Plurals

[Fajr]

As-salaamu `alaykum

Some of you said you were having problems with arabic plurals... Inshaa'Allaah feel free to request help with them on this thread.

Baarak'Allaahu feekum

[Umm]

Jazakillah khairan sister. It just seems really boring, huge long lists. Do you have any suggestions?

[Fajr]

Wa iyyaaki

Were there any particular types of plurals you were refering to?
The plurals of the dhamaa'ir (pronouns etc) are relatively simple to learn. But the plurals of the nouns, for most of the time they either follow a particular pattern or we just have to learn them that way.

[Tauheed]

ASalaam alaikum,

Could please explain the use of the broken plurals. It is mentioned that the student needs to learn them however how does one apply them to new nouns. Must the noun be learnt in plural form or whats the best way to get my head round them.


Also when looking up in hans weir it mentions the 10 forms. What are they all about?

[Fajr]

Wa `alaykumusalaam wa rahmatullaah

Broken plurals are difficult to grasp because they don't always follow a particular pattern. This is why teachers will more often than not tell students to memorise those plurals as they are.

However, some words follow a particular pattern in their plurals e.g. :

If a word is of the wazn (pattern) فَعِيلَة like حَدِيقَة (garden) - شَرِيعَة (law) - (virtue) فَضِيلَة then the plural will always be in the pattern فَعَائِل e.g. plurals of above nouns are: حَدَائِق - شَرَائِع - فَضَائِل etc

It's best to learn new words in their singular and their plurals to avoid confusion later on when you start reading your own books. It's also useful because you pick up on the different patterns and you'll find yourself being able to somewhat 'guess' what the plural of new words are.

Also when looking up in hans weir it mentions the 10 forms. What are they all about?
The 10 forms are the forms of all the verbs in the arabic language. They are as below. Please note that these are the past tense verbs (again in the pattern of fa'ala):

1. فَعَلَ e.g. كَتَبَ (to write)
2. فَعَّلَ e.g. فَسَّرَ (to interpret or explain, e.g. tafseer)
3. فَاعَل e.g. قَاتَل (to fight someone)
4. أَفْعَلَ e.g. أجْلَسَ (to make someone sit down)
5. تَفَعَّلَ e.g. تَعَلَّم (to learn)
6. تَفَاعَل e.g. تَفَاهَمَ (to understand one another)
7. اِنْفَعَل e.g. انْفَجَرَ (to explode)
8. اِفْتَعَلَ e.g. اجْتَمَعَ (to gather)
9. اِفْعَلَّ e.g. احْمَرَّ (to turn red) - not very common form
10. اِسْتَفْعَلَ e.g. اسْتَنْبَطَ (to derive evidences)

When using the Hans Wehr dictionary, look at the pattern of your word and see which form out of the above it is, then look through the Hans Wehr - it uses the Roman numerals by the way.

These forms sometimes have a connotative meaning e.g.

Form 2 suggests severity and repetition (e.g. عَلَّمَ means to teach - hence repetition)
Form 3 suggests co-operation and an act usually between 2 or more people (see below example)
Form 4 suggests action upon something (see below example)
Form 7 is usually passive (e.g. اِنْكَسَرَ means to be/become broken)
Form 10 is usually one of 'طَلَب' - seeking something (e.g. اِسْتَغْفَرَ means to seek forgiveness, اِسْتَخْرَجَ means to extract, اِسْتَعَانَ means to seek help as in verse 2:45 etc)

Examples for usage of form 1, 3 and 4: جَلَسَ means to sit whereas جَالَسَ means to sit with someone and أجْلَسَ means to make someone sit

[Tauheed]

Asalaam alaikum. jazak allah khair for your reply.

I think it best to learn the plurals with the words as it just seems confusing.

On that note does anyone have the vocab for all three Medina books including the plurals as well?