Arabic plurals

                                                                        بِسمِ اللهِ الرَّحمانِ الرَّحِيم

الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على نبينا محمد وآله وصحبه

الدرس الثالث

Abu Bakr (R.A) reported, I heard the Prophet (SAAW) saying:

“You should be a scholar, or a student, or a listener, or a lover of ‘Ilm

and scholars, and you should not be the fifth which makes you perish.

‘Ata’ said, Mis’ar said to me: You added a fifth point which we do not have.

The fifth point is: To hate ‘Ilm and its people.” (At-Tabarani; Al-Bazzar).

(عِلْمٌ) in arabic is knowledge.  And the one who has knowledge / an expert is called (عالِماً) Alim.   And remember one of the beautiful names of Allah (subhan wa ta`ala) is Al-alim. (The All-knowing). Its good to memorise 99 names of Allah.

When it comes to knowledge, people strive hard to learn worldly knowledge, but I don’t know why many muslims are so heedless about learning beautiful language of Quran. Learning arabic indeed makes memorising quran easier.  From my experiences of arabic classes many people come initially with the zeal to learn arabic. But at the end only 10% or less people remain the class.

In the beginning hadith we learnt one profession of people. i.e. Alim ? ok, i am sorry  it may not be a profession but its a blessing from Allah only which is given to very few people.  We can say teaching to be a profession. The beauty of arabic is that with a root word many words can be derived. Like (دَرَسٌ) is lesson. And from that root word (مُدَرِّسٌ) (mudarris) teacher is derived.  simple sentence would be (هو  مُدَرِّسٌ) He is a teacher.  If the teacher is female it will be (  مُدَرِّسٌ  + ة  = مُدَرِّسَة ) pronounced as (mudarissa). simple sentence would be  she is a teacher  (هِي  مُدَرِّسَة).   

The place where we study is ?  (school) in arabic it is (مَدَرَسَة) (madarasa)

If we are referring to many teachers the syntax would be , ( مُدَرِّسٌ  + ونَ  = مُدَرِّسُونَ). (mudarrisun)

simple sentence would be (نَحْنُ مُدَرِّسُونَ) - we are teachers.

remember from quran ? (فَأُولَـٰئِكَ هُمُ الْكَافِرُونَ) [5:44

Now if all teachers are female in the school then you should say (هنّ  مُدرِّسات). they are teachers (f.)

Now arabic has dual along with singular and plural.  So if there are 2 teachers it will be 

(مُدَرِّسٌ  + انِ  = مُدَرِّسَانِ) for nominative case.

Remember in arabic 2 means (اثنين), with same sound,

(مُدَرِّسٌ  + ينَ  = مُدَرِّسَينَ). for accusative and genitive case. Don’t worry for now what are these cases but just remember the format for making plural and dual.

Now lets put it in proper tabular form for remembering and practicing it easier. remember our pronouns table ? can you repeat it once ….. ?

Huwa, huma, hum . . . . .  hiya, huma, hunna,  . . . . . . antha, anthuma, anthum . . . . . anthi, anthuma, anthunna . . . . . . . ana ,nahnu.

Plural	Dual	Singular	←
هُم  مُدَرِّسُونَ	هُما مُدَرِّسَانِ	هو  مُدَرِّسٌ	Third (m.)
هنّ  مُدرِّسات	هُما مُدَرِّسَانِ	هِي  مُدَرِّسَة	Third (f.)
أنتُم  مُدَرِّسُونَ	أنتُما  مُدَرِّسَانِ	أنتَ  مُدَرِّسٌ	Second (m.)
أنتُنَّ  مُدرِّسات	أنتُما  مُدَرِّسَانِ	أنتِ  مُدَرِّسَة	Second (f.)
نَحْنُ مُدَرِّسُونَ \ مُدرِّسات		أنا مُدَرِّسٌ \ مُدَرِّسَة	First

Please read it again and again till you do not stammer to tell it without seeing.

Whew!! a lot of grammar isn’t it. But please have patience, as these are the foundation of a language.   

We are all students of arabic language. right!. We all have quest / desire to learn arabic.  In arabic quest / desire means (طلب). from this root word we call student in arabic as (طالِبٌ)

same rules apply to convert to female / dual / plural.

are you a student (f.) ? - ( هَلْ اَنتِ طالِبة ؟ )

they both are students. (هُما طالِبانِ)

we are students. (نحْنُ  طالِبون)

Try to write the table for student like above.

Some other common professions are:

doctor - (طَبِيبٌ)

engineer - (مُهَنْدِسٌ)

police     - (شرْطَة)

nurse     - (ممرضة)

accountant - (مُحاسِبٌ)

trader/ seller/ businessman : (تاجِر)

Conversation:

Talking about what you do.

If you want to ask someone what they do for a living you can ask

ما عَمَلَكَ ؟ what's your job ?

أنا مُدَرِّسٌ . i am a teacher

ما شاع الله. wonderful!

Now you can try to introduce your family to others with their profession details.

example Ahmed from chapter 2 will introduce his family like this.

I am Ahmed and i am a engineer. He is my son umar and he is a student.

انا احمد وانا مُهَنْدِسٌ . هو ابني وهو طالب

similarly write the same for all cases.