In this post, I continue to explain rules related to numbers and their specification (التمييز). I deal specifically with a very confusing set of numbers, i.e. between 11 and 99. Although it is very easy to form the specification for this set of numbers, gender agreement can be a challenging aspect.
When we talk about 11 to 99 things, we use the singular form of the noun after the verb, and it must be accusative. Since the specification is indefinite, it takes tanween.
لي عشرون صديقاً.
“I have twenty friends.”
قرأت خمسة عشر كتاباً.
“I read fifteen books.”
Gender agreement in this case can be confusing, but it has clear rules to follow:
11 and 12: both parts of the number should agree with the specification in gender, e.g.
هناك أحد عشر ولداً وإحدى عشرة بنتاً.
“There are eleven boys and eleven girls.”
هناك اثنا عشر ولداً واثنتا عشرة بنتاً.
“There are twelve boys and twelve girls.”
13 to 19: the first part of the number should be of the opposite gender of the specification while the second part (عشر) should have the same gender, e.g.
هناك خمسة عشر ولداً وخمس عشرة بنتاً.
“There are fifteen boys and fifteen girls.”
Tens: they do not have gender, so it is the same form all the time. They take different endings according to the cases though, i.e. (ون) for nominative and (ين) for accusative and genitive, e.g.
في الصف عشرون بنتاً.
“In the classroom, there are twenty girls.”
رأيت عشرين ولداً.
“I saw twenty boys.”
Numbers with tens and units, like twenty one, fifty three, etc. have 2 parts. The units have the opposite gender of the specification, and the tens do not change according to the gender of the specification, e.g.
هناك خمسة وعشرون ولداً وخمس وعشرون بنتاً.
“There are twenty five boys and twenty five girls.”
�
