Page 263 - The Rough Guide Phrasebook - Egyptian Arabic
P. 263

tarabayzit el akl
                             akl
                            food
                   table
                                          the food table
                      tarabayza   tīyāra   tazkarit el tīyāra  HOW
                  tazkara
                   ticket   plane        the plane ticket   THE
               words (see below); it is also used with possessive suffixes (see
               page 268).
               Plurals of Nouns
               There are three types of plural in Arabic: the dual, the stand-
               ard and the collective plural.
               The construct form is also used to form the plural of some  LANGUAGE
               Dual Plural
               This is used when referring to two of anything. It is formed by   WORKS
               adding a suffix to the singular form of the noun.
               nouns that do not end in -a, add -ayn to the noun:
               To  form  the  dual  plural  of  masculine  nouns  and  feminine
                        mat-haf         mat-hafayn           ■      N o u n s
                        museum         two museums
                          atr            atrayn
                         train          two trains
               To  form  the  dual  plural  of  feminine  nouns  ending  in  -a,
               remove the final -a and add -tayn:
                         ezaza           ezaztayn
                         bottle         two bottles
                        madrasa         madrastayn
                         school         two schools
                       aarabayya       aarabaytayn
                          car            two cars
               For some nouns, the dual plural is formed by adding -ayn to
               the construct form:

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