Arabic Adjectives

Other Irregular Plural Adjectives

Other than the exceptions mentioned above, irregular plural structures were not supposed to be used to form adjectives in proper Classical Arabic. However, this has always been widely ignored, and irregular plural adjectives are used in many other kinds of adjectives. Anyway, there is one main case, other than the ones mentioned above, in which it is considered O.K. nowadays to use an irregular plural adjective; that case is if the irregular plural adjective were of the following structure:

The singular of this structure is a passive participle noun. The plural is forbidden to noonation. When possible, this structure can be used instead of regular plurals, but it is not better than them. Examples:

Adjectives Modifying Irregular Plural Nouns

We mentioned before that the gender of an irregular plural noun will not always match the gender of its singular word.

We also mentioned that irregular plurals that refer to objects or animals are always treated as if they were singular words. Knowing these facts, it should be clear how the adjectives were used in the following examples:

More examples; first vocabulary is given and phrases will be constructed below:

 and are both 'forbidden to noonation' structures.

Multiple Adjectives

Adjectives that modify a single noun can be multiple. rajul(un) taweel(un) naheel(un) = a man a tall a thin

Translation: a thin tall man fataataan(i) tayyibataan(i) jameelataan(i) thakiyyataan(i) = two young girls good beautiful smart. Translation: two good, smart, beautiful young girls. It is also possible to use coordinators between the different adjectives, but they must be placed between all the adjectives not only before the last one. . fataataan(i) tayyibataan(i) wa-jameelataan(i) wa-thakiyyataan(i) = two young girls good and beautiful and smart

Translation: two good, smart, beautiful young girls

Adjectives as Nouns

Adjectives in Arabic are nouns. This is not only an issue of how we categorize them; adjectives can function as real nouns in Arabic sentences. Example: هَذَاْ ذَكِيٌّ haathaa thakiyy(un) = this (is) a clever (sing. masc.) Translation: this is a clever man This sentence was not complete in English standards because it lacked a noun, but in Arabic it is a full perfect sentence. This is because an adjective in Arabic has a nominal nature in and of itself, and it will not necessarily require another noun to complete its meaning. haathih(i) thakiyya(tun) = this (is) a clever (sing. fem.). Translation: this is a clever woman

'arniyaa'(un) qadimoo 'ilaa ('a)l-balda(ti) = rich (plu. masc.) came to the town. Translation: rich people came to town. Exercise:

Can you translate those phrases to Arabic by using the following Arabic words?

Answers