Elementary Arabic Morphology 3
Sound Masculine Plural
How many types of plurals are there?
How is a sound masculine plural formed?
Are there exceptions to this rule?
Are all nouns pluralized in this way?
What is the condition of this plural of names?
What are the conditions of this plural of adjectives?
What are added to adjectives?
There are three types of plurals: sound masculine plurals, sound feminine plurals, and broken plurals.
The general rule regarding sound masculine plurals is that its single form is not changed and a wāw and nūn with a fathah is added to the end of the word when it is in the nominative case and a yā' and nūn with a fathah is added to the end of the word when it is in the accusative or genitive cases. For example: مُرسَلون َ و مُرسَلینَ.
The exceptions to this rule are: manqūs nouns; their yā' is erased and the letter before the wāw is given a dummah or the letter before the yā' is given a kasrah, for example: هادُونَ, maqsūr nouns; their alif is erased and the letter before the wāw or yā' keeps its fathah indicating the alif, for example: مصطَفَونَ, and mamdūd nouns; which undertake the same change as is given to it in the dual form, for example: بَنَّاؤُونَ.
The only nouns that are pluralized in this form are masculine proper nouns with intellects and their characteristics.
The condition for names is that they do not have the feminine tā' and are not compound names, for example: سَعیدونَ.
The conditions of adjectives are that they do not have a tā' that can be used in a feminine case, they do not indicate the superlative or comparative form, they are not in the form أفعل فَعلاء, they are not in the form فَعلان فَعلیَ, and they are not a word whose usage is the same in the masculine and feminine cases, for example: عالِمونَ.
The relative noun is added to adjectives due to their similarities, for example: لُبنانیُّونَ.