Lebanese has two highly visible plural endings: ـين -īn, common with masculine human nouns and adjectives, and ـات -āt, common with many feminine nouns and borrowed objects. They are called “sound” plurals because the stem remains more recognizable than in a broken plural such as كتاب → كتب ktēb → ktob.
The labels do not create a perfect rule. مدرسة “school” is feminine but has broken plural مدارس; masculine تلفون “phone” commonly has تلفونات. Learn a noun with its plural, then use gender, animacy, and shape as supporting clues. Broken Plurals covers the competing internal patterns.
Spoken -īn with human masculine nouns
The ending ـين -īn is productive with many masculine labels for people, especially occupations, participles, and relational adjectives used as nouns. موظف mwaẓẓaf “employee” becomes موظفين mwaẓẓafīn; مهندس mhandes “engineer” becomes مهندسين mhandisīn.
الموظفين ناطرين بالمدخل.
el-mwaẓẓafīn nāṭrīn bil-madkhal.
The employees are waiting at the entrance. (informal)
المهندسين بعدهم بالاجتماع.
el-mhandisīn baʿdon bil-izhtimēʿ.
The engineers are still in the meeting. (informal)
Everyday Lebanese uses -īn in subject, object, and prepositional positions. It does not reproduce the formal Arabic alternation between -ūn and -īn based on case.
حكيت مع المعلمين بعد الصف.
ḥkēt maʿ el-mʿallmīn baʿd eṣ-ṣaff.
I spoke with the teachers after class. (informal)
English normally adds one broad -s plural to employee, engineer, and teacher. Lebanese -īn is narrower: it is strongly associated with human masculine morphology, while many other masculine nouns use broken plurals or -āt.
Spoken -āt with feminine nouns
For many nouns ending in ة, remove the citation ending, expose the t, and add ـات -āt: سيارة → سيارات sayyāra → sayyārāt, جامعة → جامعات zhēmʿa → zhēmʿāt. In spelling, the result ends in ordinary ت, not ةات.
السيارات واقفة عالطريق.
es-sayyārāt wēʾfe ʿaṭ-ṭarīʾ.
The cars are parked on the road. (informal)
الجامعات فاتحة التسجيل هالشهر.
el-zhēmʿāt fētḥa t-taszhīl hash-shaher.
The universities have registration open this month. (informal)
These nonhuman plurals take feminine singular agreement here: واقفة, فاتحة. The plural ending and the agreement form answer different questions. Sound plural formation belongs to the noun; agreement depends on humanness and syntax. See Human and Nonhuman Plurals.
A form table: ending, stem, and gender
| Singular | Plural | Singular gender | Plural type |
|---|---|---|---|
| موظف mwaẓẓaf | موظفين mwaẓẓafīn | masculine human | sound -īn |
| معلم mʿallem | معلمين mʿallmīn | masculine human | sound -īn |
| سيارة sayyāra | سيارات sayyārāt | feminine | sound -āt |
| جامعة zhēmʿa | جامعات zhēmʿāt | feminine | sound -āt |
| بنت bent | بنات banēt | feminine human | -āt with stem-vowel change |
| تلفون telefon | تلفونات telefonāt | masculine object | productive loan -āt |
| مدرسة madrase | مدارس madēres | feminine | broken, not sound |
The table prevents two bad generalizations: -āt does not prove that the singular is feminine, and feminine ة does not guarantee -āt. The plural class is part of the lexicon.
“Sound” does not mean “nothing changes”
The consonantal stem is usually transparent, but Lebanese vowels can reduce or shift. بنت → بنات is bent → banēt, not a simple bentāt. شغلة → شغلات is conventionally shaghle → shighlāt. With معلم → معلمين, the unstressed vowel pattern also compresses: mʿallem → mʿallmīn.
البنات قعدوا حد الشباك.
el-banēt ʾaʿado ḥadd esh-shobbēk.
The girls sat by the window. (informal)
عندي شغلات لازم خلصها اليوم.
ʿinde shighlāt lāzem khalliṣa l-yōm.
I have things I need to finish today. (informal)
This is a real learning burden. The suffix is regular, but the stem's spoken vowels are not always recoverable from a rule. Record the full plural aloud instead of memorizing “add -āt.”
Feminine nouns that reject productive -āt
Many high-frequency feminine nouns use broken plurals: مدرسة → مدارس “school(s),” غرفة → غرف “room(s),” قهوة → قهاوي “coffee(s)/cafés, depending context.” Their ة still marks a feminine singular, but plural selection is independent.
كل الغرف مطلة عالبحر.
kill el-ghoraf mṭalle ʿal-baḥar.
All the rooms overlook the sea. (informal)
المدارس سكرت بكير بسبب العاصفة.
el-madēres sakkaret bakkīr bsabab el-ʿāṣfe.
The schools closed early because of the storm. (informal)
Invented forms such as مدرسات can be interpreted as a different derivation or simply sound wrong for “schools.” There is no semantic shortcut that repairs a missing lexical plural.
Loans make -āt highly productive
Recent object loans frequently take -āt, even when their singular is masculine: إيميل → إيميلات, لينك → لينكات, لابتوب → لابتوبات. This lets an imported stem enter Arabic number morphology without requiring an internal broken pattern.
بعتلك الإيميلات واللينكات مبارح.
baʿatlak el-īmēlāt w-el-linkāt mbēreḥ.
I sent you the emails and links yesterday. (informal workplace speech)
اللابتوبات الجديدة غالية.
el-lābtōbāt el-zhdīde ghālye.
The new laptops are expensive. (informal)
The feminine singular agreement الجديدة غالية with the nonhuman plural does not retroactively make لابتوب a feminine singular. Loan gender and loan plural are separate facts; see Gender Assignment to Loanwords.
Two noun phrases in dialogue
الموظفين الجداد وصلوا؟
el-mwaẓẓafīn el-zhdād wiṣlo?
Dima: Did the new employees arrive? (informal dialogue)
إيه، والإيميلات الجديدة وصلت كمان.
ē, w-el-īmēlāt el-zhdīde wiṣlet kamēn.
Sami: Yes, and the new emails arrived too. (informal dialogue)
The human plural phrase الموظفين الجداد carries plural adjective and verb agreement. The nonhuman phrase الإيميلات الجديدة has a plural noun but feminine singular agreement. Ending choice and agreement must be learned as related but distinct systems.
Common Mistakes
Adding -īn to every masculine noun
❌ عندي كتابين كتار بالبيت.
Incorrect for 'many books' — كتابين is dual, not a general masculine plural.
✅ عندي كتب كتيرة بالبيت.
ʿinde ktob ktīre bil-bēt.
I have many books at home. (informal)
Adding -āt to every noun in ة
❌ المدرسات فاتحة.
Incorrect for 'the schools' — مدرسة selects the broken plural مدارس, not a mechanically invented -āt form.
✅ المدارس فاتحة.
el-madēres fētḥa.
The schools are open. (informal; broken plural)
Importing the formal -ūn ending
❌ المهندسون ناطرين.
Incorrect for everyday Lebanese — formal -ūn is replaced by spoken -īn.
✅ المهندسين ناطرين.
el-mhandisīn nāṭrīn.
The engineers are waiting. (informal)
Stacking English and Arabic plural markers
❌ بعت الفايلزات كلهم.
Incorrect as an integrated Lebanese plural — do not combine English -s with Arabic -āt.
✅ بعت الفايلات كلها.
baʿat el-fāylāt killa.
I sent all the files. (informal workplace speech)
Keeping ة before -āt
❌ عندي شغلةات كتيرة.
Incorrect — ة does not remain before the plural ending.
✅ عندي شغلات كتيرة.
ʿinde shighlāt ktīre.
I have a lot of things to do. (informal)
Key Takeaways
Spoken -īn is common with masculine human nouns and does not alternate for case. -āt is common with feminine nouns and highly productive with loans, including masculine singular loans. Neither ending is assigned by gender alone, and “sound” stems can still change their vowels. Learn each singular with its full spoken plural and then apply the appropriate human or nonhuman agreement pattern.
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Start learning Arabic →Related Topics
- The Productive Dual in Everyday LebaneseA2 — Form and use the Lebanese -ēn dual with objects, paired body parts, time expressions, and emphatic counting.
- Broken Plurals: How to Learn ThemA2 — Learn the recurring shapes of Lebanese broken plurals while treating each noun–plural pair as vocabulary used in context.
- Human and Nonhuman Plural BehaviorB1 — Understand why human plurals strongly select plural agreement while nonhuman plurals vary between plural and feminine-singular agreement in Lebanese.
- Gender Assignment to LoanwordsB1 — Use Lebanese agreement, word shape, meaning, and actual usage to determine the gender of borrowed nouns.
- Adjective Plurals in Lebanese ArabicB1 — Choose lexical broken plurals, productive -īn forms, or invariant loans and apply human versus nonhuman plural agreement in Lebanese.
- Agreement with Nonhuman PluralsB1 — Choose feminine-singular or plural agreement with Lebanese nonhuman plurals according to grouping, salience, animacy, and style.