Arabic nouns and adjectives are inflected for three numbers:

• Singular / المُفْرَِد
• Dual / المُثَنّى
• Plural / الجَمْع

Dual and plural in Arabic have different specificities which we’ll learn here.

Dual / المُثَنّى

When referring to two items or individuals, the dual is used – between the singular (for one thing/person) and plural (three or more things/people). To form a dual noun in Arabic, simply replace the singular ending with one of these suffixes: 

• In the nominative case (مَرْفُوع)

🢡 ـانِ… /āni/

• In the accusative (مَنْصوب) and genitive cases (مَجْرور)

🢡 ـَيْنِ… /ayni/ 

Note: The final tā marbūṭa (ة …ـة…) in singular nouns, is replaced by a regular ـتـ /t/ in dual endings:

Dual nominative (المُثَنّى المَرْفُوع)	Dual accusative / genitive (المُثَنّى المَنْصُوب / المَجْرور)	Singular (المُفْرَد)
مَدْرَسَتانِ  two schools	مَدْرَسَتَيْنِ  two schools	مَدْرَسَةٌ  a school

Noun modifications

In some cases, when the root of a word is weak or finishes with ي, و or hamza, its ending transforms before adding the dual suffix.

– Words ending with اء: 

• 🢡 If the ending اء is the mark of the feminine, the hamza turns into و :  

• 🢡 If the ending in اء is the mark of a weak root, the hamza is maintained or sometimes turns into و: 

– If a singular noun ends with a ى, it will become a ي:

Plural / الجَمْع

There are two types of plural in Arabic: 

• The sound plural (الجَمْعُ السالِمُ) which can be compared to the English regular plural.

• The broken plural (جَمْعُ التَكْسِيرِ) which can be compared to the English irregular plural.