Arabic Plural form of the Demonstrative Pronoun

 

English	Transliteration	Demonstrative noun (Arabic)	Singular / Plural (Arabic)	Masculine / Feminine (Arabic)	Grammatical Term
This (masculine)	/Hādhā/	هَذَا	الْمُفْرَدُ	الْمُذَكَّرُ	أَسْمَاءُ الإِشَارَةِ الْقَرِيبَةِ
These	/Hā’ulā’i/	هَؤُلاءِ	الْجَمْعُ
This (feminine)	/Hādhihi/	هَذِهِ	الْمُفْرَدُ	الْمُؤَنَّثُ
These	/Hā’ulā’i/	هَؤُلاءِ	الْجَمْعُ

English	Transliteration	Arabic Word	Singular / Plural (Arabic)	Masculine / Feminine (Arabic)
A teacher (masc.)	/Mudarrisun/	مُدَرِّسٌ	الْمُفْرَدُ	الْمُذَكَّرُ
Teachers (masc.)	/Mudarrisūna/	مُدَرِّسُونَ	الْجَمْعُ
A lady teacher (fem.)	/Mudarrisatun/	مُدَرِّسَةٌ	الْمُفْرَدُ	الْمُؤَنَّثُ
Lady teachers (fem.)	/Mudarrisātun/	مُدَرِّسَاتٌ	الْجَمْعُ

English	Transliteration	Arabic	Singular / Plural (Arabic)	Masculine / Feminine (Arabic)
A book	/Kitābun/	كِتَابٌ	الْمُفْرَدُ	الْمُذَكَّرُ
Books	/Kutubun/	كُتُبٌ	الْجَمْعُ
A garden	/Hadīqatun/	حَدِيقَةٌ	الْمُفْرَدُ	الْمُؤَنَّثُ
Gardens	/Hada’iqun/	حَدَائِقُ	الْجَمْعُ

Continued

• In this part of the lesson we will learn the plural form of the Demonstrative Pronouns In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing) for objects that are nearby (“these”) and objects that are further away (“those”).  In the previous lessons we have already learnt the following demonstrative Pronouns:
  • Lesson No. 1 section 1 states that هَذَا is the Demonstrative Pronoun used to refer to closer objects representing masculine nouns (“this”)
  • Lesson No. 6 section 2 states that هَذِهِ is the Demonstrative Pronoun used to refer to closer objects representing feminine nouns. (“this”)
• The plural form of these Demonstrative Pronouns is the same for the masculine and feminine nouns i.e.  

• The plural form of the Demonstrative Pronoun for the close objects is هَؤُلاءِ.  It is an indeclinable word and always takes a /kasrah/. It must however be remembered that هَؤُلاءِ is used only for human beings and not for non human beings.
• Let’s take some examples for a better understanding of the rule:

 

 

Continued

• In this section, we will learn the plural form of nouns and Adjectives In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing).
• In English, adjectives have no plural form. So when an adjective is used to describe a singular noun, the same word is used to describe the plural noun e.g., if we say “Good boy” for a singular noun then in the same manner we say “Good boys” for the plural nouns.
• In Arabic however even the adjectives have plural form, e.g., when we express the quality of a teacher by saying مُدَرِّسٌ جَيِّدٌ (A good teacher), it will become  مُدَرِّسُونَ جَيِّدُونَi.e., Good teachers for the plural nouns. So the noun as well as the adjective becomes plural and both change form.
• English and Arabic both have two kinds of plural:
  • Sound Plurals
  • Broken Plurals
• The Sound Plural is the plural form of a word in which the word keeps its original form and is simply extended:
  • E.g., For English Nouns
    • Chair  ======> Chairs
    • School ======> Schools
    • Girl ======> Girls
  • For Arabic Nouns and Adjectives:

صَائِمٌ ====== صَائِمُونَ

People fasting ========== A person fasting

مُدَرِّسَةٌ ====== مُدَرِّسَاتٌ

Female teachers ========== A female teacher

مُجْتَهِدٌ ====== مُجْتَهِدُونَ

Hard workers ========== A hard worker

صَغِيرَةٌ ====== صَغِيرَاتٌ

Small things (feminine) ========== A small thing (feminine)

• In Arabic, the sound plural is either masculine or feminine. In order to convert a singular masculine noun or adjective to plural the following steps should be taken:
• The /tanwīn/ on the last letter of the indefinite word is replaced with the single vowel of the equivalent – i.e. single /đammah/ (when in nominative case), single /fatħah/ (when in accusative case) and single /kasrah/ (when in genitive case)
• ونَ is added at the end of the word if it is in nominative case with a /đammah/ and ينَ is added if the word is in accusative with a /fatħah/ or genitive case with a /kasrah/.
• However if the word is definite, then simply ونَ  is added at the end of the word if it is in nominative case and ينَ  is added if the word is in accusative or genitive case. Please see below – please take note of the colour coding to emphasise the changed and additional letters to make the words into sound plurals:

هَذَا صَائِمٌ ====== هَؤُلاءِ صَائِمُونَ

These are fasting ========== This is fasting

رَأَيْتُ مُدَرِّسًا ====== رَأَيْتُ مُدَرِّسِينَ

I saw teachers ========== I saw a teacher

أَنَا مَعَ مُسْلِمٍ ====== أَنَا مَعَ مُسْلِمِينَ

I am with Muslims ========== I am with a Muslim

الْمُهَنْدِسُ ====== الْمُهَنْدِسُونَ

The engineers ========== The engineer

مُحَمَّدٌ مَعَ الْفَلاحِ ===== مُحَمَّدٌ مَعَ الْفَلاحِينَ

Muhammad is with the farmers ===== Muhammad is with the farmer

زُرْتُ الْمُهَنْدِسَ ====== زُرْتُ الْمُهَنْدِسِينَ

I visited the engineers ========== I visited the engineer

• Let’s take some examples to understand this rule: