Lesson 55 – الدَّرْسُ الخامِسُ وَالْخَمْسُونَ

The dual -  الْمُثَنَّى

The dual – الْمُثَنَّى

  • We are still in lesson fifty five of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.

Pictures

English

Arabic

The dual

The noun twice with /wa/

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Two students came

جَاءَ طَالِبَانِ

جَاءَ طَالِبٌ وَطَالِبٌ

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Two students succeeded

نَجَحَ تِلْمِيذانِ

نَجَحَ تِلْمِيذٌ وَتِلْمِيذٌ

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I ate two fishes

أَكَلْتُ سَمَكَتَيْنِ

أَكَلْتُ سَمَكَةً وَسَمَكَةً

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I bought two clothes

اِشْتَرِيْتُ ثَوْبَيْنِ

اِشْتَرِيْتُ ثَوْباً وَثَوْباً

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These are two books

هَذَانِ كِتابانِ

هَذَا كِتابٌ وَهَذا كِتابٌ

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These are two trees

هَاتَانِ شَجَرَتَانِ

هَذِهِ شَجَرَةٌ وَهَذِهِ شَجَرَةٌ

  • You may notice that we can change the dual form back to singular by simply removing the final (ان /ān) from its ending.
  • We will see from the examples below that in the feminine form we also have to change the tā’ marbuŧah (if it is present) to a normal tā’ prior to adding the dual ending.  We will first review the examples of masculine dual form:

Picture

dual

singular

English

Arabic

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رَجُلانِ

man

رَجُلٌ

/raĵulun/

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طَالِبانِ

student

طَالِبٌ

/ŧâlibun/

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أَسَدانِ

lion

أَسَدٌ

/asadun/

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بَيْتانِ

home

بَيْتٌ

/baytun/

  • Below, we can see that we form the feminine dual by adding the feminine ending (tā') before the dual ending (ان /ān/).  If the tā' in the singular is Marbūtah (ـة) it will be changed to normal tā' (ـت) before the dual ending (ان /ān/) let's see these examples of the feminine dual:

Picture

Dual

Singular

English

Arabic

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بِنْتانِ

/bintāni/

girl

بِنْتٌ

/bintun/

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طَالِبَتانِ

/ŧâlibatāni/

student

طَالِبَةٌ

/ŧâlibatun/

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قِطَّتانِ

/qiŧŧatāni/

cat

قِطَّةٌ

/qiŧŧatun/

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حَقِيبَتانِ

/ħaqībatāni/

bag

حَقِيبَةٌ

/ħaqībatun/

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شَجَرَتانِ

/shaĵaratāni/

tree

شَجَرَةٌ

/shaĵaratun/