Plural nouns referring to people and other grammatically rational agents normally take plural agreement: plural adjectives, plural pronouns, plural relative markers, and—when the subject comes first—plural verbs. Thus الطلاب المجتهدون وصلوا means “the diligent students arrived,” while a nonhuman plural such as الكتب الجديدة وصلت uses feminine singular agreement. The nonhuman plural agreement page develops that contrast across the full sentence.
Word order remains part of the calculation. A human plural before the verb triggers full verbal agreement; the same overt human plural after a verb normally has a singular verb in canonical VSO. Human agreement is therefore “full” across the noun phrase and its references, but not a license to ignore the VSO rule.
What counts as human or rational?
The traditional contrast is عاقل “rational” versus غير عاقل “non-rational.” Human beings count as rational regardless of age, profession, or the shape of their plural. الأطفال “children” is a broken plural, but it takes human plural agreement because its referents are people.
الأطفال الصغار لعبوا في الحديقة، وهم الآن متعبون.
al-ʾaṭfālu ṣ-ṣighāru laʿibū fī l-ḥadīqati, wa-hum l-ʾāna mutʿabūn.
The young children played in the park, and they are tired now. (Human masculine/mixed plural agreement.)
العالمات البارزات نشرن نتائجهن هذا الأسبوع.
al-ʿālimātu l-bārizātu nasharna natāʾijahunna hādhā l-ʾusbūʿ.
The prominent female scientists published their results this week. (Feminine plural throughout.)
In traditional formal registers, angels and comparable beings presented as rational agents also take rational agreement. Ordinary animals take nonhuman feminine-singular agreement unless a literary text personifies them as speaking, deliberating agents.
Agreement across the noun phrase
Masculine or mixed human plurals take forms such as هؤلاء، هم، ـهم، الذين and masculine-plural adjectives. All-female human plurals take هؤلاء، هنّ، ـهنّ and feminine-plural adjectives; formal relative options include اللواتي، اللاتي، اللائي.
هؤلاء الأطباء ماهرون، وهم يعملون في مستشفى جامعي.
hāʾulāʾi l-ʾaṭibbāʾu māhirūna, wa-hum yaʿmalūna fī mustashfan jāmiʿiyy.
These doctors are skilled, and they work at a university hospital. (Masculine/mixed human plural.)
هؤلاء الطبيبات ماهرات، وهن يعملن في العيادة الجديدة.
hāʾulāʾi ṭ-ṭabībātu māhirātun, wa-hunna yaʿmalna fī l-ʿiyādati l-jadīda.
These female doctors are skilled, and they work at the new clinic. (Feminine human plural.)
الموظفون الذين قابلهم المدير بدأوا العمل اليوم.
al-muwaẓẓafūna lladhīna qābalahumu l-mudīru badaʾū l-ʿamala l-yawm.
The employees whom the director interviewed started work today. (Masculine plural relative and resumptive pronoun.)
الموظفات اللواتي قابلتهن المديرة بدأن العمل اليوم.
al-muwaẓẓafātu l-lawātī qābalat-hunna l-mudīratu badaʾna l-ʿamala l-yawm.
The female employees whom the female director interviewed started work today. (Feminine plural agreement.)
The attached object pronouns ـهم and ـهنّ refer to human plural antecedents. A nonhuman antecedent would normally use feminine singular ـها and relative التي.
Matched SVO and VSO
With subject-first order, the human plural controls full agreement on the verb. With verb-first order, the verb before an overt plural subject is singular but still marks gender.
المندوبون وصلوا قبل افتتاح المؤتمر.
al-mandūbūna waṣalū qabla ftitāḥi l-muʾtamar.
The male or mixed-gender delegates arrived before the conference opened. (SVO; plural verb.)
وصل المندوبون قبل افتتاح المؤتمر.
waṣala l-mandūbūna qabla ftitāḥi l-muʾtamar.
The delegates arrived before the conference opened. (VSO; singular masculine verb.)
المندوبات وصلن قبل افتتاح المؤتمر.
al-mandūbātu waṣalna qabla ftitāḥi l-muʾtamar.
The female delegates arrived before the conference opened. (SVO; feminine plural verb.)
وصلت المندوبات قبل افتتاح المؤتمر.
waṣalati l-mandūbātu qabla ftitāḥi l-muʾtamar.
The female delegates arrived before the conference opened. (VSO; feminine singular verb.)
The order also packages information. In an answer to “What happened?”, verb-first وصل المندوبون is a natural event report. In a contrast such as “the delegates arrived, but the observers did not,” subject-first المندوبون وصلوا foregrounds the contrasted group.
Mixed-gender human groups
A genuinely mixed human group normally takes masculine plural agreement in standard Arabic. The grammatical masculine is the conventional mixed-group default; it does not claim that every member is male.
المهندسات والمهندسون جاهزون، وقد وصلوا إلى الموقع.
al-muhandisātu wa-l-muhandisūna jāhizūna, wa-qad waṣalū ʾilā l-mawqiʿ.
The female and male engineers are ready, and they have arrived at the site. (Mixed-gender masculine plural agreement.)
سلمى وزملاؤها قدموا المقترح معا.
salmā wa-zumalāʾuhā qaddamū l-muqtaraḥa maʿā.
Salma and her male or mixed-gender colleagues submitted the proposal together. (Mixed human group.)
If every member is female, use feminine plural: سلمى وزميلاتها قدّمن. If a job title in masculine plural is intended generically in institutional prose, context may not reveal actual gender composition; inclusive contemporary writing often names both forms rather than relying on the masculine default.
Coordinated persons: first outranks second, second outranks third
With a subject-first coordination, agreement reflects the highest grammatical person in the set:
- a set containing أنا/نحن uses first-person plural;
- otherwise, a set containing أنت/أنتم uses second-person dual or plural;
- a set containing only third persons uses third-person dual or plural.
أنا وأختي سنزور جدتنا مساء.
ʾanā wa-ʾukhtī sa-nazūru jaddatanā masāʾ.
My sister and I will visit our grandmother this evening. (First-person plural.)
أنت وزميلتك ستقدمان الجزء الأخير.
ʾanta wa-zamīlatuka sa-tuqaddimāni l-juzʾa l-ʾakhīr.
You and your female colleague will present the final section. (Second-person dual.)
أنتن والمدربة ستراجعن الخطة غدا.
ʾantunna wa-l-mudarribatu sa-turājiʿna l-khuṭṭata ghadā.
You women and the female trainer will review the plan tomorrow. (Second-person feminine plural.)
This hierarchy is independent of politeness or rank. The grammar does not make a third-person director outrank a first- or second-person participant.
Collectives and mixed human–nonhuman sets
A collective noun may denote people but remain morphologically singular. الفريق is masculine singular and اللجنة feminine singular:
الفريق وصل إلى الفندق، ثم ذهب أعضاؤه إلى غرفهم.
al-farīqu waṣala ʾilā l-funduqi, thumma dhahaba ʾaʿḍāʾuhu ʾilā ghurafihim.
The team arrived at the hotel, then its members went to their rooms. (Singular collective, followed by explicit plural members.)
Formal prose sometimes shifts from singular grammatical agreement to plural notional agreement when attention moves from a group to its members. Introducing الأعضاء “the members,” as above, makes the shift transparent and avoids an apparent agreement error.
When humans and nonhumans form one coordinated controller, rational agreement may prevail by تغليب العاقل “giving precedence to the rational.” Such combinations can sound semantically awkward, so precise formal prose often coordinates separate clauses instead: “the technicians arrived, and the equipment arrived later.”
Fronted human objects
A human plural at the start of a sentence is not automatically the subject. If it is a topic standing for the object, resume it with ـهم or ـهنّ; the actual subject may follow the verb.
المرشحون قابلهم أعضاء اللجنة صباحا.
ar-murashshaḥūna qābalahum ʾaʿḍāʾu l-lajnati ṣabāḥā.
As for the candidates, the committee members interviewed them in the morning. (Object-topic with masculine plural resumption.)
The verb is singular قابل because the overt plural subject أعضاء اللجنة follows it. The fronted المرشحون is nominative as a topic, not as the verb’s subject.
Register and variation
These are formal contemporary MSA norms. Many regional spoken varieties generalize full agreement to some postverbal subjects or reshape feminine plural endings. Such patterns are (regional), not errors within their own systems, but an MSA page, report, or broadcast should keep the order-sensitive standard distinction.
Common Mistakes
Treating human children like nonhuman plurals
❌ الأطفال الصغيرة وصلت مبكرا.
Incorrect—children are human, so a subject-first masculine/mixed plural needs الصغار وصلوا.
✅ الأطفال الصغار وصلوا مبكرا.
al-ʾaṭfālu ṣ-ṣighāru waṣalū mubakkirā.
The young children arrived early.
Using masculine plural for an all-female subject
❌ الطبيبات وصلوا إلى العيادة.
Incorrect—an all-female human subject requires feminine plural وصلن in subject-first order.
✅ الطبيبات وصلن إلى العيادة.
aṭ-ṭabībātu waṣalna ʾilā l-ʿiyāda.
The female doctors arrived at the clinic.
Using full plural agreement in canonical VSO
❌ حضروا الخبراء جلسة النقاش.
Incorrect in neutral formal VSO—the verb before the overt human plural is singular.
✅ حضر الخبراء جلسة النقاش.
ḥaḍara l-khubarāʾu jalsata n-niqāsh.
The experts attended the discussion session.
Losing object resumption after fronting
❌ المتقدمون قابل أعضاء اللجنة صباحا، بمعنى أن اللجنة قابلتهم.
Misleading—the initial applicants are readily read as the subject unless their object role is resumed or overtly case-marked.
✅ المتقدمون قابلهم أعضاء اللجنة صباحا.
al-mutaqaddimūna qābalahum ʾaʿḍāʾu l-lajnati ṣabāḥā.
As for the applicants, the committee members interviewed them in the morning.
Key Takeaways
- Human and rational plurals take plural adjectives, pronouns, relatives, and subject-first verbal agreement.
- Canonical VSO is still singular before an overt plural subject: وصل الطلاب، وصلت الطالبات.
- Masculine plural is the formal default for mixed-gender human groups; all-female groups take feminine plural.
- In coordinated subjects, first person outranks second and third, and second outranks third.
- Singular collective nouns follow their lexical gender; make any shift to plural members explicit.
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Start learning Arabic →Related Topics
- Non-Human Plural AgreementA2 — Treat plural nonhuman controllers as feminine singular across verbs, adjectives, demonstratives, pronouns, and relative clauses.
- Delayed and Indefinite SubjectsA2 — Use postverbal and presentational subjects to introduce new information while controlling agreement, case, definiteness, and resumption.
- Nominal and Verbal SentencesA1 — Recognize Arabic clauses built around a topic and predicate or around a finite verb, including the present-tense zero copula.