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How do you deal with the horror of Arabic broken plurals?

I remember well the heart-wrenching moment. I had spent an enjoyable few weeks learning Arabic script and beginning to write simple sentences. And then I was faced with the agonising realization that most Arabic nouns have different plural forms. Rather than simply adding an s' to the end of the word, in Arabic every noun is butchered in different ways and forced to accommodate a variety of new letters among its original consonants. Demoralized and disenchanted, I gave up all hopes of ever learning the language. It wasn't until several months later that I summed up the courage to revisit the challenge of broken plurals with new obstinacy, and I am glad I did because I discovered that there is a viable shortcut which I would to share here with other intimidated students.

A trace of hope lies in the fact that there are only approximately ten common forms of broken plurals. You can see the forms presented here: http://uk.geocities.com/scabby jon/arabic.html

The textbooks I studied advised me to memorize the plural form for every new noun I encountered. Clearly, this is not a logical method. Instead I spent a short time memorizing the ten plural forms. Whenever I learnt a new noun, I matched its plural form to the appropriate number on my memorized list.

For example: kalbun', meaning a dog', takes the plural kilaabun' (form 3)
darsun', meaning lesson', takes the plural duruusun' (form 2).

I discovered all I had to do when learning a new noun was to associate its form number with it ( 2 for darsun', 3 for kalbun'), and when I needed the plural I simply consulted my memorized list.

To begin with it is not necessary to memorize all ten forms. As an early learner, you will find the majority of plurals you encounter will take forms 1, 2 or 3, so you could proceed with just three forms memorized.

It is a far less intimidating method than trying to learn the plural for every individual noun. Before long the association of nouns with their plurals will becomes second nature and then the memorized list of forms will be redundant.

There are pitfalls. Certain nouns, and by no means a small proportion, take irregular broken plural forms, meaning you cannot memorize a number to associate with them. Nevertheless, this is a very valuable method to smooth the learning curve for new students. I doubt I would have continued studying Arabic without it.

Learn more about this author, Jon Martin.
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