the lesson we will learn the dual form of the Personal Pronouns for the third person representing the masculine and the feminine nouns, In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing).
• In order to change the personal pronouns for the third person representing masculine and feminine nouns to the Dual form, the following steps are involved:
  • To change a personal pronoun for the third person representing a masculine noun (هُوَ) to مُثَنًّى i.e., Dual form, the last letter وَ i.e., a /Wāw/ with a /fatħah/ is replaced with مَا i.e., /Meem/ with /fatħah/ and a long vowel /Alif/, e.g.:

هُوَ will become هُمَا

• To change a personal pronoun for the third person representing a feminine noun (هِيَ) to مُثَنًّى i.e., Dual form, the genitive case /kasrah/ of the letter /ha/ is replaced with the nominative case /đammah/ and the last letter يَ i.e., a /Ya/ with a /fatħah/ is replaced with مَا i.e., /Meem/ with /fatħah/ and a long vowel /Alif/, e.g.:

هِيَ will become هُمَا

• Let’s look at some more examples for a better understanding of the rule: