There
are roughly two types of plural forms of Arabic nouns (and
adjectives); that is, regular plurals and irregular plurals.
The
sad news is that there are many more irregular plurals than regular
ones.
By
the way, "plurals" means more than two; you have to use
dual forms for two.
Anyway,
there is no need to worry about the dual forms because their
formation rule is quite simple.
When
it comes to irregular plural forms, you basically have to memorize
them one by one.
The
good news is that there are sorts of patterns, and knowing the
patterns may make you less scared of the irregular plurals. That is
why I made a rough summary of such patterns here.
Please
see the table and picture below, and click some of the groups. You
can see that irregular plurals in the same group actually have the
same "rhythm."
Well,
do you feel better now?
Here
is an explanation, just in case you need it.
First,
many of the plural patterns include a long vowel.
For
example, some have a long Alif as the third letter ("3rd Long
Alif (3A)"), some have a long Alif as the 4th letter ("4th
Long Alif (4A)"), and some have a long Wow as the third letter
(3rd Long Wow (3W)) .
When
I say "third" or "fourth," a letter with Shadda
is counted as two letters.
For
example, in the word meaning students, "Tullaabun,"
طُلَّابٌ
Alif
is the fourth letter.
They
are further classified depending on the vowel of the first letter;
that is "a" "i" or "u."
For
example, if the third letter in a plural form is a long Alif and the
vowel of its first letter is "a," the word belongs to the
"3rd Alif a (3Aa)" group.
The
"3rd Alif a (3Aa)" group is further divided into four sub
groups (3Aa1, 3Aa2, 3Aa3, and 3Aa4) depending on their rhythm.
Plural
forms including no long vowel are also classified depending on the
vowel of the first letter of the word, such as, "Short i (Si),"
"Short u (1) (Su1),” "Short u (2)(Su2)," etc.
In
addition, sometimes Hamza over Alif is attached to the head of a
word, which is represented by "+A," for example "3rd
Long Alif + A (3A+A)," "4th Long Alif + A (1) (4A+A1),"
etc.
Sometimes,
Noon is attached to the end of a word, which is represented by "+N"
for example "4th Long Alif i + Noon (4Ai+N)" or "4th
Long Alif u + Noon (4Au+N)."
The
table and the figure below include twenty groups.
Although
many of the irregular plural patters are covered by these, there are
still other patterns.
If
you feel dizzy because of the number of the groups, perhaps you can
just check the five most frequently used groups, "3Aa1,"
"3Aa2," "3Ai," "3W," and "3A+A,"
which are written in red in the table.
The
table shows an example of words belonging to respective groups.
If
you click on the name of a group of your interest, you will jump to
the list of words belonging to that group.
The
lists will be updated from time to time.
To
get a rough idea of the size of each group, the number of words
included in each list is also given in the table (*1).
| Group "rhythm" | example (meaning) | plural - singular | number *1 |
| 3Aa1 3rd Long Alif a (1) "LaLaaLiLu" | araanibu (rabbits) | أَرْنَنٌ - أَرَانِبُ | 107 |
| 3Aa2 3rd Long Alif a (2) "LaLaaLiiLu" | sanaadiiku (boxes) | صُنْدُوقٌ - صَنَادِيقُ | 49 |
| 3Aa3 3rd Long Alif a (3) "LaLaaLin" | makaalin (frying pans) | مِقْلاَةٌ - مَقَالٍ | 31 |
| 3Aa4 3rd Long Alif a (4) "LaLaaLaa" | zaraafaa (giraffes) | زَرَافَةٌ - زَرَافَى | 15 |
| 3Ai 3rd Long Alif i "LiLaaLun" | jimaalun (camels) | جَمَلٌ - جِمَالٌ | 47 |
| 3W 3rd Long Wow "LuLuuLun" | usuudun (lions) | أَسَدٌ - أُسُودٌ | 74 |
| 3A+A 3rd Long Alif + A "ALLaaLu" | akmaarun (moons) | قَمَرٌ - أَقْمَارٌ | 117 |
| 4Ai+N 4th Long Alif i + Noon "LiLLaaNun" | firraanun (mice) | فَأْرٌ - فِئْرَانٌ | 16 |
| 4Au1 4th Long Alif u (1) "LuLaLaa U" | suadaa u (happy (pl)) | سَعِيدٌ - سُعَدَاءُ | 32 |
| 4Au2 4th Long Alif u (2) "LuLLaaLun" | tullaabun (students) | طَالِبٌ - طُلاَّبٌ | 23 |
| 4Au+N 4th Long Alif u + Noon "LuLLaaNun" | kumsaanun (shirts) | قَمِيصٌ - قُمْصَانٌ | 14 |
| 4A+A1 4th Long Alif + A (1) "ALLiLaa U" | asdikaa u (friends) | صَدِيقٌ - أَصْدِقَاءُ | 13 |
| 4A+A2 4th Long Alif + A (2) "ALiLLaa u" | atibbaa u (doctors) | طَبِيبٌ - أَطِبَّاءُ | 5 |
| Sa Short a "LaLaLaTun" | kahanatun (priests) | كَاهِنٌ - كَهَنَةٌ | 15 |
| Si Short i "LiLaLun" | kitatun (cats) | كِتَابٌ - كُتُبٌ | 15 |
| Su1 Short u (1) "LuLuLun" | kutubun (books) | كِتَابٌ - كُتُبٌ | 30 |
| Su2 Short u (2) "LuLaLun" | gurafun (rooms) | غُرْفَةٌ - غُرَفٌ | 19 |
| S+A1 Short + A (1) "ALLiLaTun" | ahuthiyatun (boots) | حِذَاءٌ - أَحْذِيَةٌ | 34 |
| S+A2 Short + A (2) "ALiLLaTun" | akillatun (crowns) | إِكْلِيلٌ - أَكِلَّةٌ | 8 |
| S+A3 Short + A (3) "ALLuLun" | ahrufun (letters) | حَرْفٌ - أَحْرُفٌ | 19 |
Last updated: 13 Oct 2014.
