Appendix:Arabic nominals

Multiple plurals
Arabic nouns often have multiple plural forms. For example can have plurals, , , or. These forms are alternative ways of pluralizing the same noun. Sometimes a particular plural form corresponds to a particular sense of the noun, for example in the word, the fifth sense of "the thing itself" has a distinct plural. In other cases it is a matter of preference or dialect. Attempts should be made to put the most common plural form first in entry headings with multiple plurals.

Derived nouns and adjectives
In Arabic, many types of nouns and adjectives can be derived from verbal roots. Typically, derivations and other patterns for triliteral verbs are indicated using the root. For quadriliteral (four-consonant) verbs, the classical root is, but this is unfortunate in that the third and fourth consonants are the same, which wrongly suggests a geminated verb. Instead, we use.

Verbal nouns
Verbal nouns of form I do not follow any particular pattern. Most common is but there are many others, e.g., , , , , , , , , , , , , , etc. as well as the corresponding feminines: , , , , , , , , , , etc.

Verbal nouns of the other forms do follow particular patterns:


 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

! Form !! Sound verbal noun !! Final-weak verbal noun
 * I || No particular pattern || No particular pattern
 * II ||, , , ||
 * III ||, || ,
 * IV || ||
 * V ||, ||
 * VI || ||
 * VII || ||
 * VIII || ||
 * IX || ||
 * X || ||
 * XI || ||
 * XII || ||
 * XIII || ||
 * XIV || || ??
 * XV || || ??
 * Iq ||, , , || ??
 * IIq || ||
 * IIIq || ||
 * IVq || || ??
 * }
 * XI || ||
 * XII || ||
 * XIII || ||
 * XIV || || ??
 * XV || || ??
 * Iq ||, , , || ??
 * IIq || ||
 * IIIq || ||
 * IVq || || ??
 * }
 * Iq ||, , , || ??
 * IIq || ||
 * IIIq || ||
 * IVq || || ??
 * }
 * IIIq || ||
 * IVq || || ??
 * }
 * }
 * }

Active participles
Active participles follow regular patterns:


 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

! Form !! Sound active participle !! Final-weak active participle
 * I || ||
 * II || ||
 * III || ||
 * IV || ||
 * V || ||
 * VI || ||
 * VII || ||
 * VIII || ||
 * IX || || ??
 * X || ||
 * XI || || ??
 * XII || ||
 * XIII || ||
 * XIV || || ??
 * XV || || ??
 * Iq || ||
 * IIq || ||
 * IIIq || ||
 * IVq || || ??
 * }
 * XI || || ??
 * XII || ||
 * XIII || ||
 * XIV || || ??
 * XV || || ??
 * Iq || ||
 * IIq || ||
 * IIIq || ||
 * IVq || || ??
 * }
 * Iq || ||
 * IIq || ||
 * IIIq || ||
 * IVq || || ??
 * }
 * IIIq || ||
 * IVq || || ??
 * }
 * }
 * }

Passive participles
Passive participles ( follow regular patterns:


 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

! Form !! Sound passive participle !! Final-weak passive participle
 * I || || ,
 * II || ||
 * III || ||
 * IV || ||
 * V || ||
 * VI || ||
 * VII || ||
 * VIII || ||
 * IX || || (??)
 * X || ||
 * XI || || (??)
 * XII || ||
 * XIII || ||
 * XIV || ||
 * XV || || ??
 * Iq || ||
 * IIq || ||
 * IIIq || ||
 * IVq || || ??
 * }
 * XI || || (??)
 * XII || ||
 * XIII || ||
 * XIV || ||
 * XV || || ??
 * Iq || ||
 * IIq || ||
 * IIIq || ||
 * IVq || || ??
 * }
 * Iq || ||
 * IIq || ||
 * IIIq || ||
 * IVq || || ??
 * }
 * IIIq || ||
 * IVq || || ??
 * }
 * }
 * }

Relative adjectives (nisba)
Relative adjectives, also known by the Arabic term nisba, are adjectives formed from another word by adding (usually pronounced as if written, also the pronunciation with yy returns in the feminine , the masculine plural , and the feminine plural ). This construction is quite flexible, and the nisba suffix can be added to any sort of noun, including plurals, as well as in some cases other parts of speech (e.g. from the adjective,  from the adjective ,  from the pronoun ,  from the adverb ). Nisba adjectives can also be formed directly from foreign words, such as, where no such word * exists.

When nisba adjectives are added to a feminine noun in or, this suffix is normally dropped, as in the adjective , formed from the noun. The common suffix occurring in country names (sometimes written, both forms borrowed from ) is also dropped; for example, from  is formed. Other suffixes may also be dropped, e.g. from is formed  (also  or ).

In some cases, especially in very short words with only consonants and a short vowel intervening, a linking consonant added, as in from,  from ,  from ,  from  (also  without a linking consonant). The particular linking consonant is usually, but may be a different consonant if that consonant appears in other derived forms of the underlying word; cf. , also, from (cf. plural , also ). Note that linking consonants are not used in cases like with a long vowel (from ) or  with a geminate consonant (from ). Linking consonants may also appear with stems from final-weak roots, e.g. from,  from. Examples with a linking are  from  and  from. Sometimes the stem may be distorted (usually shortened) in the nisba, as in just mentioned (also pronounced ) and  from.

Relative nouns (nisba)
Relative (nisba) adjectives can be freely made into nouns. For example, from the adjective is derived the noun  and from the adjective  is formed the noun. These nouns form feminines and plurals the same way as the corresponding adjectives.

In addition, the feminine nisba noun frequently has the meaning of an abstract noun, e.g. from  or  from  (in turn formed from ). In some cases, it is best to view these nouns as being formed directly using a suffix, especially since the corresponding word in may not exist. Examples are formed from,  formed from  and  formed from  (note that the last two examples are formed from parts of speech other than nouns).

Basic adjectives
Many adjectives are formed from the triliteral root using the pattern, for instance:
 * from
 * from }
 * from }
 * from }
 * from }
 * from }

Some nouns also use this form: for instance,.

The masculine plural is sound, or broken. The most common patterns are and ; others include, , and.


 * singular, plural
 * singular, plural or
 * singular, plural

Elative adjectives
Elative adjectives ( or ) are formed from basic triliteral adjectives, typically of the form or, but also forms like , , or. The elative is formed directly from the root of the adjective and has the diptote form in the masculine singular. Elatives have the meaning of comparatives (as in English smarter or more intelligent), superlatives (as in English smartest or most intelligent), and absolute superlatives (as in English very smart, utterly intelligent). The difference is often expressed through different syntactical constructions. A few adjectives are formally elative without having an elative meaning, for example. Conversely, some adjectives are used as elatives without being in elative form, for example.

The inflectional pattern for elative adjectives is as follows: The feminine singular has the form, which is invariable with regard to case and state. The masculine plural is diptote, or sound. The feminine plural is either or sound. An example with full declension is, elative of. This adjective has feminine singular, masculine plurals and , and feminine plural.

Some elatives, like and, follow these inflections consistently. Most elatives, however, can be in the form of the masculine singular even when they refer to feminine or plural nouns. In fact, only a limited number of inflected elative forms are current in contemporary Arabic, and these are typically restricted to the absolute superlative sense; as in. In Classical Arabic, inflected elative forms were used more freely.

Color or defect adjectives
Color or defect adjectives are adjectives of the form, with feminine singular , generally referring to colors and physical defects. Both masculine and feminine are diptotes. Note that the masculine singular has the same form as elative adjectives, but the feminine singular is different. The plural, both masculine and feminine, is usually of the form, but there are exceptions, e.g. , with regular plural but also the plurals ,  and. Prototypical examples of color adjectives of this form are: There are others, such as but most remaining common colors are in the form of nisba adjectives, e.g.
 * , and
 * , and
 * , and
 * , and
 * , and
 * and
 * and
 * (literally "coffee", based on ),
 * (based on )
 * (based on ), etc.

Prototypical "defect" adjectives do refer to actual physical defects such as but others refer to mental defects such as while others refer to characteristics that may have negative connotations but are not obviously "defects", such as and yet others have meanings that cannot in any way be characterized as defects, e.g.
 * and
 * , and
 * , and
 * , and
 * , and
 * , and
 * , and
 * , and
 * and
 * and

First-weak and second-weak roots are formed the same way as strong roots, e.g. and ; third-weak roots are formed on the pattern  e.g. ; geminated roots are formed on the pattern  e.g..

Collective nouns
Collective nouns have the form of a singular but the meaning of a plural. Most collective nouns refer to non-humans (usually animals or plants), but there also exist collectives for people or other intelligent beings. These latter are sometimes called ethnic collectives. They often take plural agreement, whereas non-human collectives generally take singular agreement.

The noun with the corresponding singular meaning is the singulative (see below). From it, an actual plural can often be formed.

Singulative nouns
Singulative nouns have a singular meaning and are formed from collective nouns by adding, unless the collective refers to people or intelligent beings, in which case the ending is the nisba ending , e.g. , , or , , or ,.

Singulative nouns form plurals in the normal way, e.g. from the plural. This form and the collective both translate to English as “trees”. The difference is that considers them individually,  collectively. (A similar case in English may be the difference between and .) The plurals of singulative nouns are sometimes called plurals of variety; this term is somewhat misleading, but is based on the fact that  is also used in the sense of “different kinds of trees”.

Instance nouns
Instance nouns have the meaning "an instance of doing something" and are formed from verbal nouns by adding, e.g. from the verbal noun  is formed  and from the verbal noun  is formed.

Nouns of place
Nouns of place are typically derived from verbal roots and have the approximate meaning “the place for doing x ”, where x is the meaning of the verb. Nouns of place of the base stem generally have the  prefix, bearing the forms , , , , rarely.

Examples are:
 * and, from
 * , from
 * , from.
 * , from.
 * and, from

Some nouns of place are formed from non-verbal roots, e.g., formed from the root of , and meaning literally “place of coffee”.

Nouns of place of non-form-I verbs take the same form as the passive participle, meaning they begin with, such as , formed from the form-X verb , hence “place for seeking a cure”, of  and  of  “park, where one strolls upon”,  from the -verb.

Tool nouns
Tool nouns are typically derived from verbs and have the approximate meaning tool for doing X where X is the meaning of the underlying verb. Tool nouns usually have the prefix and are often of the form,  or. Examples are:
 * , from
 * , from
 * , from
 * , from
 * , from
 * , also, from
 * , from
 * , from

Some such nouns are derived from other nouns, having the approximate meaning "tool related to X":
 * , also, from
 * , from the root of

A recent trend is to instead derive tool nouns from the feminine of occupational/characteristic nouns/adjectives or active participles, perhaps calqued on English:
 * , from ,
 * , from, from
 * , from, from ; compare
 * (cf., , , from , from

Some tool nouns are derived directly from active participles:
 * (originally "mover"), from

Occupational nouns
Occupational nouns can be derived from many verb stems, generally using the form, e.g. from.

The active participle can also be used to form occupational nouns, e.g. from,  from ,  from ,  from. The words using the form often have plurals of the form  or sometimes ; sometimes both plurals exist with different meanings, e.g.  but.

In addition, some occupational nouns are in the form of a nisba (with an suffix), e.g.  or, derived respectively from  and.

Characteristic nouns and adjectives
Characteristic nouns can be derived from verb stems using the form, creating nouns with the meaning of "person who habitually does X", e.g. . Note that this is the same form as is used for many occupational nouns. Characteristic adjectives have the same form as characteristic nouns, e.g.,.

Diminutives
Diminutives can be derived from triliteral nouns and some quadriliteral and longer nouns using the form or ;  for quadriliteral and longer nouns. Diminutives are not very productive in Modern Standard Arabic or in many modern dialects (e.g. Egyptian) but were much more productive in some Classical Arabic dialects, as evidenced by their continuing productivity and prevalence in some dialects, such as Moroccan Arabic, where nearly every noun has an associated diminutive. A diminutive noun has the meaning "a small X" or "a cute, little X". Some examples are from,  from , and  from. An example from a long noun is from. Feminine diminutives are also possible, e.g. from  and  (compare ).