Page 264 - The Rough Guide Phrasebook - Egyptian Arabic

sha’a
sha’itayn
gizmitayn
gizma
apartment two apartments
HOW
shoe two shoes
Standard Plural
THE
To form this, add -een to masculine nouns:
farrān farraneen
baker bakers
Add -t to feminine nouns and change the final a to ā:
magalla magallāt
LANGUAGE
magazine magazines
Collective Plural
This plural is used to describe a whole class or group
of items and it mostly occurs with fruit and vegetables
WORKS
collectively and generally. The collective plural of fruit and

vegetables is more widely used than the singular or standard
plural. If you need to refer to a singular item, you can do so
by adding -a to the collective form:
toffāh (pl) toffāha (sing)
■ N o u n s
apples an apple
khayār khayāra
cucumbers a cucumber
The singular and standard plural forms of these types of noun
are only used if it is necessary to specify the number of items:
collective plural singular standard plural
mishmish mishmisha talat mishmishāt
apricots an apricot three apricots
Further examples of the collective form are:
bayd samak shaar shagar
eggs fish hair trees

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