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and each must be learnt as an exception. For instance:
| Sing. | Plur. | Sing. | Plur. |
| shibāk, a window, | shebabīk. | fūtah, a towel, | fowāt. |
| gebel, a mountain, | gebāl. | heytah, a wall, | heytān. |
| merkeb, a ship, | merákib. | walad, a boy, | āulād. |
| beyt, a house, | beyūt. | ḥakīm, | a doctor, ḥukama. |
The dual form is obtained by adding -eyn; thus, rāgil, a man; rāgileyn tāyyibeyn, two good men.
THE DEFINITE ARTICLE.
The definite article el, the, is repeated with a qualifying adjective. Thus el geysh el kebīr, the large army. It has no feminine or plural form. Before certain letters el suffers elision and duplicates the initial letter of the following word. Thus, en nār, the fire; esh shems, the sun.
THE NEGATIVE.
The negative is peculiar. "Not" is mush, compounded of ma, not, and shey, a thing, and can be separated like ne pas in French.
Thus, "I know" is ana'aref; "I don't know," ana ma'arefsh or manīsh 'aref, or simply mush 'aref.[1]
THE ADJECTIVE.
Comparative and Superlative.
The forms are regular, and as follows:−
ḥasan, good (beautiful); aḥsan, better; el aḥsan, the best.
shāter, clever; ashter, cleverer; el ashter, the cleverest.
ketīr, many (much); aktir, more; el aktir, most
(classical, el aksir, hence "elixir").
kebīr, great; akbar, greater; el akbar, greatest.
e.g., Allāhu 'l akbar! God is the greatest !
Genders.
The feminine of adjectives is formed by adding the letter hey.
Thus, the feminine form of the above words becomes ḥasanah, shātirah, ketīrah, &c.
- ↑ In the Sudan the form is ma b'aref, and is more correct Arabic. Egyptian S.-T. 5"
