Lesson 26 – الدرس السَّادِسُ وَالْعِشْرُونَ

Composite Number (B) المركب العددي

Numbers 11 and 12

• In this part we will learn the two numbers أحَدَ عَشَرَ "aћada ξashara" (eleven) and اثنا عَشَرَ "ithnā ξashara" (twelve), as they are similar to each other with the exception of declension.
• Before we consider the gender of the number, we need to understand the gender of the noun that is being referred to.  If the noun is feminine then the number will also be feminine, likewise with the masculine noun / masculine number.  To change the number أحَدَ "aћada" to feminine إحْدى "iћdā" we can add the long vowel Alif (alif maqŝūrah) ألف مقصورة to the word ending, and change the initial Hamzah to be signed with kasrah (إ), and to change the sign of the medial (Hā’) from the fatħah to the sukūn  to become إحْدى "iћdā". The number اثنا "ithnā" can be made feminine by adding the letter ت "t" to be اثنتا "ithnatā".
• The number should be identical with the numbered noun (that comes after the number) in gender (masculine and feminine). For example:

جاء أحدَ عَشَرَ أُسْتاذًا

Ĵā'a aћada ξashara ustādhan

Eleven professors came

• The number here is masculine because the numbered noun after it is masculine.
• But we say:

جاءت إحدى عشرة أُسْتاذةً

Ĵā'at iћda ξashrata ustādhatan

Eleven lady professors came.

• The number here is feminine because the numbered noun is feminine.
• The same applies to the number اثنا عَشَرَ "ithnā ξashara" (twelve). For example:

ذهب اثنا عشر مُهَنْدِسًا

Dhahaba ithnā ξashara muhandisan

 Twelve engineers went out.

• The number here is masculine because the numbered noun after it is masculine.
• But we say:

ذَهَبَت اثْنَتَا عَشْرَةَ مُهَنْدِسَةً

 Dhahabat ithnata ξashrata muhandisatan

 Twelve female engineers went out.

• The number here is feminine because the numbered noun is feminine.

• We will now cover the number (أحَدَ عَشَرَ) "aћada ξashara" (eleven) in more detail In-Shā’-Allâh (God-willing).
• The word-ending of the two words أحَدَ "aћada" and إحْدى "iћda" are مَبْنيّة "mabniyah", i.e. static or indeclinable in all cases of grammar – this means that they do not change their endings in nominative, accusative or genitive case.  Let us look at some examples below to illustrate this point:

• We will now cover the number اِثْنا عشر "ithna ξashar" (twelve) in more detail In-Shā’-Allâh (God-willing).

• The two words اثْنا "ithna" (masc.) and اثْنتا "ithnata" (fem.) are dual nouns. In the nominative case, we say اثْنا "ithna" and اثْنتا "ithnata" while in the accusative and genitive cases we say اثني "ithnai" and اثنتي "ithnatai":

• The genitive case for the number twelve will take the same form as the example in the table above for accusative case.