3.14 The Dual — Epoché
What you will be able to do Form the dual of any noun by adding one ending, so that كِتَاب becomes كِتَابَان . Say why Arabic has three numbers where English has two, and what the dual is used for. Make an adjective and a verb agree with a dual. Recognise the second form of the dual ending, the one used after a preposition or a verb. Say what happens to a dual inside a possessive chain. Prerequisites : 3.13 and the numbers to ten This is the last lesson of the grammar of the first period, and the category it teaches is one that English lost about a thousand years ago. Old English had a dual in its pronouns, and it survives nowhere in the modern language except in a handful of words like both and neither that presuppose exactly two. Arabic has a dual everywhere: in nouns, in adjectives, in verbs, in pronouns and in possessive endings. It is obligatory, which is the thing an English speaker has to absorb. A speaker who has two books and uses the plural has not been imprecise; he has been ungrammatical. The pattern One ending, and no exceptions worth the name The dual is made by adding an ending to the singular. There are no broken duals to correspond to the broken plurals of 2.7, and no irregularities: whatever a noun's plural does, its dual is formed by the ending. After the ordeal of 2.7 this is a relief, and it is worth saying plainly that the dual is the easiest inflection in the language. Singular Dual Plural English كِتَاب كِتَابَان كُتُب a book, two books, books ابْن ابْنَان أَبْنَاء a son, two sons, sons بِنْت بِنْتَان بَنَات a girl, two girls, girls سَاعَة سَاعَتَان سَاعَات an hour, two hours, hours رِجْل رِجْلَان أَرْجُل a leg, two legs, legs Notice the fourth row. The feminine ending of 3.2 is written out as an ordinary t before the dual ending, exactly as it was before a possessive ending in 3.6. The rule is the same and it applies everywhere. The second form of the ending The dual has two endings, not one. The form in the table is used when the noun is the subject of a sentence. A different form, differing in its vowel, is used everywhere else: after a preposition, as the object of a verb, and as the second term of a possessive chain. Unlike most case endings in Arabic, this one is written with letters and is therefore visible without vowel marks. So it is one of the few places where a reader can see the case system working, and it is worth using as evidence: a dual in the second form tells you that the word is not the subject. The seventh and tenth sentences below have the second form and the rest have the first. Compare them and the difference is on the page. Agreement Everything that agrees with a noun agrees with a dual in the dual. An adjective takes the dual ending; a verb takes a dual form; a pronoun referring back to two things is a dual pronoun. The fifth sentence below has a dual noun and a dual adjective, both with the ending and the adjective also carrying the feminine ending because legs are feminine. The eighth and ninth have dual verbs. One exception, and it is the one from 2.7 in another guise: a dual of things, like a plural of things, may be treated as feminine singular for agreement when it refers to inanimate objects in some styles. In modern standard prose the proper dual agreement is used, and that is what this course teaches. In a possessive chain When a dual is the first term of a chain, it loses the final n of its ending, exactly as it does before a possessive suffix. So two books becomes the two books of the student with one letter removed. This is the same rule that governs the sound plural of people, and it is worth noticing now so that the shorter form is not read as a different word. Nothing else changes. How English says it English has singular and plural and nothing else. Where Arabic obliges a speaker to distinguish two from many, English simply says two. So the Arabic dual will usually come out in English as a plural with a numeral, and the Arabic is shorter by a word. Two books, two daughters, two hours: in each case the English needs the numeral and the Arabic does not. What survives in English is a set of words that presuppose exactly two and behave oddly because of it. Both, either, neither, between as against among, the comparative in the older rule that says the better of two and the best of three. An English speaker who has ever hesitated over between you and I has met the last remnant of a dual, and the Arabic category is that instinct made general. The practical difficulty is not understanding the dual but remembering to use it. English speakers write the plural for two and are understood, and the error is invisible to them. The only remedy is to notice, whenever you count, whether the number is two. A speaker of Slovene or of classical Greek will have nothing to learn here, and a speaker of Hebrew will recognise a dual that is confined to a few nouns rather than general. Real sentences Ten sentences with duals in them. For each, find the dual and say whether it is in the subject form or the other one. As printed With the vowels supplied English لديك كتابان [1] لَدَيْك كِتَابَان You have two books. عندي ابنان. [2] عِنْدِي ابْنَان. I have two sons. لي بنتان. [3] لِي بِنْتَان. I have two daughters. لديهم بنتان. [4] لَدَيْهِم بِنْتَان. They have two daughters. لديها رجلان طويلتان. [5] لَدَيْهَا رِجْلَان طَوِيلَتَان. She has long feet. أعطني ساعتان. [6] أَعْطِنِي سَاعَتَان. Give me two hours. هل عندك كمبيوترين؟ [7] هَلْ عِنْدَك كَمْبيُوتَرَيْن؟ Do you have two computers? أبواي يتحابان. [8] أَبَوَايَ يَتَحَابَّان. Both of my parents love each other. أتحبان بعضكما؟ [9] أَتُحِبَّان بَعْضَكُمَا؟ Do they love each other? أي السبيلين تختار؟ [10] أَيّ السََّبِيلَيْن تَخْتَار؟ Which of the two ways do you choose? The first four are the have construction of 3.12 with a dual as the thing possessed, and they are the best place to start because the frame is familiar and only the noun is new. Two books, two sons, two daughters, two daughters again wit