Sarf · morphologyNumber & plural typecore term
Also written: Jam · Plural · Plurals · Arabic plurals
In one line
The plural — three or more. Arabic forms it two ways: sound (suffix, singular intact) or broken (internal reshape).
Classical definition
الجَمْعُ مَا دَلَّ عَلَى أَكْثَرَ مِنَ اثْنَيْنِ: فَإِنْ سَلِمَ فِيهِ بِنَاءُ الْمُفْرَدِ فَهُوَ جَمْعٌ سَالِمٌ، وَإِنْ تَغَيَّرَ فَهُوَ جَمْعُ تَكْسِيرٍ.
“The plural indicates more than two: if the structure of the singular survives intact it is a sound plural; if it changes, a broken plural.”
(بتصرف من شذا العرف)
Understand it
Arabic has three numbers — singular, dual, and plural (three or more) — and two completely different ways of building the plural. The sound plural bolts an ending onto an intact singular: مُسْلِمٌ → مُسْلِمُونَ (masculine) or مُسْلِمَاتٌ (feminine). The broken plural reaches inside and rearranges the word: قَلَمٌ → أَقْلَامٌ, كِتَابٌ → كُتُبٌ. And one rule governs how plurals behave: broken plurals of non-rational things take feminine SINGULAR agreement — تِلْكَ آيَاتُ اللهِ, with the feminine singular demonstrative.
How to spot it
Recognition test
Three or more. An added ـُونَ/ـِينَ or ـَات ending = sound plural; if you must rearrange the inside of the word to recover the singular, it is broken.
In the Qur'an
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ
Al-Mu'minun 23:1 — “Successful indeed are the believers”
الْمُؤْمِنُونَ is a sound masculine plural in raf' — the ـُونَ ending marks both its plurality and its case in one stroke.
Don't confuse it with
Don't confuse the sound plural ـِينَ with the dual ـَيْنِ: kasra before the ya marks the plural, fatha before the ya marks the dual.
Related terms
▶ Watch the lessons
From the free course The Language of Quran — Easier than English (Book 1) (LoQ1), taught by Ustad Muhammad Arjan Ali.
Common questions
Why does the Quran use feminine verbs with plural subjects like “the nations”?
Because a broken plural of non-rational nouns is treated grammatically as singular feminine — its verbs, adjectives, demonstratives and pronouns all take the feminine singular form. It is not an exception; it is the system.
Domain: Sarf · Category: Number & plural type · Frequency in the Qur'an: 0 · Source: بتصرف من شذا العرف, cross-checked against the Quranic corpus · Reviewed by Ustad M. Arjan Ali