Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

### The Plural Pattern for Colors and Traits

In the previous lesson, you learned that colors and certain physical traits use the أفعل and فعلاء patterns for their singular masculine and feminine forms. When describing plural nouns, these adjectives share a single, unified broken plural pattern: فُعْل.

Instead of adding standard plural suffixes, you form the plural by applying the root letters to this pattern. Both masculine and feminine plural nouns use this exact same adjective form.

| Masculine Singular | Plural (فُعْل) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| أشقر | شقر | Blonde |
| أسمر | سمر | Dark-skinned |
| أصلع | صلع | Bald |

Let's look at how these plural traits are used to describe groups of people:

{{item:1120172}}

{{item:1120175}}

{{item:1120199}}

When an adjective is the predicate of the sentence (as in "the players will be dark-skinned"), its case ending changes depending on the grammar of the sentence. Notice how the plural adjective takes an accusative ending (ا) after words like كان or سوف يكون.

{{item:1120176}}

### Plural Colors for Body Parts

The فُعْل pattern is also used for all the basic colors you learned previously:

| Masculine Singular | Plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| أحمر | حمر | Red |
| أصفر | صفر | Yellow |
| أخضر | خضر | Green |
| أزرق | زرق | Blue |
| أسود | سود | Black |
| أبيض | بيض | White |

*Note: "White" becomes بيض rather than "بُيض" simply to make pronunciation easier, but it functions exactly the same way.*

You will often see these plural colors used to describe plural nouns, particularly body parts like "eyes" (عيون) or "faces" (وجوه). While non-human plurals often take feminine singular adjectives, plural body parts frequently use these broken plural adjectives instead.

{{item:1120178}}

{{item:1120184}}

{{item:1120188}}

{{item:1120190}}

Again, these plural adjectives will take the appropriate case endings when the grammar requires it.

{{item:1120182}}

Plural colors and traits (فُعْل)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

interrogative

noun

numeral

particle

prefix

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

The definite article and locatives (الـ)

Basic noun gender (ة)

Sun and moon letters

Singular subject pronouns (أنا، أنت، هو، هي)

Indefinite nouns and nominal sentences (ـٌ)

Demonstrative pronouns for 'this' (هذا / هذه)

Separate prepositions (في، من، إلى، على)

Attributive adjectives

Predicative adjectives

Yes/No questions (هل، أ)

Basic questions (من، ما، أين)

Singular possessive pronouns (ـي، ـك، ـه، ـها)

Plural subject pronouns (نحن، أنتم، هم)

Plural possessive pronouns (ـنا، ـكم، ـهم)

Noun possession

Attached prepositions (بـ، لـ، كـ)

Pronouns with prepositions

Having and possessing (عند، لـ، مع)

Regular plural nouns (ـون، ـين، ـات)

Broken plurals

Dual nouns (ـان / ـين)

Plural and distant demonstratives (هؤلاء، ذلك، تلك)

Non-human plural agreement

Present tense singular verbs

Verbal sentences (VSO)

Present tense plural verbs

Topicalized sentences (SVO)

The indefinite accusative case (ـاً)

Verb object pronouns (-ني، -ك، -ه)

Present tense negation (لا)

Question words with verbs (متى، كيف...)

Adverbs of time and place

The future tense (سـ / سوف)

Intentions and desires (أن)

Negating states and possession (ليس)

Past tense singular suffixes

Past tense plural suffixes

Negating past events (ما)

Singular commands

Numbers 1 to 10

Number agreement for 1 and 2 (واحد، اثنان)

Asking how many (كم)

Numbers 3 to 10 (ثلاثة إلى عشرة)

Ordinal numbers 1 to 10 (الأول، الثاني)

Basic conjunctions (فـ، أو، لكن)

Ordering at a café (واحد، اثنان)

Food and drink with conjunctions (و، ف، أو، لكن)

There is and there are (هناك / ليس هناك)

Direct address (يا)

Giving reasons (لأنّ)

Relative pronouns (الذي / التي)

Quantifiers (كل / بعض)

The past tense of 'to be' (كان)

Past possession

Numbers 11 to 19 and tens to 80

Telling time (الساعة)

This book vs this is a book (هذا الكتاب، هذا كتاب)

Greetings (مرحبا، السلام عليكم)

How are you? and goodbye (كيف حالك، مع السلامة)

Nationalities (مصري، مصرية)

Roots and patterns (كتب، كتاب، مكتب)

Politeness (من فضلك، آسف)

Complex possession chains

Colors and traits (أفعل / فعلاء)

Comparative adjectives (أفعل من)

Superlative adjectives (أفعل)

Adverbs of manner (ـاً)

The nominative case (ـُ)

The genitive case (ـِ)

The accusative case (ـَ)

Dual noun cases (ـان / ـين)

Masculine plurals and 'the best of' (أفضل النجارين)

Emphasizing sentences (إنّ)

Connecting clauses (أنّ)

Reporting speech (قال إنّ)

Expressing contrast (لكنّ)

Comparison and probability (كأنّ, لعلّ)

Distant plural pointing (أولئك)

Plural relative pronouns (الذين, اللواتي)

Past habits (كان + present)

Ongoing actions (ما زال)

Masculine plurals online (مبرمجون، مؤثرون)

Perfective past (قد)

Probability (قد)

The subjunctive mood (أن)

Expressing purpose (لـ)

Question	Answer
blonde (pl.)	شقرshuqrun
These boys are blonde.	هؤلاء الأولاد شقر.hâ'ulâ'i al-awlâdu shuqrun
Some girls are blonde.	بعض البنات شقر.ba'dul banâti shuqrun.
dark-skinned (pl.)	سمرsumr
All my friends are dark-skinned.	كل أصدقائي سمر.kullu asdiqâ'î sumrun
The players will be dark-skinned.	سوف يكون اللاعبون سمرا.sawfa yakûnu al-lâ'ibûna sumran.
blue (pl.)	زرقzurqun
These children's eyes are blue.	عيون هؤلاء الأطفال زرق.uyûnu hâ'ulâ'i al-atfâli zurqun
All the cats' eyes are blue.	عيون كل القطط زرق.'uyûnu kulli-l-qitati zurqun
green (pl.)	خضرkhudr
I like green eyes.	أنا أحب العيون الخضر.ana uhibbu al-'uyûna al-khudra
The girls' eyes were green.	كانت عيون البنات خضرا.kânat uyûnu al-banâti khudran.
black (pl.)	سودsûdun
These men are black.	هؤلاء الرجال سود.haa'ulaa'i ar-rijâlu sûdun.
My friends' eyes are black.	عيون أصدقائي سود.'uyûnu aṣdiqâ'î sûdun
white (pl.)	بيضbîdon
These doctors are white.	هؤلاء الأطباء بيض.ha'ulâ'i al-aTibbâ'u bîdun
The patients' faces are white.	وجوه المرضى بيض.wujuuhul-marda biidun
red (pl.)	حمرhumr
Their eyes are red because they are sick.	عيونهم حمر لأنهم مرضى.'uyûnuhum humrun li'annahum mardâ
The employees' faces are red because they are angry.	وجوه الموظفين حمر لأنهم غاضبون.wujuhu al-muwaẓẓafina humrun li'annahum ghâdibuna
yellow (pl.)	صفرsufr
Why are the boys' faces yellow?	لماذا وجوه الأولاد صفر؟limâdhâ wujûhu al-awlâdi sufrun?
Their faces will be yellow.	ستكون وجوههم صفرا.satakoonu wujoohuhum sufran
bald	أصلعaslaʿ
Is this actor bald?	هل هذا الممثل أصلع؟hal hâdhâ al-mumaththilu aslaʿu
My grandfather was bald.	كان جدي أصلع.kâna jaddî aṣla'a
bald (pl.)	صلعsul'un
All my neighbors are bald.	كل جيراني صلع.kullu jīrānī ṣul'un
These employees are bald.	هؤلاء الموظفون صلع.hâ'ulâ'i al-muwazzafûna sul'un