Regular Plurals

In English, adding an 's' to the end of a word makes it plural (three or more things). The easiest Arabic plurals work exactly the same way! They are called "Sound Plurals" (Saalim) because the original word stays perfectly intact, we simply add a suffix at the end!

1. The Two Plural Suffixes

Men get one suffix (`-oona`), women get another (`-aatun`). Notice how the base word (مُسْلِم) never breaks or changes its inner vowels.

Masculine Plural (-oona)

مُسْلِمٌ

Muslimun (A Muslim man)

ـُونَ

-oona

مُسْلِمُونَ

Muslimoona

Muslim Men

Feminine Plural (-aatun)

مُسْلِمَةٌ

Muslimatun (A Muslim woman)

ـَاتٌ

-aatun

مُسْلِمَاتٌ

Muslimaatun

Muslim Women

Chopping Rule: When making the female plural, you must completely chop off the original Ta' Marboota (ة) from Muslimatun before gluing on the "-aatun" suffix!

2. Adjective Matching Lab

Remember the Mirror Rule? If a noun is Plural, its adjective MUST also take the exactly matching plural suffix (`-oona` or `-aatun`)!

The male muslims are truthful.

Al-muslimoona saadiqoona.

اَلْمُسْلِمُونَ صَادِقُونَ

The female muslims are truthful.

Al-muslimaaatu saadiqaatun.

اَلْمُسْلِمَاتُ صَادِقَاتٌ

The male teachers are believers.

Al-mudarrisoona mu'minoona.

اَلْمُدَرِّسُونَ مُؤْمِنُونَ

The female teachers are believers.

Al-mudarrisaatu mu'minaatun.

اَلْمُدَرِّسَاتُ مُؤْمِنَاتٌ

The male engineers are famous.

Al-muhandisoona mashhooroona.

اَلْمُهَنْدِسُونَ مَشْهُورُونَ

The female engineers are famous.

Al-muhandisaatu mashhooraatun.

اَلْمُهَنْدِسَاتُ مَشْهُورَاتٌ