Broken Plural Case Endings

Arabic nouns change their last vowel based on their role. This depends on their job in the sentence. We call these "cases." There are three main cases you need to know. The Nominative case is marfu'. The Accusative case is mansub. The Genitive case is majrur. Broken plurals behave exactly like singular nouns for these. They use the standard short vowels at the very end. For marfu', you use a dhamma. For mansub, you use a fatha. For majrur, you use a kasra. If the word is indefinite, you use tanween. That means doubling the vowel sound. For example, kutubun means "books." If the word is definite, use only one vowel. For example, al-kutubu means "the books." It is like a grammar traffic light. The ending tells you the word's role. Red means stop and look at the ending vowel!

1. 1Broken plurals don't have one single suffix rule. They follow various rhythmic patterns instead.
2. 2The af'al pattern: walad (boy) becomes awlad (boys).
3. 3The fu'ul pattern: qalb (heart) becomes qulub (hearts).
4. 4The kutub pattern: kitab (book) becomes kutub (books).
5. 5The mafa'il pattern: masjid (mosque) becomes masajid (mosques).
6. 6Don't try to memorize every single pattern yet. You will start to hear the music of the language. Arabic is a very rhythmic language. Soon, your ears will just "know" the right shape. It is like learning a new song. The melody of the word tells you it is plural.

Use the Nominative (dhamma) for subjects. Imagine you are at a bookstore. You say: al-kutubu jamilatun. This means "The books are beautiful." The books are the subject here. Use the Accusative (fatha) for objects. You tell the clerk: uridu kutuban. This means "I want books." "Books" is the object of your desire. Use the Genitive (kasra) after prepositions. You might ask: hal al-qalamu fi al-kutubi? This means "Is the pen in the books?" The little word fi (in) triggers the kasra. This works in professional settings too. In a job interview, you talk about your tajarib (experiences). You might say: ladayya tajaribu kathiratun. This means "I have many experiences." See? The plural fits everywhere naturally.

Do not use these rules for "Sound Plurals." Sound plurals are for specific groups of words. Mostly, they are for human professions or specific feminine words. Sound Masculine Plurals end in una or ina. Sound Feminine Plurals end in at. If a word is a "Sound Plural," stop! It uses different case ending rules entirely. Broken plurals are for most objects and many human words. They are the "rebels" of Arabic grammar. They don't like the standard suffixes. If you see a suffix like una, it's not broken. It is that simple. Keep your eyes on the word's tail.

The biggest mistake is the "English Brain" effect. You might try to add at to every word. "Book-at" is not a real word! Always check if the word is broken first. Another mistake is forgetting the tanween. If there is no al- at the start, you need tanween. Say kutubun, not just kutubu. Unless it is a special "Diptote" word like masajid. But we will worry about those later. Also, watch out for the object case. Many learners use dhamma for everything. "I saw the boys" is ra'aytu al-awlada. Don't say al-awladu here! It is like wearing shoes on your hands. It works, but it looks very weird to everyone else.

Compare broken plurals to singular nouns first. Singular: al-kitabu (The book). Broken Plural: al-kutubu (The books). The endings are identical! This is your secret weapon. Now compare them to Sound Masculine Plurals. Sound: al-mu'allimuna (The teachers). The ending is a whole extra syllable una. Broken plurals are much shorter and subtler. They rely on that tiny final vowel. It is the difference between a whisper and a shout. The broken plural is the whisper. The sound plural is the shout. Both are correct, but they follow different paths.