As explained in an earlier post, nouns الأَسْمَاء and verbs الأَفْعَال have three forms: singular مُفْرَد, dual مُثَنَّى, or plural جَمْع. Unlike the formation of dual noun forms, plural noun forms are a bit more complex because they constitute three types: sound masculine plural جَمْع مُذَكَّر سَالِم, sound feminine plural جَمْع مُؤَنَّث سَالِم, and broken plural جَمْع تَكْسِير. The formation of verb plural forms is more straightforward. This post about how plural nouns and verbs are formed and how their formation changes when they occur in different positions of the sentence.

Sound masculine plural nouns and sound feminine plural nouns are regular because they are formed by adding a suffix (i.e. a plural marker) to the end of the singular noun. To the former, ون (which changes to ين in certain sentence positions) are added, while to the latter ات is appended. Broken plural is irregular because its formation does not follow a specific pattern. Plural forms of verbs are simpler; with masculine plurals ون (which is called وَاوُ الجَمَاعَة waw of males) is added to the end in the indicative mood, and the ن is dropped in the subjective and jussive moods. With feminine plurals, نْ (which is called نُوْنُ النِّسْوَة, the nuun of females) is append to the end of all verbs regardless of the mood.

Pronominal Plurals ضَمَائِرُ الجَمْع:

While it has no dual form, the first person singular أَنَا has a plural form, that is نَحْنُ. Likewise, while the second person singular has only one dual form for both masculine and feminine (i.e. أَنْتُما), it has two plural forms, one for the masculine أَنْتُم, and one for the feminine أَنْتُنَّ. So is the case with the third person forms, that is there are tow plural forms. هُمْ is for the masculine, and هُنَّ is for the feminine, as shown in the table below.

ضَمِيْرُ المُفْرَد ‘singular pronoun’	ضَمِيْرُ المُثَنَّى ‘dual pronoun’	ضَمِيْرُ الجَمْع ‘plural pronoun’
أَنَا	ـــ	نَحْنُ
أَنْتَ	أَنْتُمَا	أَنْتُم
أَنْتِ		أَنْتُنَّ
هُوَ	هُمَا	هُمْ
هِيَ		هُنَّ

Sound Masculine Plurals جَمْعُ المُذَكَّرِ السَّالِم:

The masculine singular nouns are made plural by adding ون to their ends. Therefore, masculine singular nouns in the table above, مُهَنْدِس ‘engineer’; لاعِب ‘payer’; and طَبَّاخ ‘cook’ become مُهَنْدِسُون, لاعِبُون, and طَبَّاخُون. As is the case with dual, the و is the plural marker, while the ن replaces the parsing marks that occur with the singular, namely fatHah, DHammah, kasrah, or their corresponding tanween in the case of indefinite nouns.

The ون changes to ين when the noun is in an object position, after a preposition, or the second noun of a genitive construction. Therefore, the sound masculine plural marker is ون or ين depending on the parsing mark of the noun as in this table:

Parsing Mark	مُفْرَد	جَمْعُ مُذَكَّر سَالِم
Nominative mark مَرْفُوْع	مُعَلِّمٌ  ، المُعَلِّمُ teacher مُسْلِمٌ ، المُسْلِمُ  Muslim خَيَّاطٌ ، الخَيَّاطُ  tailor مُقَاتِلٌ ، المُقَاتِلُ fighter مُزَارِعٌ ، المُزَارِعُ farmer	مُعَلِّمُون ، المُعَلِّمُون مُسْلِمُون ، المُسْلِمُون خَيَّاطُون ، الخَيَّاطُون مُقَاتِلُون ، المُقَاتِلُون مُزَارِعُون ، المُزَارِعُون
Accusative mark مَنْصُوْب	مُعَلِّمًا ، المُعَلِّمَ مُسْلِمًا ، المُسْلِمَ خَيَّاطًا ، الخَيَّاطَ مُقَاتِلاً ، المُقَاتِلَ مُزَارِعًا، المُزَارِعَ	مُعَلِّمِيْن ، المُعَلِّمِيْن مُسْلِمِيْن ، المُسْلِمِيْن خَيَّاطِيْن ، الخَيَّاطِيْن مُقَاتِلِيْن ، المُقَاتِلِيْن مُزَارِعِيْن ، المُزَارِعِيْن
Genitive mark مَجْرُوْر	مُعَلِّمٍ ، المُعَلِّمِ مُسْلِمٍ ، المُسْلِمِ خَيَّاطٍ ، الخَيَّاطِ مُقَاتِلٍ ، المُقَاتِلِ مُزَارِعٍ ، المُزَارِعِ	مُعَلِّمِيْن ، المُعَلِّمِيْن مُسْلِمِيْن ، المُسْلِمِيْن خَيَّاطِيْن ، الخَيَّاطِيْن مُقَاتِلِيْن ، المُقَاتِلِيْن مُزَارِعِيْن ، المُزَارِعِيْن

In the table, the indefinite singular noun gets tanween (of fatHah, DHammah, or kasrah) based on the its parsing mark. The definite noun (the noun with ال) gets fatHah, DHammah, or kasrah. The plural noun gets ون if it is nominative مَرْفُوْع and ـين if it is accusative مَنْصُوب or genitive مَجْرُور; therefore, the plural form with accusative and genitive mark is the same. Comparing this to the dual accusative and genitive form, the only difference between the two is that in the case of the dual the last letter of the singular noun before the ين must have fatHah, hence مُعَلِّمَيْن, مُسْلِمَيْن, and مُقَاتِلَيْن; but it must have kasrah in the case of the plural, hence مُعَلِّمِيْن, مُسْلِمِيْن, and مُقَاتِلِيْن.

To demonstrate this contextually, let’s look at these sentences:

(1)  المُقَاتِلُون يُقَاتِلُون بِشَرَاسَة.       the fighters are fighting fiercely

(2)  كَرَّمَتْ المَدْرَسَة المُعَلِّمِيْن.          the school honored the teachers

(3)  تَحَدَّثَ المُدَرِّبُ مَعَ اللاعِبِيْن.       the coach spoke with the players

In (1), the plural marker is ون because المُقَاتِلُون is in the subject مُبْتَدَأ position, and the subject of the nominal sentence (مُبْتَدَأ) is always nominative. In (2), the plural marker is ين because المُعَلِّمِيْن is in the object مَفْعُول position, which is always accusative. In (3), the plural marker is also ين because اللاعِبِيْن is an object of a preposition اِسْمُ مَجْرُور, which is always genitive.

Sound Feminine Plurals جَمْعُ المُؤَنَّثِ السَّالِم:

The feminine singular nouns are made plural by adding ـات to their ends. Therefore, feminine singular nouns in the table above, مُدَرِّسَة ‘female teacher’ and طَالِبَة ‘female student’ become مُدَرِّسَات and طَالِبَات.

The plural marker ـات remains the same regardless of the position of the sound feminine plural noun in the sentence. The parsing marks of this type of noun is similar to that of singular nouns, that they get DHammah, if nominative, and kasrah, if accusative or genitive, as in the table below:

Parsing Mark	مُفْرَد	جَمْعُ مُؤَنَّث سَالِم
Nominative mark مَرْفُوْع	مُعَلِّمَةٌ  ، المُعَلِّمَةُ مُسْلِمَةٌ ، المُسْلِمَةُ	مُعَلِّمَاتٌ ، المُعَلِّمَاتُ مُسْلِمَاتٌ ، المُسْلِمَاتُ
Accusative mark مَنْصُوْب	مُعَلِّمَةً ، المُعَلِّمَةَ مُسْلِمَةَ ، المُسْلِمَةَ	مُعَلِّمَاتٍ ، المُعَلِّمَاتِ مُسْلِمَاتٍ ، المُسْلِمَاتِ
Genitive mark مَجْرُوْر	مُعَلِّمَةٍ ، المُعَلِّمَةِ مُسْلِمَةٍ ، المُسْلِمَةِ	مُعَلِّمَاتٍ ، المُعَلِّمَاتِ مُسْلِمَاتٍ ، المُسْلِمَاتِ

The parsing mark for the accusative is always the fatHah, but  for the sound feminine plural it is the kasrah.

Verbal Plurals:

The plural marker with verbs is ون in the case of sound masculine plural and نْ in the case of sound feminine plural. If the verb is subjunctive مَنْصُوب or jussive, the ن of sound masculine plural marker is dropped and replace by ا (alif). The نْ of the sound feminine plural remains the same regardless of the mood of the verb, as in these examples:

Indicative مَرْفُوع	Subjective مَنْصُوب	Jussive مَجْزُوم
المُقَاتِلُون يُقَاتِلُون بِشَرَاسَة. The fighters are fighting fiercely	المُقَاتِلُون لَنْ يُقَاتِلُوا بِشَرَاسَة. The fighters will not fight fiercely	المُقَاتِلُون لَم يُقَاتِلُوا بِشَرَاسَة. The fighters didn’t fight fiercely
المُعَلِّمُوْن يِشْرَحُون الدَّرْس. The teachers are explaining the lesson	المُعَلِّمُوْن يُرِيْدُون أَنْ يِشْرَحُوا الدَّرْس. The teachers are explaining the lesson	اِشْرَحُوا الدَّرْسَ! !Explain the lesson
المُعَلِّمَات يَكْتُبْنَ الاِمْتِحَان. The female teachers are writing the exam	المُعَلِّمَات لَنْ يَكْتُبْنَ الاِمْتِحَان. The female teachers will not write the exam	المُعَلِّمَات لَمْ يَكْتُبْنَ الاِمْتِحَان. The female teachers did not write the exam
المُمَرِّضَات يُعَالِجْن الجُنُوْد. The nurses are treating the soldiers	جَاءَتِ المُمَرِّضَات كَيْ يُعَالِجْن الجُنُوْد. The nurses came to treat the soldiers	عَالِجْنَ الجُنُوْد، يَا مُمَرِّضَات! !Treat the soldiers, oh nurses

As in the table, for the plural marker suffix (i.e. ون, وا, or نْ) to appear on the verb, the plural noun must precede the verb. That is, if the plural noun appears after the verb, the verb is always singular in form, as in these examples:

(1) يَشْرَحُ المُعَلِّمُون الدَّرْس.            The teachers are explaining the lesson

(2) تَكْتُبُ المُعَلِّمَات الاِمْتِحَان.           The female teachers are writing the exam

Broken Plural جَمْعُ التَّكْسِيْر will be explained in the next post.