Adjectives and Agreement

Lesson objective

In this lesson, you will learn where adjectives appear and how they agree with nouns.

Position of adjectives

Adjectives come after the nouns they describe.

Agreement

An adjective must agree with the noun in gender and number. When a noun is feminine singular, the adjective must also be feminine singular. When a noun is plural, the adjective must also be plural.

Forming the feminine

The feminine form is normally made by adding -a to the masculine form.

Forming the plural

Plural adjective forms are not always predictable. Two common patterns are:

• Pattern 1 — add “-in”: frнan (happy, masc. sing.) → frнanin (plural)
• Pattern 2 — change “i” to “a”: kbir (big, masc. sing.) → kbar (plural)

Feminine plural

Some adjectives also have a feminine plural form, used when every member of a group is feminine. It is normally formed by adding -at to the masculine singular form. When a group contains both masculine and feminine members, use the masculine plural form.