A group of women
Arabic has separate plural forms for groups made up only of women. In everyday speech many people use the masculine plural for everyone, but written Arabic keeps the feminine forms, and you have already met them inside sentences with اللواتي.
| masculine plural | feminine plural | |
|---|---|---|
| they | هم | هن(hunna) |
| you (pl.) | أنتم | أنتن(antunna) |
The verbs
The feminine plural verb ends in ـنَ (-na) in both tenses, and unlike the masculine ـون it never drops in the subjunctive or jussive:
| past | present | |
|---|---|---|
| they (f.) | كَتَبْنَ | يَكْتُبْنَ |
| you (f. pl.) | كَتَبْتُنَّ | تَكْتُبْنَ |
| They study in the library. | هن يدرسن في المكتبة.hunna yadrusna fi al-maktabati. |
| The girls are playing in the garden. | البنات يلعبن في الحديقة.al-banâtu yal'abna fil-hadîqati |
| Girls, did you understand the lesson? | يا بنات، هل فهمتن الدرس؟yâ banâtu, hal fahimtunna ad-darsa? |
A non-human plural (cars, books) still takes the feminine SINGULAR, as you learned at A1: السيارات جديدة. The feminine plural is for women and girls only.
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