The feminine plural is: ات - aat
The Masculine Plural
The masculine plural is added to the end of singular words and is used for people, NOT objects. For example:
مدرس - mudarris - teacher
مدرسين - mudarriseen - teachers
مهندس - mohandis - engineer
مهندسين - mohandiseen - engineers*
This plural is used for a group of people who are a) all males or b) a mix of males and females. Even if there are 20 women and 1 man, we would use the masculine plural here.
It is also used for adjectives when referring to more than one person, whether those people are all male, mixed, or all female. For example:
كويس - kwayyes - good
صغير - Sughayyar - small, young
هم كويسين - humma kwayyeseen - they are good (people)
دول مش صغيرين - dol mesh Sughayyareen - these (people) are not young
ندى و سامية دول مش صغيرين - nada we samya, dol mesh Sughayyareen - Nada and Samya are not young.
The Feminine Plural
The feminine plural is used for people when referring to a group of FEMALES ONLY. For example:
مدرسات - mudarrisaat - Female Teachers
طلبات - Talebaat - Female Students
The feminine plural is NEVER used with adjectives, even if the group is female only. The masculine plural is used in this case. See the example above (Nada we Samya dol mesh sughayyereen).
The feminine plural is used for the object nouns of any gender (inanimate objects). For example:
متور - motour - engine
متورات - motoraat - engines
ساع - saa3a - hour
ساعات - sa3aat - hours
The plural of objects are feminine, and are treated as singular feminine words grammatically. So, we use a feminine single adjective to describe it.
جميل - beautiful
سعات جمبلة - sa3aat gameela - pretty watches
* Extra Info: There is a well known area of Cairo called Mohandiseen, meaning engineers. Parts of Cairo were traditionally built for people of different professions and the engineers lived in Mohandiseen. Nowadays areas with names like this are inhabited by a range of different people of many professions.
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