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Dual in Arabic Grammar

1. What are dual nouns in Arabic?
2. How to make Arabic dual nouns?
3. Examples of dual formation
4. Examples of dual nouns in Arabic

What are dual nouns in Arabic?

In Arabic, the plural starts from three. We have something in between singular Arabic nouns and their plural forms, i.e. the dual. This form of nouns counts dual, i.e. two men, two teachers, two houses.
The Arabic name for the dual form is مُثَنّٰى (musannaa).

The singular is called وَاحِدٌ (wahid), and the Arabic translation of plural noun is جَمْعٌ (Jama).

In this lesson, we are going to learn how to make the dual ( مُثَنّٰى ) from a singular noun ( وَاحِد ), and in the next lesson, we will learn how to make plurals ( جَمْع ) from singulars.

Along with the name مُثَنّٰى , you might hear another Arabic word often used for the dual noun, that is تَثْنِيْةٌ .
تَثْنِيْةٌ is, in fact, the name of the process of making dual nouns from singular nouns.
Today, in the Indo-Europian family, only Slovenian and Sorbian languages have functional dual nouns.

How to make Arabic dual nouns?

Formation of the dual noun ( مُثَنّٰى ) from a singular ( وَاحِد ) is extremely easy. Masculine مُذَكَّر and feminine ( مُؤَنَّث ) singular nouns follow the same pattern to form duals.

1. Place fatah ( ـَ ) on the last letter of the word.
2. If the last consonant of the noun is ta marbootah ( ة ), change it into open ta ( ت ).
3. Add suffix انِ-   after the last letter.

Examples of dual formation

Example 1

For example, we take the singular noun عَيْنٌ (eye) to make the dual, i.e. two eyes.

1. ن is the last letter in the word عَيْنٌ. We would place the vowel fatah ( ـَ ) on the letter ن , i.e.
   عَيْنَ
2. The last letter of the word is not ta marbootah ( ة ), so this step is out.
3. Place the suffix انِ- , i.e.
   عَيْنَانِ   which means two eyes.

Example 2

As a second example, we take the word اِمْرَاَةٌ (woman) that ends in ta marbootah ( ة ).

1. Assign fatah ( ـَ ) to the last consonant.
   اِمْرَاَةَ
2. Change ta marbootah ( ة ) into open ta ( ت ).
   اِمْرَاَتَ
3. Assign the suffix انِ-.
   اِمْرَاَتَانِ   (two woman)

Example 3

The first two examples are of singular nouns conversions into dual nouns. Adjectives in Arabic grammar also have singular and dual forms. The process of converting a singular adjective into dual is exactly the same as in nouns' conversion.

We take the example adjective طَوِيْلٌ (long) and its feminine form طَوِيْلَةٌ to see how singular adjectives can be transformed into dual adjectives.
To read more about masculine and feminine adjectives, please visit the previous lesson, Arabic gender.

1. Assign fatah ( ـَ ) to last consonants.
   طَوِيْلَ , طَوِيْلَةَ
2. Change ta marbootah ( ة ) into open ta ( ت ).
   Only the feminine adjective طَوِيْلَةَ has ة.
   طَوِيْلَتَ
3. Assign the suffix انِ-.
   

   طَوِيْلٌ ⇜ طَوِيْلَانِ
   طَوِيْلَةٌ ⇜ طَوِيْلَتَانِ

The question here rises, where do we need dual adjectives?
In a sentence or phrasal construction, the number and gender of the adjective must meet the number and gender of the respective noun. This rule applies to both, real or biological genders as well as to non-real grammatical genders, i.e,

1. If the noun is masculine, the corresponding adjective must also be masculine. If the noun is feminine, its adjective must also be feminine.
2. If the noun is singular, its adjective would also be singular. If the noun is dual, the corresponding adjective must also be in dual form.

In the previous lesson, we saw two examples of phrasal constructions. One with the singular masculine with adjective and another with the singular feminine noun with its adjective:

A tall man

رَجُلٌ طَوِيْلٌ

A tall woman

اِمْرَأَةٌ طَوِيْلَةٌ

Now, if we convert the above-mentioned singular nouns into their dual form, their corresponding adjectives must also become duals.

Two tall women

اِمْرَاتَانِ طَوِيْلَتَانِ

Two tall men

رَجُلَانِ طَوِيْلَانِ

Though, we can now construct simple phrasis and sentences but phrase and sentence construction is not our topic in this lesson. We just want to concentrate on Arabic dual nouns.

Below is chart with singular feminine and singular mascular nouns from the previous lesson. First try to make their dual by yourself, then match these with the chart.

Examples of dual nouns in Arabic

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