# بنون / أبناء؛ إخوة / إخوان؛ أمهات / أمات



## Jana337

Hello, 

I am faced with a couple of nouns that have several plurals. I would like to know which ones I should preferably use.

ابن - بنون, بنين, أبناء
أخ - إخوان, إخوة
أم - أمهات, أمات​
Thank you. 

Jana


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## abusaf

ابن - بنون, *بنين, أبناء*
 أخ - *إخوان, إخوة*
 أم - *أمهات*, أمات

The marked ones are the ones most used, I've never heard أمات and I've only heard بنون a couple of times. The rest are always used.


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## cherine

Hi Jana,
I'll add few things to Abusaf's answer :

ابن - بنون, بنين, أبناء 
You can consider banuun and baniin as jam3 mudhakkar saalim, and "abnaa2" as jam3 taksiir. Both forms are correct. Baniin is "bauun" mansuuba/majruura : Here are examples from the Qur'an :​
يوم لا ينفعُ مالٌ ولا بنون (الشعراء، سورة 26، آية 88)
أَصْطَفَى البناتِ على البنين (الصافات، سورة 37، آية 153)​​
When this word is muDaafa, the "nuun" is "tu7dhaf", like بنو إسرائيل/ بني إسرائيل (Sons of Israel).
أخ - إخوان, إخوة
Both are correct, though "ikhwa" is more used.
أم - أمهات, أمات
Ummat is very incorrect. The only plural of umm is ummahaat.​


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## Jana337

Many thanks to both of you!  I actually found  أمات in my book.  Does it have another meaning? Because I could find quite a few hits in Google.

Jana


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## Mery_Dian

Hi Jana, 

Although أُمّهات is more common in MSA,أُمَّات  is also a valid plural of أُمّ. As stated in Lisan al 3arab, there is a slight difference between the two forms: أُمّهات is often used for humans, and أُمَّات for animals or metaphorically:



> والجمع أُمَّات وأُمّهات، زادوا الهاء، وقال بعضهم: الأُمَّهات فيمن يعقل، والأُمّات بغير هاء فيمن لا يعقل، فالأُمَّهاتُ للناس والأُمَّات للبهائم، [...] ؛ قال ابن بري : الأَصل في الأُمَّهات أن تكون للآدميين، وأُمَّات أن تكون لغير الآدَمِيِّي.


.


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## cherine

WOW ! Thanks Mery_Dian  

Jana, First, I'm sorry for my error.
Secondly, I'd only like to draw your attention to a little thing: The word أمات in the Google's results is not only ummaat, but there are also amaata (did he die/ is he dead).  
Speak about the importance of diacritics


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## Mery_Dian

You're welcome Cherine! I've just learned it myself from Lisan al 3arab  . Comme quoi!


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## Jana337

Shukran! 

Could you give me a couple of examples of the metaphoric use? If they are somehow contained in the Arabic quote from Lisan al 3arab, I am afraid I am not advanced enough to find them. 

Jana


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## cherine

Jana337 said:


> Could you give me a couple of examples of the metaphoric use?


You mean about ummat ?
If so, there are the expression: أمات الكتب (like: the major classics) 
We may also say أمات الإبل mothers camels (or something like that).
To say in short what's in Lisaan al-3arab: ummahaat is for human beings only. Ummaat is for inanimates (books, animals...) where it can mean both "mothers" and "main, principal".


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## elroy

أبناء is more common than بنون/بنين (the same word, Abusaf, just different cases - as Cherine said), but the latter is used in some fixed expressions (example: بنو آدم - human beings, literally "sons of Adam").

إخوة is more common than إخوان; the latter sounds more poetic to me.

And, at the risk of redundancy, أمهات is by far more common than أمات.


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## LiliaGaripovaRadikovna

When do we use broken plural and whole plural forms of words بنون/إبناء
? Maybe إخوة/إخوان also have similar usung rule?


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## Ghabi

@LiliaGaripovaRadikovna just a minor correction: the spelling is أبناء not إبناء.

Just to add: بنون is also often used in tribal names.


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## elroy

Another fixed expression that uses بنون/بنين is بالرفاه والبنين, said to newlyweds.


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## LiliaGaripovaRadikovna

there is no such rules, that we use for some words, جمع قليل and for others جمع كثير? For word مدينة as i know we have 2 plurals, one for more than 10,and another for less than 10,
مُدُن for more than 10,
مَدَائن for less than 10, maybe here is this rule? بنون is used for tribes, it means for groups more than 10,بنو إسرائيل
أبناء for family members, I guess


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## Ghabi

LiliaGaripovaRadikovna said:


> there is no such rules, that we use for some words, جمع قليل and for others جمع كثير?


No, not really. See, for example:
شهور - أشهر (Plural of شهر)


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## LiliaGaripovaRadikovna

@Ghabi, maybe here vice versa? 🤔


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## Mahaodeh

LiliaGaripovaRadikovna said:


> there is no such rules, that we use for some words, جمع قليل and for others جمع كثير?


Hard to say that. Some patterns of plural are commonly used as جمع قلة while others are commonly used as جمع كثرة أو جمع الجمع but there are too many exceptions to say that it's a rule. It's more like a guideline.


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