Lesson 54 – الدَّرْسُ الرَّابِعُ وَالْخَمْسُونَ

Sound Feminine Plural -  جَمْعُ المُؤَنَّث السَّالِم

Sound feminine plural –جَمعُ المؤَنَّثِ السَّالِمِ

  • We are still in lesson fifty four of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • Let’s analyze the three words in the headline above. The word “plural” means that the noun indicates plural, not singular or dual. The word “feminine” means that the noun is not masculine. The word “sound” indicates that the structure of the feminine plural does not differ from that of its singular, i.e. it remains intact after adding the plural suffix.
  • The sound feminine plural is defined in Arabic as “every plural feminine word suffixed with (ات-) /-āt/ added to the singular form without changing the structure or the voweling of the singular form. View the following examples:

Plural

Translation

Singular

فَاطِماتٌ

/fāŧimātun/

Female student

فَاطِمَةُ

/fāŧimatu/

طَبِيبَاتٌ

/ŧabībātun/

Female doctor

طَبِيبَةٌ

/ŧabībatun/

جَيِّداتٌ

/ĵayyidātun/

Good (female)

جَيِّدَةٌ

/ĵayyidatun/

  • In light of the examples above we notice that the structure of the singular form does not change when it becomes plural. What happens is that we replaced " ة " /-ah/ with "ات" /-āt/.
  • To follow are more examples to notice how the singular feminine words, nouns and adjectives alike, are changed into sound feminine plural:

Picture

Plural

Translation

Singular

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المُمَرِّضَاتُ نَشِيطَاتٌ

/al-mumarriđâtu nashīŧâtun/

The nurse is active

المُمَرِّضَةُ نَشِيطَةٌ

/al-mumarriđatu  nashīŧa-tun/

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الزَّوْجَاتُ وَفِيَّاتٌ لأزَوْاجِهِنَّ

/az-zawĵaātu wafiyyāt-un li-azwāĵihin-na/

The wife is faithful to her husband.

الزَّوْجَةُ وَفِيَّةٌ لِزَوْجِهَا

/az-zawĵatu wafiyya-tun li-zawĵihā/

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المُهَنْدِسَاتُ فَحَصْنَ الحواسِيبَ

/al-muhandisātu faħaŝna al-ħawāsīb-a/

The (female) engineer examined the computer.

المُهَنْدِسَةُ فَحَصَتِ الحَاسُوبَ

/al-muhandisatu faħaŝat il-ħasūba/

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المدِيرَاتُ يُلاحِظْنَ الْمُدَرَّسَاتِ

/al-mudīrâtu yulāħiđhna al-mudarrisāt-i/

The headmistress observes the (female) teacher.

المدِيرَةُ تُلاحِظُ الْمُدَرِّسَةَ

/al-mudīratu tulāħiđhu al-mudarrisa-ta/

  • In the examples above we notice that nothing changed in the form of the singular when it made a feminine plural. This is why it is called “sound plural” because the structure of the singular form remains intact and regular.
  •  The only condition to say that this word is a sound feminine plural is that it should have " ات "  /–āt/ suffix which this suffix is deleted, we will have the singular intact again. For example, if we delete the plural prefix " ات " from the word " فَاطِمات" and restore the " ة ", we will have the intact singular " فاطِمَةُ "  again, as in the following table:
     

المُدِيرَاتُ

/al-mudīrât-u/

المُهَنْدِسَاتُ

/al-muhandisāt-u/

وَفِيَّاتٌ

/wafiyyāt-un/

Plural

The headmistresses

The (female) engineers

Faithful

Translation

المُدِيرَةُ

/al-mudīra-tu/

المُهَنْدِسَةُ

/al-muhandisa-tu/

وَفِيَّةٌ

/wafiyyatun/

Singular

 

 

الزَّوْجَاتُ

/az-zawĵāt-u/

نَشِيطَاتٌ

/nashiŧâtun/

المُمَرِّضَاتُ

/al-mumarriđât-u /

Plural

The wives

active

The nurses

Translation

الزَّوْجَةُ

/az-zawĵa-tu/

نَشِيطَةٌ

/nashīŧa-tun/

المُمَرِّضَةُ

/al-mumarriđa-tu/

Singular