Posts tagged with "Plural"

In this post, I present the answer of the exercise on the dual relative pronouns and I also present a revision and some exercises on plural relative pronouns. First, here is the answer of the exercise and the translation of the sentences:

1-      هذان هما الطالبان اللذان يدرسان في جامعتي.

2-      تحدثت مع المهندستين اللتين تعملان في المشروع الجديد.

3-      قرأت كتب الكاتبين اللذين عاشا في القرن الثامن عشر.

4-      زرت المدينتين اللتين تقعان على شاطئ البحر.

5-      الأستاذان اللذان يدرسان اللغة العربية في جامعتي ممتازان.

Here is the translation of the sentences:

1 – These are the students who studied at the university.

2 – I spoke with the engineers who work on the new project.

3 – I read the books of authors who lived in the eighteenth century.

4 – I visited the two cities which are located on the shore of the sea.

5 – The professors who teach Arabic at my university are excellent

Plural relative pronouns can be tricky because we have to think whether we are dealing with human or non-human plurals. If we are talking about human plural, then we think whether it is masculine or feminine. Masculine relative pronoun is (الذين); and there are three feminine relative pronouns that can be used interchangeably (اللاتي، اللائي ، اللواتي). If we are talking about non-human plurals, the relative pronoun to use is (التي). Consider the following examples:

الأولاد الذين يدرسون في المدرسة الجديدة سعداء.

The boys who study at the new school are happy.

البنات اللائي/اللاتي/اللواتي يدرسن في المدرسة الجديدة سعيدات.

The girls who study at the new school are happy.

المدارس التي افتتحت مؤخراً ممتازة.

The schools that were opened lately are excellent.

Now, try to use this information to complete the sentences below with the appropriate form of plural relative pronouns.

1-      هؤلاء هم الطلاب ———- يدرسون في جامعتي.

2-      القصص —————— تكتبها هذه الكاتبة حزينة للغاية

3-      تحدثت مع المهندسات ———— يعملن في المشروع الجديد.

4-      معظم العمال ————- سافروا للعمل في الخارج عادوا في الصيف.

5-      زرت المدن —————- تقع على شاطئ البحر.

6-      قرأت معظم كتب الكُتاب  ———— أفضلهم.

7-      الزميلات —————– يسكن معي في البيت لطيفات.

8-      الأساتذة ————— يدرسون اللغة العربية في جامعتي ممتازون.

It is interesting to note that some words, especially those related to clothes, e.g. trousers, shoes, etc. are used in plural in English and in singular in Arabic. This causes a great deal of confusion of Arabic learners when they study English, and may be the other way round as well, since they are used to using the singular in Arabic. So, shoes in English corresponds to (حذاء) in Arabic. Please note that the plural of (حذاء) is (أحذية), but it is used to mean more than one pair. Below is a list of words that are used in plural in English and singular in Arabic:

Trousers: بَنطَلون / بِنطال

Pants: سِروَال

Shorts: شورت

Pajamas: بِيجامة

Gloves: قُفّاز

Shoes: حِذاء

Sandals:  صَندَل

Slippers: شِبشِب

Socks: شَراب

Glasses: نَظّارة

Some of these words are very close to English or other European languages, like French. Please note that in this list I give the commonly used words, many of which are colloquial.

Now let me challenge you! Do you know how to name the items of clothes in the picture below in Arabic?

If you click on the picture, it will open in a much better way. Here is the image source: http://www.languageguide.org/im/clothes_men/images/clothes_men_padded.gif

I hope you have had a chance to practice changing the sentences in the previous post into dual and then into plural. In this post, I provide the answers to the exercise set in the previous post. You can check your answers against the sentences below.

Dual

1. هذان هما المهندسان المصريان اللذان يعملان في شركة كويتية.

2. تعرفت على صديقتين تدرسان العلوم السياسية في جامعتي.

3. أنتما الموظفان الجديدان ومكتبكما بجانب مكتبي.

4. رأيت الولدين الصغيرين وهما يلعبان الكرة مع صديقهما.

5. هذان هما الكتابان الشيقان اللذان ألفهما الكاتبان العربيان المعروفان.

Plural

1. هؤلاء هم المهندسون المصريون الذين يعملون في شركة كويتية.

2. تعرفت على صديقات يدرسن العلوم السياسية في جامعتي.

3. أنتم الموظفون الجدد ومكتبكم بجانب مكتبي.

4. رأيت الأولاد الصغار وهم يلعبون الكرة مع صديقهم.

5. هذه هي الكتب الشيقة التي ألفها الكُتاب العرب المعروفون.

In this post, I offer you a chance to practice much of the knowledge you have about dual and plural agreement and to practice the information presented earlier about agreement and about the case marking system. Today, you are asked to change the sentences below into dual, and then to change the same sentences into plural. Try to think about the reason for choosing suffixes and forms you intend to use, e.g. why use (صديقان) and not (صديقين). Try also to remember what we said about broken plurals and non-human plurals. To help you choose the forms, I translate the sentences below; however, if you can translate the sentences yourself, it will be much better. Enjoy the exercise, and wait for the next post to get the answers!

1. هذا هو المهندس المصري الذي يعمل في شركة كويتية.

“This is the Egyptian engineer who works at a Kuwaiti company.”

2. تعرفت على صديقة تدرس العلوم السياسية في جامعتي.

“I met a friend who studies political sciences at my university.”

3. أنت الموظف الجديد ومكتبك بجانب مكتبي.

“You are the new employee and your desk next to mine.”

4. رأيت الولد الصغير وهو يلعب الكرة مع صديقه.

“I saw the little boy, and he was playing ball with his friend.”

5. هذا هو الكتاب الشيق الذي ألفه الكاتب العربي المعروف.

“This is the interesting book written by the famous Arab writer.”

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