Singular, Dual, and Plural Adjectives | Arabic (Modern Standard) Grammar

An Arabic adjective normally follows the noun it describes and agrees with it in gender, number, definiteness, and case. English adjectives never change in a new employee, two new employees, and new employees; Arabic adjectives do. The useful question is therefore not simply “What is the plural of this adjective?” but “What kind of noun is this adjective agreeing with here?”

This page teaches the number choices used in (formal) contemporary Modern Standard Arabic. Full case endings are common in careful reading and recitation; ordinary formal speech often uses pausal forms at the end of an utterance. Both belong to MSA, and the examples pronounce endings only where they are structurally useful. For the lexical gender forms that these number endings build on, see Masculine and Feminine Adjective Forms.

The agreement map

For singular and dual nouns, the adjective copies the noun's gender and number directly. Human plurals also take plural adjectives. A nonhuman plural, however, normally takes a feminine singular adjective.

Noun type	Usual adjective target	Example phrase
masculine singular	masculine singular	موظف جديد
feminine singular	feminine singular	موظفة جديدة
masculine dual	masculine dual	موظفان جديدان
feminine dual	feminine dual	موظفتان جديدتان
human plural	matching plural	موظفون جدد / موظفات جديدات
nonhuman plural	feminine singular	ملفات جديدة

Here is the basic four-way singular–plural reference set for people. The adjective جديد changes with both gender and number.

هذا موظف جديد.

hādhā muwaẓẓafun jadīd.

This is a new male employee.

هذه موظفة جديدة.

hādhihi muwaẓẓafatun jadīda(h).

This is a new female employee.

هؤلاء موظفون جدد.

hāʾulāʾi muwaẓẓafūna judud.

These are new male employees.

هؤلاء موظفات جديدات.

hāʾulāʾi muwaẓẓafātun jadīdāt.

These are new female employees.

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Learn an adjective as a small family, not as one frozen word: جديد، جديدة، جديدان، جديدتان، جدد، جديدات. The plural member may be irregular, but the dual is built regularly from the singular gender form.

Dual adjectives

The masculine dual adjective takes ـانِ in the nominative and ـينِ in the accusative and genitive. The feminine dual adds these endings to the feminine stem: ـتانِ in the nominative and ـتينِ in the accusative and genitive. The adjective's ending follows its own syntactic case because it agrees with the noun.

Gender	Nominative	Accusative / genitive
masculine	طالبان جديدان	طالبين جديدين
feminine	طالبتان جديدتان	طالبتين جديدتين

هذان موظفان جديدان.

hādhāni muwaẓẓafāni jadīdān.

These are two new male employees.

هاتان موظفتان جديدتان.

hātāni muwaẓẓafatāni jadīdatān.

These are two new female employees.

قابلت الطالبين الجديدين بعد المحاضرة.

qābaltu ṭ-ṭālibayni l-jadīdayni baʿda l-muḥāḍara(h).

I met the two new male students after the lecture.

تحدثت مع المهندستين الجديدتين في الاجتماع.

taḥaddathtu maʿa l-muhandisatayni l-jadīdatayni fī l-ijtimāʿ.

I spoke with the two new female engineers in the meeting.

The final ن belongs to a dual form unless the word becomes the first member of an iḍāfa. Compare مديران جديدان “two new managers” with مديرا الشركة الجديدان “the company's two new managers”: مديرا loses its ن, but the adjective remains الجديدان because it is not itself in construct state.

Human plural adjectives

Human plural nouns take full plural agreement. A sound masculine adjective uses ـونَ in the nominative and ـينَ in the accusative and genitive: مجتهدون / مجتهدين. A feminine plural commonly uses ـات: مجتهدات. Many frequent adjectives instead have a lexical broken plural that must be learned, such as جديد ← جدد and صغير ← صغار.

الموظفون الجدد بدؤوا العمل اليوم.

al-muwaẓẓafūna l-jududu badaʾū l-ʿamala l-yawm.

The new male employees started work today.

الموظفات الجديدات بدأن التدريب صباحا.

al-muwaẓẓafātu l-jadīdātu badaʾna t-tadrība ṣabāḥā.

The new female employees began training this morning.

الأطفال الصغار ينتظرون الحافلة عند الباب.

al-ʾaṭfālu ṣ-ṣighāru yantaẓirūna l-ḥāfilata ʿinda l-bāb.

The young children are waiting for the bus by the door.

There is no completely reliable way to predict every broken adjective plural. كبير / كبار, صغير / صغار, and جديد / جدد are common enough to memorize as pairs. A dictionary may list more than one plural because different meanings or registers favor different forms; do not manufacture a broken plural from an English gloss.

Nonhuman plurals select feminine singular

A plural referring to things, ideas, places, or usually animals behaves differently: its adjective is feminine singular. This is true even when the singular noun is masculine. Thus كتاب is masculine, but كتب جديدة uses feminine singular جديدة.

الرسائل الجديدة وصلت هذا الصباح.

ar-rasāʾilu l-jadīdatu waṣalat hādhā ṣ-ṣabāḥ.

The new messages arrived this morning.

وصل الباحثون الجدد، ووصلت المعدات الجديدة بعدهم.

waṣala l-bāḥithūna l-jududu, wa-waṣalati l-muʿaddātu l-jadīdatu baʿdahum.

The new researchers arrived, and the new equipment arrived after them.

The noun's written plural ending does not decide the pattern. معدات has the sound feminine plural shape ـات, yet it denotes things, so its modifier is singular الجديدة, not plural الجديدات. Meaning—human versus nonhuman—comes before morphology here.

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When a noun is plural, pause before choosing the adjective: human referents usually trigger a plural form; nonhuman referents trigger feminine singular. This one decision prevents more errors than memorizing plural endings alone.

Phrase, predicate, and scope

Number agreement works together with definiteness. The definite adjective in الطالبان الجديدان is part of the noun phrase “the two new students.” Without the article, جديدان becomes the predicate “are new.”

الطالبان الجديدان

aṭ-ṭālibāni l-jadīdāni

the two new male students

الطالبان جديدان.

aṭ-ṭālibāni jadīdān.

The two male students are new.

Agreement can also reveal which noun an adjective modifies in an iḍāfa. In the first sentence below, masculine dual الجديدين points to مديري “the two managers.” In the second, feminine singular الجديدة points to المدرسة “the school.”

قابلت مديري المدرسة الجديدين قبل الظهر.

qābaltu mudīrayi l-madrasati l-jadīdayni qabla ẓ-ẓuhr.

I met the school's two new managers before noon.

قابلت مديري المدرسة الجديدة قبل الظهر.

qābaltu mudīrayi l-madrasati l-jadīdati qabla ẓ-ẓuhr.

I met the two managers of the new school before noon.

Common Mistakes

Putting an attributive adjective before its noun

❌ جديد كتاب

Incorrect for the ordinary phrase “a new book” — an attributive adjective follows its noun.

✅ أحتاج إلى كتاب جديد للمقرر.

ʾaḥtāju ʾilā kitābin jadīdin li-l-muqarrar.

I need a new book for the course.

Leaving a definite adjective indefinite

❌ قابلت الطالبين جديدين بعد الدرس.

Incorrect for “the two new students” — the adjective must match the definite noun.

✅ قابلت الطالبين الجديدين بعد الدرس.

qābaltu ṭ-ṭālibayni l-jadīdayni baʿda d-dars.

I met the two new students after class.

Giving a nonhuman plural a plural adjective

❌ الملفات الجدد جاهزة.

Incorrect — files are nonhuman, so their adjective is feminine singular.

✅ الملفات الجديدة جاهزة للإرسال.

al-milaffātu l-jadīdatu jāhizatun li-l-ʾirsāl.

The new files are ready to send.

Guessing grammatical gender from English meaning

❌ السيارة سريع.

Incorrect — سيارة is grammatically feminine, so its singular adjective must be feminine.

✅ السيارة سريعة، لكنها مريحة.

as-sayyāratu sarīʿatun, lakinnahā murīḥa(h).

The car is fast, but it is comfortable.

Key Takeaways

Singular and dual adjectives copy the noun's gender and number; dual case determines ـان / ـين.
Human plurals take plural adjectives, whether sound or broken.
Nonhuman plurals normally take feminine singular adjectives.
An adjective follows its noun and also agrees in definiteness and case.
Agreement can distinguish an attributive phrase from a predicate and can identify an adjective's scope.

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