Words Treated Like Regular Masculine Plurals

Level 6

The 'Adjuncts' to the Sound Masculine Plural (الملحق بجمع المذكر السالم) are words like 'twenty' (عشرون) or 'sons' (بنون) that use the same case endings as regular masculine plurals, even though they are technically irregular nouns.

How It Works

To be a 'true' Sound Masculine Plural, a word must have a singular form that remains intact when the ending is removed, and its singular must satisfy the conditions for a qualifying masculine personal name or adjective, not merely name a male being. For example, رَجُل has the broken plural رِجَال, not رَجُلُون. In the traditional regular rule, names with ة and adjectives such as أَحْمَر / حَمْرَاء or عَطْشَان / عَطْشَى are excluded. The Mulḥaq (Adjunct) category includes words that 'borrow' these endings despite failing these rules.

Key Categories of Adjuncts:

  • Decade Numbers: The numbers 20 through 90 (عشرون to تسعون). These have no singular form (you cannot remove the ending to get a singular 'twenty').
  • Ulū (أولو): Meaning 'possessors of'. It has no singular from the same root and is always followed by a noun in possession.
  • Banūna (بنون): Meaning 'sons'. While it has a singular (ابن), it is irregular because the initial hamza is dropped and the internal vowels change in the plural.
  • ʿĀlamūna (عالمون): Meaning 'worlds'. It is an adjunct because 'world' is not a rational male name or adjective.
  • Ahlūna (أهلون): Meaning 'families' or 'kin'.
  • Sinūna (سنون): Meaning 'years'. This is a feminine singular noun (سنة) that takes a masculine plural ending.
  • Araḍūna (أَرَضُونَ): Meaning 'earths'. Like 'years', this is a feminine noun (أرض) using the masculine ending.
  • ʿIlliyyūn (عليون): Referring to 'high places' or the highest heaven; it is a proper noun for a place, not a rational male.

Grammatical Rules:
1. Inflection: They follow SMP inflection: Waw for nominative and Ya for accusative and genitive.
2. The Nun Rule: The final nūn must be deleted when the word is the first part of an iḍāfa construction, as seen in بنو إسرائيل (Sons of Israel).

For Classical Reading: Two rare members are عِضُون / عِضِينَ and عِزُون / عِزِينَ. The Qur’anic forms occur in 15:91 (عِضِينَ, divisions/parts in context) and 70:37 (عِزِينَ, separate groups). Recognize their ـين case ending; these are lexical classical forms, not productive everyday plural templates. أُولُو / أُولِي is always construct and has no standalone form with ن to supply.

Examples (4)

  1. الْمَالُ وَالْبَنُونَ زِينَةُ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا

    Wealth and sons are the adornment of the life of this world.

    Word by Word: The wealth and the sons adornment (of) the life the worldly.

    Here, 'al-banūna' (the sons) is an adjunct in the nominative case, indicated by the Waw.

  2. قَضَيْتُ عِشْرِينَ سَنَةً فِي الْخَارِجِ

    I spent twenty years abroad.

    Word by Word: I spent twenty year in the abroad.

    'ʿishrīna' (twenty) is the object of the verb, so it takes the accusative ending (Ya). It is an adjunct because it has no singular form.

  3. إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَعِبْرَةً لِأُولِي الْأَبْصَارِ

    Indeed in that is a lesson for those of vision.

    Word by Word: Indeed in that surely a lesson for possessors (of) the visions.

    أُولِي is genitive after لِـ and is followed by the genitive الأبصار in a construct phrase. أولو/أولي has no independent nun-ending form.

  4. الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

    Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

    Word by Word: The praise to Allah Lord (of) the worlds.

    'Al-ʿālamīna' is genitive (majruur) because it is the second part of an iḍāfa. It uses the 'Ya' ending.

Common Mistakes

  • Keeping the 'Nun' in a possessive construction (iḍāfa).

    بَنُونَ المَدِينَةِ
    بَنُو المَدِينَةِ

    Just like regular sound masculine plurals, these adjunct words must drop the final 'nūn' when they are the first word in an iḍāfa construction.

  • Using 'Ulū' as a standalone noun.

    جَاءَ أُولُونَ
    جَاءَ أُولُو العِلْمِ

    The word 'Ulū' (possessors of) is a 'permanent muḍāf'. It cannot exist without a following noun that it possesses.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Words Treated Like Regular Masculine PluralsLevel 6

Learn This First

To understand words treated like regular masculine plurals (الملحق بجمع المذكر السالم), a learner must already be familiar with the standard regular masculine plural endings (-oon/-een) and how they change based on grammatical case. Familiarity with the decade numbers is also helpful as they are the primary functional examples of this category.

Words in This Pattern

عشرونعشرونثلاثونثلاثونأربعونأربعونخمسونخمسونستونستونسبعونسبعونثمانونتسعونعليون