Lesson 56 – الدَّرْسُ السَّادِسُ وَالْخَمْسُونَ

The sound masculine plural -  جَمْعُ المُذَكَّرِ السَّالِمِ

The sound masculine pluralجَمْع المُذَكَّر السَّالِم

  • We are still in lesson fifty six of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • We studied the Arabic broken plural in lesson 34 (جَمْعُ التَّكْسِير /ĵamξ at-taksīr).  We learnt in that lesson that there are no rules to form the Arabic broken plural and we have to memorize its form for any new noun we learn, here are some examples to remind you about the broken plural:

Picture

Broken plural

Singular

English

Arabic

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كُتُبٌ

/kutubun/

Book

كِتَابٌ

/kitābun/

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بُيُوتٌ

/buyūtun/

Home

بَيْتٌ

/baytun/

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مَنَازِلُ

/manāzilun/

House

مَنْزِلٌ

/manzilun/

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طُلاَّبٌ

/ŧullābun/

Student

طَالِبٌ

/ŧâlibun/

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سُحُبٌ

/suħubun/

Cloud

سَحَابٌ

/saħābun/

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قُرَىً

/quran/

Village

قَرْيَةٌ

/qariatun/

  • As you notice, the broken plural has a different pattern (form) for each of the above mentioned words.  The form of the singular is changed when it is turned into broken plural, so that it is called (جمع التَّكْسِير /ĵamξ at-taksīr/).  It is not formed by adding suffixes or prefixes (letters in the beginning or in the end) to the singular, instead it is formed by breaking the letters of the singular form then restructuring them in a different pattern. You may notice that this broken plural is used for both masculine and feminine words, e.g.:

Masculine

Feminine

Plural

Singular

Plural

Singular

قُرَىً

قَرْيَةٌ

بُيُوتٌ

بَيْتٌ

  • we also studied another type of plural in lesson (36), which is the feminine sound plural, this plural is formed by adding /alif/ and /tā’/ (ات /āt) to the feminine singular word.  The following table is to remind ourselves about that kind of plural:

 

Plural           الجَمْع

 

Singular          المُفْرَد

English

Arabic

مُوَظَّفَاتٌ

/muđđhafātun/

Female employee

مُوَظَّفَةٌ

/muđđhafatun/

عَامِلاتٌ

/ξāmilātun/

Female worker

عَامِلَةٌ

/ξāmilatun/

  • In this lesson we will learn the third type of plural which is the sound masculine plural In-Shā'-Allâh (God willing).  This type of plural is used only for the masculine nouns as (مُوَظَّف - عَامِل), i.e. it is neither like the feminine sound plural which is used for the feminine nouns like (مُوَظَّفةٌ - عَامِلَةٌ), nor like the broken plural which is used for both masculine and feminine nouns (بَيْتٌقَرْيَةٌ).
  • When we form the sound masculine plural from a singular noun, we do not change the form of the singular noun, we just add the suffix (ending) /Wāw/ and /Nūn/ or /Yā’/ and /Nūn/ to the end of the singular noun. This is unlike the broken plural in which we change the form of the singular by:
    - Adding one or more letters in the middle, e.g.(
    بَيْتٌ - بُيُوتٌ)
    - Dropping one or more letters from the middle, e.g.(
    كِتابٌ - كُتُبٌ)
  • None of the changes above happen in the sound plural, so that it is called sound or regular plural (  الجَمْعُ السَّالِمُ /al ĵamξ as-sālim/), please notice that the Arabic word (سَالِم /Sālim/) means intact, sound, not broken etc.
  • So the sound masculine plural is formed by adding /Wāw/ and /Nūn/ (ون /ūn/) or /Yā’/ and /Nūn/ (ين /īn/) to the singular masculine noun to indicate more than two units of it, so it is a kind of brevity, i.e. instead of repeating the noun using (wa) many times, please read the following table (from right to left):

Picture

English meaning

Using the sound plural

Repeating the noun with (wa)

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The employees came (assisted)

حَضَرَ الْمُوَظَّفُونَ

حَضَرَ المُوَظَّفُ والمُوَظَّفُ والمُوَظَّفُ

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The hard workers succeeded

أَفْلَحَ المُجْتَهِدُونَ

أَفْلَحَ المُجْتَهِدُ والمُجْتَهِدُ والمُجْتَهِدُ

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The workers demonstrated

تَظَاهَرَ العَامِلُونَ

تَظَاهَرَ العَامِلُ وَالعَامِلُ وَالعَامِلُ

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The drivers went on strike

أَضْرَبَ السَّائِقُونَ عَنِ الْعَمَلِ

أَضْرَبَ السَّائِقُ والسَّائِقُ والسَّائِقُ عَنِ العَمَلِ .

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The farmers cultivated

زَرَعَ الفَلاَّحُونَ

زَرَعَ الفَلاَّحُ والفَلاَّحُ والفَلاَّحُ

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The cultivators gathered (harvested)

حَصَدَ الزَّارِعُونَ

حَصَدَ الزَّارِعُ والزَّارِعُ والزَّارِعُ

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I gave the beggars

أَعْطَيْتُ السَّائِلِينَ

أَعْطَيْتُ السَّائِلَ وَالسَّائِلَ وَالسَّائِلَ

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I sympathized with the needy people

عَطَفْتُ عَلَى المُحْتَاجِينَ

عَطَفْتُ عَلَى المُحْتَاجِ والمُحْتَاجِ والمُحْتَاجِ

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I helped the managers

سَاعَدْتُ المُدِيرِينَ

سَاعَدْتُ المُدِيرَ وَالمُدِيرَ والمُدِيرَ

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I saw the players

شَاهَدْتُ اللاَّعِبِينَ

شَاهَدْتُ اللاَّعِبَ وَاللاَّعِبَ وَاللاَّعِبَ