Arabic Irregular Plural Nouns

Nouns

Number of Nouns

Plural Nouns

Irregular Plural Nouns (continued)

I. Fewness Structures جُمُوْعُ الْقِلَّةِ

These structures are supposed to be used for plurals that refer to no more than ten unites, but this is not obligatory.

In order to be able to use these structures you will need to know the root of the singular noun.

The truth is that there are no real solid rules for when to use each one of these structures, however, there are some general directions that could be mentioned.

۞ ‘af”ul أَفْعُل

This structure is generally used for the singular nouns that are of the following structures:

1.fa“l فَعْل

Examples:

However, there are many irregularities to this rule.

Examples:

• Most of thefa“lnouns that have middle weak-letters in their triliteral roots don’t follow this rule.

• Most of thefa“lnouns that haveو  as first letter of their triliteral roots don’t follow this rule.

Again, it should be known that many nouns can be irregularly pluralized using more than one structure.

2.f*“aal/ f*“eel / f*“ool

Figurative feminine quadriliteral nouns that have a long vowel as third letter will be pluralized as‘af”ul أَفْعُل.

۞ ‘af”ila(t) أَفْعِلَة

This structure is generally used for the following singulars:

1.f*“aal/ f*“eel / f*“ool

Masculine quadriliteral nouns that have a long vowel as their third letter.

There are irregularities.

2.fa“aal فَعَاْل /fi“aal  فِعَاْل

Provided that the second and the third root-letters be the same, any noun of these structures will be pluralized as ‘af”ila(t) أَفْعِلَة.

There are irregularities.

۞ ‘af”aal أَفْعَاْل

This structure is generally used for all the triliteral nouns that do not take the first structure ‘af”ul أَفْعُل. This includes:

• fa“l فَعْل nouns that have a middle weak-letter in their triliteral roots.

• fa“l فَعْل nouns that haveو  as first letter of their triliteral roots don’t follow this rule.

• Every triliteral noun that is not of the structure fa“l فَعْل .

Examples:

*Both the singular and plural nouns here refer to plural fruits (the singular is a singulare tantum noun).

*See: special transformations of hamza(t).

۞ fi“la(t) فِعْلَة

This is a rare structure that is used with few nouns.

Examples:

II. Plentifulness Structures جُمُوْعُ الْكَثْرَةِ

Those structures are used for plurals without regard of their numbers. They also enjoy a large deal of irregularity in usage, just like the previous ones.

More information about these structures is to be added later

Gender of Plural Nouns

1) Masculine Plurals

Nouns that end with a masculine plural ending are always masculine words.

2) Feminine Plurals

Nouns that end with a feminine plural ending are always feminine words.

3) Irregular Plurals

The gender of an irregular plural noun will not always match the gender of its singular. Classically, all irregular plurals were considered and treated as singular feminine nouns, no matter what the gender of the referents were. E.g. one would say “this men” or “this dishes” instead of “these men” and “these dishes” if “men” and “dishes” were irregular plurals. Also one would say “the men does what she promises” instead of “the men do what they promise.”

However, irregular plurals of nouns referring to persons (like men and women) had another possibility; such plurals could be treated as regular plural nouns alongside the general rule of treating them as singular feminines.

In the modern language, irregular plurals referring to persons are usually treated as regular plural nouns in terms of grammar, except for declension, where they will still be declined as singulars.

Examples on the gender of irregular plurals: