1. Introduction
Welcome to our new Arabic free course to learn the Arabic language. In this new lesson, we will learn inshAllah how to employ the masculine plural in Arabic.
2. Dialogue
مَنْ هَؤُلاءِ الْفِتْيَةُ الطُوالُ يا عليّ؟
Who are this young tall men o Ali?
هُمْ طُلابٌ جُدُدٌ.
They are new students.
مِنْ أَيْنَ هُمْ ؟
From where are they?
هُمْ مِنْ أَمْرِيكَا.
They are from America.
أَهُمْ زُمَلاءُكَمْ؟
Are they your classmates?
نَعَم, هُم زُمَلائِي. هُم فِي الْفَصْلِي.
Yes, they are my classmates. They are in my class.
أَ هُمْ مُجْتَهِدُونَ؟
Are they assiduous?
نَعَمْ. هُمْ مُجْتَهِدونَ.
Yes. They are assiduous.
مَا أَسْمَاؤُهُمْ؟
What are their names?
أَسْمَاؤُهُمْ : ياسرٌ و زَكَريَّا و مُوْسَى و عَبْدُ اللهِ.
Their names: Yasir, Zakaria, Mussa and Abdullah.
و مَنْ هَؤُلاءِ الرِّجالُ الٌصَارٌ؟
And who are these small men?
هُم حُجَّاجٌ.
They are pilgrims.
من أينَ هم ؟
From where are they?
بَعضُهُمْ من الصِّيْنِ و بعْضُهُمْ من اليابانِ.
Some of them are from China, and some of them from Japan.
أَين مُوْسَى و أَصْدِقَاؤُهُ؟
Where are Mussa and his friends?
ذَهَبُوا إلى المَطْعَمِ.
They went to the restaurant.
Stay updated with our latest offers, and promotions
The al Madina Center for Arabic is the first language school specializing in teaching Arabic to non-Arabic speakers, based in Medina, Saudi Arabia.
3. The demonstrative pronoun هَؤُلاءِ
We saw in our previous lessons some demonstrative pronouns as هذا – ذلك – هذه and تِلْكَ.
The demonstrative pronoun – الْاِسْمُ الْإِشَارَةُ is the English equivalent of “this, these, that”. In Arabic, they are of two types:
- لِلْقَرِيْبِ for a close thing or person
- لَلْبَعِيْدِ for distant ones
The demonstrative pronoun – هَؤُلاءِ is used in Arabic for plural, close, feminine and masculine.
Examples:
- Masculine:
هَذَ رَجُلٌ
This is a man.
هَؤُلاءِ رِجَالٌ
These are men.
- Feminine:
هَذِهِ طَبِيْبَةٌ
This a female medical doctor
هَؤُلاءِ طَبِيبَاتٌ
These are female medical doctors.
4. The pronoun – هُمْ
If you remember, in Arabic, there two types of pronouns: attached and detached.
- Detached pronoun
هُمْ, as a detached pronoun means “they“. It is a plural personal pronoun for the 3rd masculine person.
Examples:
هُمْ طُلابٌ.
They are students.
نَعَم, هُم زُمَلائِي. هُم فِي الْفَصْلِي.
Yes, they are my classmates. They are in my class.
- Attached pronoun
هُمْ as an attached pronoun means “their“. It is a plural possessive pronoun for the 3rd masculine plural.
Examples:
مَا أَسْمَاؤُهُمْ؟
What are their names?
بَعضُهُمْ من الصِّيْنِ و بعْضُهُمْ من اليابانِ.
Some of them are from China, and some of them from Japan.
5. The masculine plural
In Arabic, the masculine plural is of two types:
- masculine regular plural
- irregular plural
The regular masculine plural – الْجَمْعُ الْمُذَّكَرُ السالِمُ
The masculine regular plural is created by adding the suffix letters ونَ for the nominative case or يْنَ for genitive and accusative cases.
Examples:
هو مُجْتَهِدٌ
He is assiduous.
هُمْ مُجْنَهِدُوْنَ
They are assiduous
هُوَ مُسْلِمٌ
He is Muslim
هُمْ مُجْتَهِدُوْنَ
They are Muslims
The irregular masculine plural
The irregular plural – الجَمْعُ التَّكْسِيْرِ is known by hearing.
Examples:
طَالِبٌ – طُلابٌ
Students – a student
اِسْمٌ – أَسْماءُ
Names – a name
زَمِيْلٌ – زُمَلاءُ
Classmates – a classmate
رَجُلٌ – رِجَالٌ
Men – a man
حَاجٌّ – حُجَاجٌ
Pilgrims – a pilgrim
6. Past tense – third-person masculine plural
We previously studied in the past tense two persons with the singular masculine and feminine third-person.
Examples:
ذَهَبَ
He went
ذَهَبَتْ
She went
If you want to use the masculine plural third person with a past tense verb, you need to add the attached pronoun و to the root verb and change the last vowel (harakah) to dammah. Also do not forget to add the prefixed ا at the end.
Examples:
ذَهَبُوا
They went
خَرَجُوا
They went out
فَعَلُوا
They did
Conclusion
This Arabic free lesson is now completed. You have learned how to use:
- The masculine plural third-person detached and attached pronouns – هُمْ
- The regular and irregular masculine plural nouns
- The demonstrative pronoun – هَؤُلاءِ
- The plural third-person attached pronoun to the past tense verb.
InshaAllah we will study in the next lesson the feminine plural in Arabic.
Leave a Reply