Question 1

Why does ستة have a feminine ending if دولارات looks feminine with its -ات ending?

Accepted Answer

In Arabic, numbers 3-10 take the opposite gender of the singular noun. The singular of dollars is دولار, which is masculine. Therefore, the number six must be in its feminine form, ستة. The plural دولارات ends in -ات because many foreign loanwords use this ending to form their plural, even though the word itself is still treated as masculine!

Question 2

Why is the word for dollars plural here? I thought Arabic sometimes uses singular words after numbers.

Accepted Answer

You use the plural form of the noun for numbers 3 through 10. For numbers 11 and up, Arabic switches back to using the singular noun. Since six falls in the 3-10 range, we must use the plural دولارات.

Question 3

How does سعر اللعبة mean "the price of the toy" without a word for "of"?

Accepted Answer

This is an Idafa (possession or relationship) structure. By placing two nouns together where the first noun (سعر) has no "the" and the second noun (اللعبة) has "the", Arabic naturally expresses "the [first word] of the [second word]".

Question 4

Where is the word "is" in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

Arabic does not use a word for "is" or "are" in the present tense. The sentence is split into a subject (سعر اللعبة) and a predicate (ستة دولارات), and the "is" is simply understood to be between them.

سعر اللعبة ستة دولارات.

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