Lesson 8

Two Objects

In English when we want to refer to the existence of two things, we use number “Two”, like this:

Two men – Two books – Two beds

In Arabic we do not use number “Two”, but we use something does not exist in English. This thing called “Muthanna”.

“Muthanna” means adding two letters at the end of the noun. These two letters are “ين”.

In classical Arabic sometimes we add “ين”, and sometimes we add “ان” at the end of the word. Each of these ends has its rule. I will not talk about these rules, because we just use “ين” in Arabic slang.

Remember: Sometimes we do not use the correct grammatical rules in slang.

Now, let’s take some examples for “Muthanna”:

English	Arabic	Pronunciation
Two men	رجلين
Two women	مراتين / اتنين ستات
Two girls	بنتين
Two boys	ولدين
Two books	كتابين
Two notebooks	كراستين
Two papers	ورقتين
Two Pens	قلمين
Two pencils	قلمين رصاص
Two chairs	كرسيين
Two beds	سريرين
Two walls	حيطتين
Two windows	شباكين
Two flowers	وردتين
Two Trees	شجرتين
Two buildings	عمارتين
Two cars	عربيتين
Two trains	قطرين
Two pearls	لؤلؤتين
Two twins	توأمين

When we want to refer to a specific number of objects greater than two, we use one of two formulas. The first one is:

Number + Plural Noun

These are some examples:

English	Arabic	Pronunciation
Three pens	تلت قلامة
Five buildings	خمس عمارات
Six windows	ست شبابيك
Ten chairs	عشر كراسى

The second formula is:

Number + Plural Noun + ات

Here are some examples for this one:

English	Plural	Wrong	Right	Pronunciation
Three papers	ورق	تلت ورق	تلت ورقات
Five flowers	ورد	خمس ورد	خمس وردات
Six trees	شجر	ست شجر	ست شجرات
Ten pearls	لؤلؤ	عشر لؤلؤ	عشر لؤلؤات

Do not worry; you will learn how to make these two kinds of plural with time, and when your vocabulary become bigger.

Remember: I will teach you the numbers later.