Plural nouns that refer to humans normally take full plural adjective agreement in Arabic. A masculine human group takes a masculine plural adjective, and an all-female group takes a feminine plural adjective: المعلمون الجدد “the new male teachers” but المعلمات الجديدات “the new female teachers.” A mixed-gender group conventionally takes masculine plural agreement.
Traditional Arabic grammar calls this the agreement of the rational (العاقل) plural. On this page, the practical core is human reference in (formal) contemporary Modern Standard Arabic. The contrast with nonhuman plurals is crucial: things normally take feminine singular agreement, even when their noun is morphologically plural; compare Adjectives with Non-Human Plurals.
A four-way agreement set
Singular nouns use singular adjectives, while plural human nouns use plural adjectives. The following natural arrival reports put the verb before its subject. Neutral formal MSA therefore keeps the verb singular, but the postnominal adjective still shows the subject's full gender and number.
وصل المعلم الجديد مبكرا.
waṣala l-muʿallimu l-jadīdu mubakkirā.
The new male teacher arrived early.
وصلت المعلمة الجديدة مبكرا.
waṣalati l-muʿallimatu l-jadīdatu mubakkirā.
The new female teacher arrived early.
وصل المعلمون الجدد مبكرا.
waṣala l-muʿallimūna l-jududu mubakkirā.
The new male teachers arrived early.
وصلت المعلمات الجديدات مبكرا.
waṣalati l-muʿallimātu l-jadīdātu mubakkirā.
The new female teachers arrived early.
English changes only the noun from teacher to teachers. Arabic makes the adjective choose a number and gender form too. The verb pattern seen above is not an exception to the adjective rule: verb agreement in verb–subject order and adjective agreement inside a noun phrase are different systems.
Masculine human plurals
A group of men or a group conventionally expressed with a masculine plural noun takes a masculine plural adjective. Many participial adjectives form a sound masculine plural: مجتهد ← مجتهدون, ماهر ← ماهرون. Other common adjectives have broken plurals that must be learned lexically: جديد ← جدد, صغير ← صغار, and كبير ← كبار.
| Singular adjective | Human masculine plural | Example phrase |
|---|---|---|
| مجتهد | مجتهدون | طلاب مجتهدون |
| ماهر | ماهرون | مترجمون ماهرون |
| جديد | جدد | موظفون جدد |
| صغير | صغار | أطفال صغار |
المبرمجون الماهرون أصلحوا الأنظمة القديمة.
ʾal-mubarmijūna l-māhirūna ʾaṣlaḥū l-ʾanẓimata l-qadīma(h).
The skilled programmers repaired the old systems.
الأطفال الصغار يلعبون في الحديقة بعد المدرسة.
ʾal-ʾaṭfālu ṣ-ṣighāru yalʿabūna fī l-ḥadīqati baʿda l-madrasa(h).
The young children play in the park after school.
Plural morphology belongs to each word independently. A broken plural noun does not force a broken plural adjective, and a sound plural noun does not force a sound plural adjective. الموظفون الجدد combines a sound masculine plural noun with a broken plural adjective; both nevertheless express masculine human plural agreement.
Feminine human plurals
An all-female group takes feminine plural agreement. Adjectives commonly form this with ـات: ماهرة ← ماهرات, جديدة ← جديدات, مجتهدة ← مجتهدات. The actual people in the group, not the gender of the English occupation word, determine the form.
الطبيبات الماهرات شاركن في المؤتمر الطبي.
ʾaṭ-ṭabībātu l-māhirātu shārakna fī l-muʾtamari ṭ-ṭibbiyy.
The skilled female doctors participated in the medical conference.
استقبلت الشركة المهندسين الجدد والمهندسات الجديدات.
ʾistaqbalati sh-sharikatu l-muhandisīna l-jududa wa-l-muhandisāti l-jadīdāt.
The company welcomed the new male and female engineers.
In the second example, masculine المهندسين visibly takes accusative ـين, while sound feminine المهندساتِ takes accusative kasra. Broken plural الجددَ and sound feminine الجديداتِ match their respective nouns in the same accusative case through different endings.
تحدثت مع الأطباء الماهرين والممرضات الماهرات في المستشفى.
taḥaddathtu maʿa l-ʾaṭibbāʾi l-māhirīna wa-l-mumarriḍāti l-māhirāti fī l-mustashfā.
I spoke with the skilled male doctors and female nurses at the hospital.
Mixed groups use masculine plural agreement
When a coordinated group includes male and female people, standard Arabic conventionally uses masculine plural agreement for an adjective applying to the group as a whole. This is grammatical gender resolution, not a claim that the women are absent from the group.
الطلاب والطالبات جميعهم مستعدون لبدء الامتحان.
ʾaṭ-ṭullābu wa-ṭ-ṭālibātu jamīʿuhum mustaʿiddūna li-badʾi l-imtiḥān.
The male and female students are all ready for the exam to begin.
اجتمع المديرون الجدد والموظفات الجديدات لمناقشة الخطة.
ʾijtamaʿa l-mudīrūna l-jududu wa-l-muwaẓẓafātu l-jadīdātu li-munāqashati l-khuṭṭa(h).
The new male managers and female employees met to discuss the plan.
In the first sentence, masculine plural predicate مستعدون unambiguously applies to the complete mixed subject, and جميعهم confirms that scope. When an attributive adjective restricts two separately expressed noun phrases, careful (formal) prose often repeats it, as in المديرون الجدد والموظفات الجديدات. Repetition preserves each noun's local agreement and avoids an attachment ambiguity.
Humans versus nonhumans
The grammatical split is semantic. Human plural السائحون takes plural المتعبون, whereas nonhuman plural الخيول takes feminine singular السريعة. The singular noun حصان is masculine, but that does not carry over to its nonhuman plural agreement target.
وصل السائحون المتعبون على ظهور الخيول السريعة.
waṣala s-sāʾiḥūna l-mutʿabūna ʿalā ẓuhūri l-khuyūli s-sarīʿa(h).
The tired tourists arrived on the backs of the fast horses.
المحللون الجدد راجعوا البيانات الجديدة بعناية.
ʾal-muḥallilūna l-jududu rājaʿū l-bayānāti l-jadīdata bi-ʿināya(h).
The new analysts reviewed the new data carefully.
Collective meaning alone does not create a plural. Singular فريق “team” takes singular الفريق الجديد even though a team contains people. Conversely, a true plural referring to its human members, such as الخبراء “the experts,” takes a plural adjective. Always locate the grammatical head before applying the semantic human–nonhuman test.
Phrase versus predicate
Definiteness separates an adjective inside a noun phrase from a predicate. الموظفون الجدد is “the new employees”: both noun and adjective are definite. الموظفون جدد is a complete present-tense sentence, “the employees are new”: the predicate is indefinite.
الموظفون الجدد
ʾal-muwaẓẓafūna l-jududu
the new male employees
الموظفون جدد.
ʾal-muwaẓẓafūna judud.
The male employees are new.
Both الجدد and جدد are masculine human plural. Their article contrast diagnoses modifier versus predicate; number agreement alone cannot do that job.
Iḍāfa scope
Agreement can show whether an adjective modifies a plural human head or a singular dependent. In مديرو الشركة, construct-state مديرو loses the ن of nominative مديرون. A following masculine plural adjective can modify the managers; a feminine singular genitive adjective can modify الشركة.
حضر مديرو الشركة الجدد.
ḥaḍara mudīrū sh-sharikati l-judud.
The company's new managers attended.
حضر مديرو الشركة الجديدة.
ḥaḍara mudīrū sh-sharikati l-jadīda(h).
The managers of the new company attended.
Common Mistakes
Putting the adjective before the human noun
❌ قابلت الماهرين المترجمين بعد الجلسة.
Incorrect for the neutral phrase “the skilled translators” — the attributive adjective follows its noun.
✅ قابلت المترجمين الماهرين بعد الجلسة.
qābaltu l-mutarjimīna l-māhirīna baʿda l-jalsa(h).
I met the skilled translators after the session.
Leaving an adjective indefinite inside a definite phrase
❌ وصل الموظفون جدد الذين بدؤوا أمس.
Incorrect — الذين attaches to the definite phrase “the new employees,” so the attributive adjective must also be definite.
✅ وصل الموظفون الجدد الذين بدؤوا أمس.
waṣala l-muwaẓẓafūna l-jududu lladhīna badaʾū ʾams.
The new employees who started yesterday arrived.
Giving a nonhuman plural human agreement
❌ راجع المحللون التقارير المفيدون.
Incorrect — تقارير is nonhuman, so its adjective must be feminine singular.
✅ راجع المحللون التقارير المفيدة.
rājaʿa l-muḥallilūna t-taqārīra l-mufīda(h).
The analysts reviewed the useful reports.
Using masculine agreement for an all-female group
❌ شاركت الطبيبات الماهرون في الندوة.
Incorrect — an all-female human group requires feminine plural adjective agreement.
✅ شاركت الطبيبات الماهرات في الندوة.
shārakati ṭ-ṭabībātu l-māhirātu fī n-nadwa(h).
The skilled female doctors participated in the seminar.
Using feminine plural agreement for an entire mixed group
❌ المهندسون والمهندسات جميعهم مستعدات لعرض المشروع.
Incorrect for a predicate applying to the complete mixed group — standard gender resolution is masculine plural.
✅ المهندسون والمهندسات جميعهم مستعدون لعرض المشروع.
ʾal-muhandisūna wa-l-muhandisātu jamīʿuhum mustaʿiddūna li-ʿarḍi l-mashrūʿ.
The male and female engineers are all ready to present the project.
Key Takeaways
- Human plurals normally take full plural adjective agreement.
- Masculine groups use masculine plural adjectives; all-female groups use feminine plural adjectives.
- A mixed-gender human group conventionally resolves to masculine plural agreement.
- Each adjective has its own sound or broken plural; its morphology need not match the noun's plural type.
- Nonhuman plurals take feminine singular agreement, and a preceding verb's number is governed by separate word-order rules.
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