Arabic: An Essential Grammar

Note: The preceding noun can also be made definite by occurring in the

id

̇

a ̄fah

construction, e.g.

ثلا َث ُةَّل ِم لَُّك ُت ُب ْلـ ُم َع

kutubu l-mu



allimi t

̄

-t

̄

ala ̄t

̄

atu

the three books of the teacher

34.17 To express numerical subsets, such as ‘one/two/three etc. of (a

given set)’, one uses the preposition ِم ْن min ‘from, (out) of’ before the

plural genitive form of the noun, e.g.

ل ِمَِّك َتا ٌب ِم ْن ُك ُت ِب ْلـ ُم َع

kita ̄bun min kutubi l-mu



allimi

one of the teacher’s books

ل ِمََّثلا َث ُة ُك ُت ٍب ِم ْن ُك ُت ِب ْلـ ُم َع

t

̄

ala ̄t

̄

atu kutubin min kutubi l-mu



allimi

three of the teacher’s books

34.18 The following are the most common ways of reading a

sequence of compound numbers. Reading the sequence numbers of the

year: The synonyms َعا ٌم



a ̄mun ‘year’ (masc.) and َس َن ٌة sanatun ‘year’

(fem.) have the accusative forms َعا َم



a ̄ma and َس َن َة sanata, respectively,

which are used in adverbial phrases of time. Then they follow the rules

of the

id

̇

a ̄fah construction, where the following noun is in the genitive

case, e.g.

َعا َم َأْل ٍف َو ِت ْس ِع ِم َئ ٍة َو ِت ْس َع ٍة َو ِت ْس ِعي َن (masc. acc.)



a ̄ma

alfin wa-tis



i mi

atin wa-tis



atin wa-tis



ı

• na

in the year 1999

ث َلا َث َة َع َش َرَّش َبا ُب لَّ َأل ث َلا َث َع ْش َر َةَّبا ُت لَّشاَّ َأل




asˇ-sˇaba ̄bu t

̄

-t

̄

ala ̄t

̄

ata



asˇara

asˇ-sˇabba ̄tu t

̄

-t

̄

ala ̄t

̄

a



asˇrata

the thirteen young men the thirteen young girls

264

Cardinal

numbers