75.Formation of plurals. Arabic plurals are formed in one of two ways: either by adding certain prescribed endings, like the English -s or -en; or by breaking up the singular pattern, and building an entirely new pattern on the same radical letters. The latter type of plural is called “broken”, the former by contrast is known as “sound” or “intact”. While the Sound Plurals are easy to learn, they apply only to a comparatively small range of nouns; we shall therefore defer consideration of them till later. The Broken Plurals, applying to the vast majority of Arabic nouns, need to be learned automatically as one learns the noun itself. They vary from noun to noun, but certain broad areas of predictability can be made out: generally speaking, and within limits, the shorter the singular, the more uncertain the plural. Some nouns have more than one Broken Plural, or both a Sound and a Broken Plural (or plurals): sometimes one predominates. Experience, and constant reference to dictionaries, are the only guides here.

76.Three common Broken Plurals. The following are the commonest Broken Plurals formed from three-consonant nouns with one or two short-vowels (using KTB for basic radicals): 'aKTāB, KuTūB and 'aKTuB. The word for “month”, shahr, most commonly takes the last two, shuhūr and ashhur (remember that we do not usually bother to transliterate the hamza initially, since it must be there if the word appears to begin with a vowel – see paras. 53(a) and 54).