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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