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Teaching Arabic Numbers

by Nuha Al Shaar Before discussing some practical steps which teachers might find useful, two points need to be mentioned. Firstly, in contrast to the way numbers are taught in some Arabic course books such as Mastering Arabic, it is probably best if numbers are taught all at once in one lesson or in two related lessons. Secondly, depending on the syllabus of the teacher, numbers can be taught either in spoken form, paying less attention to grammatical details, or in written form where different grammatical points need to be discussed, for example, ashron in the normative form , and ashrin in the accusative and genitive form. At the beginning of the lesson, it might be useful if the teacher draws the students attention to the fact that the shape of numbers in European languages are in fact derived from Arabic ones, while the current Arabic number figures are Indian numbers which were imported into Arabic through trade relations. It is therefore worth pointing out that Arabic numbers have connections with European numbers. For example, the numbers 1 and 9 have the same shape and meaning in both languages. It seems quite likely that the English numbers 2 and 3 may simply be the Arabic numbers (ithnan = 2) and (thalatha = 3) turned on their sides. The teacher may also like to make students aware that 0 in English is the 5 in Arabic (0) - they have the same shape. The teacher should show the students that zero (.) looks like a full stop is English (.). A systematic way to teach the numbers one to ten in Arabic, which a teacher might like to adopt, is the following method. First, the Arabic numbers are written one by one on the blackboard showing the correct up and down stokes. For numbers from ten upwards the teacher can emphasise that these consist of two or more symbols. While writing the numbers, the teacher has the students both write the Arabic number and pronounce its name. This is repeated numerous times until all the students can write and pronounce them correctly. Some drills and flash cards might be useful at this point. The teacher can prepare cards with the number shape on one card and the written number on another card, and then students are asked to mach them. Second, to reinforce what they have learned, all the students are placed in a circle and the teacher begins counting in Arabic with the number one, wahid. Then the student at the beginning of the circle is asked to continue counting with the number two, ithnan, and this continues with each consecutive student in the circle counting the following number until ten, ashara, is reached. This is repeated until all the students have the chance to count all the numbers, and that they do so accurately. For further practice, the students are asked to work in pairs and tell and write their phone numbers in Arabic to their partner. It is very important to teach students that numbers, like the rest of Arabic, have gender, and therefore change endings depending on whether they are in the masculine form or the feminine form: wahid (= 1) is the masculine form. In order to make it feminine, add ( ta marbuta) which produces wahidah.

thalath (= 3) is the masculine form, adding ( ta marbuta) produces thalathah, the feminine. arba (= 4) is masculine, adding ( ta marbuta) produces the feminine arbaah. khams (=5) is masculine, adding ( ta marbuta) produces the feminine khamsah. sit (= 6) is masculine, adding ( ta marbuta) produces the feminine sitah. sab (= 7) is masculine, adding ( ta marbuta) produces the feminine sabah. thaman (= 8) is masculine, adding ( ta marbuta) produces the feminine thamaniah. tis (= 9) is masculine, adding ( ta marbuta) produces the feminine tisah. ashar (= 10) is masculine, adding ( ta marbuta) produces the feminine asharah. The teacher should draw students attention to the fact that the number two is slightly different. It also has a masculine and feminine form, but it uses the dual case. The masculine is ithnan and the feminine is ithnatan. The teacher should also draw students attention to the fact that the word ithnan is less commonly used compared to other numbers. This is because the dual is often used. We tend to say rajul rajulan instead of saying ithnan rajulan. Teaching numbers from eleven to nineteen The numbers ahada ashar (= 11) to tisah ashar (= 19) share a common element, which is the number ashar (=10). The teacher can explain that the pattern for making numbers 13 to 19 is exactly the same, while 11 and 12 have only a minor variation to the same pattern. For numbers 13 to 19, simply take a number from thalatha (= 3) to tisa (= 9) and add ashar (=10) to it. For example, to make the number 15, the number khamsa (= 5) is followed by ashar (=10) resulting in khamsa ashar (= 15). Here students can be advised that the number will be written from right to left and will be also read from right to left. For example, you write (10) (5) i.e. you write khamsa first and when you read it you start with khamsa from the right and then you say ashar. Numbers 11 and 12 also have ashar (=10) as the second element to their name. However, one cannot say wahid ashar for 11 or athnan ashar for 12. There is a slight adaptation to both numbers, resulting in ahada ashar for 11 and ithna ashar for 12. Students should be drilled in a manner similar to learning numbers one to ten in the previous section. Numbers ahada ashar (= 11) to tisah ashar (= 19) also have masculine and feminine forms. They are formed in the same way as the numbers in the previous section, e.g. thalath ashar (= 13) masculine form, thalathah ashar feminine form. However, there are two exceptions: 11 and 12: ahad ashar (= 11) and not wahidashar is the masculine form, ahada ashar and not wahidah ashar is the feminine form. ithna ashar (= 12) is the masculine form, ithnata ashar is the feminine form. The teacher should point out here that the non ( )is deleted from the end of the number. The teacher can refer students to the exercises in Mastering Arabic (pp 170-71) to be done as a homework task.

Teaching numbers 20, 30, 40 etc It may be helpful when teaching the numbers twenty, thirty, forty, etc., to point out the similarity between the Arabic and English suffixes for these numbers. English adds the suffix ty to the root of the numbers. For example, four becomes forty, six becomes sixty, etc. In a similar way, the teacher may point out that Arabic simply adds the masculine plural suffix to the end of numbers thalatha (= 3) to tisa (= 9) in order to make thirty to ninety. For example, thalath- + ( the masculine plural suffix in the normative form) is thirty (thalathon), and it is thalath + ( the masculine plural suffix in the accusative and genitive). khams- + ( the masculine plural suffix in the normative form) is fifty (khamson). Note that for teachers who are following Mastering Arabic, it is entirely up to the teacher to choose between teaching either the spoken or the written form. The teacher can explain that the number twenty is different. It is made by adding ( the masculine plural suffix) to ashar which makes ashron. A good phrase to teach the students is ashar + does not make one hundred but goes to ashron, twenty. When counting beyond the exact numbers 20, 30, 40, 50, etc., Arabic pronounces the additional number before 20, 30, 40, etc. Whereas English says twenty-four, starting with the bigger number (twenty), Arabic says four and twenty (arbaa wa ashron), starting with the smaller number, four (arbaa). To provide practice with these numbers, the teacher can ask the students to say their ages out loud (or those of friends and relatives!), ask each other their house numbers, or do simple maths calculations. This will provide plenty of spoken practice. Numbers one hundred and above mia is one hundred. To make two hundred, mia is treated in the dual form which is mia + = miatan in the normative form. There is no masculine or feminine for either number, only the one form. miatin which is mia + in the accusative and genitive form. Three hundred to nine hundred are made in the same manner as in English: first the low number + hundred in the singular form, e.g. thalath mia (= 300), khamsa mia (= 500), sita mia (= 600), thaman mia (= 800). Counting beyond any multiple of a hundred, the hundred will always come first, but the lower number will be pronounced as it does when it stands by itself: one hundred and twenty one is mia wa wahid wa ashron ( = one hundred and one and twenty). A thousand (alf) is treated in the same way as mia (a hundred). For example, two thousand is treated in the dual form which is alf + = alfan. There is no masculine or feminine for either number, only the one form. Three thousand and above is made in the same manner as English. The low number + thousand (in the plural form which is alaf), e.g. thalath alaf (= 3000); khamsa alaf (= 5000). Other useful ideas for practising numbers are: the teacher can ask the students to work in pairs and interview each other, finding out details about birthday dates and ages, addresses and house numbers, telephone numbers, etc for completing a visa application form. 3

Further Issues of Gender Agreement with Numbers The agreement between numbers and their nouns is perhaps the most difficult aspect of teaching numbers. However, by giving examples using everyday objects such as pencils, tables, etc, the teacher can make the subject much more easily understood. (Note: if we teach numbers after we have introduced the broken plural, this is a good opportunity to revise broken plurals at the same time). It is important for the teacher to refresh continually students memory of the issue of gender agreement. This is because numbers do agree; the noun and its descriptive adjective changes to a certain extent with numbers. For example: adjective agreement with the gender of the noun number disagreement, female noun and masculine number A few points should be emphasized in this context: 1 2 3 The number comes before the noun. There are female numbers and masculine numbers. The relation between certain numbers and the noun after are based on contradiction of gender. That is, if the noun is a masculine noun, the numbers should take the feminine form, while if the noun is feminine the number should take the masculine form. The exception to this is with numbers one and two, and eleven and twelve, which behave like adjectives, and agree with the same gender as the noun they go with, like the adjective after the noun. This will be explained in more detail below.

Students should therefore be reminded to look at the noun and see whether it is masculine or feminine and then decide what gender of the number they need: the masculine form or the feminine. The teacher can use flash cards to practise this. ask the students to raise a card with a number on it and then match it with various objects in the classroom. After introducing these general points about numbers, the teacher can explain these points in more detail. First, the teacher can divide the numbers into groups: 1 and 2 are one group 3 to 10 are one group 11 and 12 are one group 13 and above are one group. The teacher can then provide explanatory detail each group. The first group of one and two The teacher should mention two main points: 1 The agreement between the noun and the number. Number one comes AFTER the noun; so with one we say kitab wahed (one book) and bent wahedah (one girl). 2 With two of something we do not need the number two, because it is put in the dual case: we do not say athnan kitab, but we say kitaban (two books), we do not say athnatan bent, but we say bentan (the dual form of bent; two girls). The rule here is that there is an agreement between the noun and the number. This is treated like an adjective in terms of agreement with the gender of the noun since it comes after the noun. The number is the same gender as the noun.

The second group from three to ten The main important points are: 1 The numbers of this group come BEFORE the noun. 2 Since these numbers come before the noun they cannot be treated as adjectives. 3 The number should be THE OPPOSITE GENDER of the noun, e.g. a masculine noun takes a feminine number, and a feminine noun takes a masculine number. 4 The noun after the number should be in the plural form, e.g. thalath banat (three girls; masculine form of the number with feminine noun), and thalathat regal (three men; the feminine form of the number with the masculine noun). The third group of 11 and 12 1 2 3 4 The number consists of two parts: the low number and ashar (= 10). There is agreement in gender between the noun and the number as with adjectives. The numbers come BEFORE the noun. The second part of the number, ashar, also agrees with the gender of the noun, masculine masculine and feminine feminine, e.g. ahada ashar rajulan (eleven men);. ihda asharah bentan (eleven girls.), ithnata asharah bentan (twelve girls), and ithna ashar rajulan (twelve men.).

The fourth group from 13 and above 1 The number consists of two parts; the low number and ashar (= 10) or any higher number. 2 The number comes BEFORE the noun. 3 The first part of the number, the low number, does not agree with the noun in terms of gender, while the second part of the number, ashar, does agree with the noun after in terms of gender. For example, thalathat ashar rajulan (thirteen men). Observe the first number, thalathat, took the feminine form while the noun is masculine rajul (men). Observe ashar took the masculine form and the number is masculine (gender agreement like with adjectives). Another example: thalath asharat bentan (thirteen girls). Observe the number thalath is masculine while the noun bent is feminine. asharah is feminine and the noun is feminine too (gender agreement as with adjectives). 4 Note: the noun is singular with the number. The pervious examples actually say in Arabic thirteen man and thirteen woman. 5 The first part of the number is the opposite gender of the noun, while the second part of the number is the same as the gender of the noun. Ideas for more exercises to practice the use of numbers The teacher divides the class into two groups. The teacher provides questions for each group, for example; What is the meaning of alf lila wa lila?; When was the first world war? etc. The idea here is to provide practice of numbers and vocabulary. Another idea is for the teacher to write some words like: , , , : Then the teacher asks the students to pick out the strange word. This exercise provides practice with learning numbers and the matter of root. Note: teachers can find some flash cards for exercises on numbers on the website. Written by Nuha Al Shaar, SOAS Language Centre, November 2005 5