# خيل، خيول، أخيال - حصان - جواد



## elroy

What is/are the correct use(s) of the word خيل?

1. Dictionaries call it a collective noun, like بقر. An example of this use would be the following:
ذهبت إلى المزرعة ورأيت بقراً ووزاً وخيلاً.

2. However, I've also seen it used as a singular noun, and it has a plural form - خيول. For example,
أريد أن أشتري خيلاً واحداً ولا ثلاثة خيول.

These two uses seem contradictory, for two reasons:

1. If it's a collective noun (usage 1), why doesn't it have a singular form? The singular of بقر is بقرة; the singular of وز is إوزة; etc. But what is the singular of خيل?
2. If it's a collective noun, why does it have a separate plural form? I can't think of any collective noun that has a plural form.

Logically, this would lead me to assume that its usage as a singular noun is (also?) correct. If it's not, how do you explain these peculiarities?

Are both uses correct?

What does the sentence يجب أن أسقي الخيل mean to you?
"I have to give water to the horses (in an unspecified number)," "I have to give water to the horse," or either, depending on the context?

I look forward to your contributions and replies.


----------



## cherine

Hi Elroy,
خيل is definitly collective.
The simplest definition I found in المعجم الوجيز (prepared by مجمع اللغة العربية in Egypt) says : 
 الخيل: جماعة الأفراس، والخيل: الفرسان، (ج) أخيال، وخيول ​(but the plural أخيال is said to be "not common")
Here's what I found in لسان العرب :
 والخَيْل: الفُرْسان، وفي المحكم: جماعة الأَفراس لا واحد له من لفظه؛ قال أَبو عبيدة: واحدها خائل لأَنه يَخْتال في مِشْيَتِه، قال ابن سيده: وليس هذا بمعروف. وفي التنزيل العزيز: وأَجْلِبْ عليهم بخَيْلِك ورَجْلِك، أَي بفُرْسانك ورَجَّالتك. والخَيْل: الخُيول. وفي التنزيل العزيز: والخَيْلَ والبِغال والحمير لتركبوها. ​ 
So the word khayl has mainly two meanings (of which one is the most used) : horse*s* and cavalry.



			
				elroy said:
			
		

> 2. However, I've also seen it used as a singular noun, and it has a plural form - خيول. For example,
> أريد أن أشتري خيلاً واحداً ولا ثلاثة خيول.​


This sentence sounds a bit strange for me, I'd say حصان واحد أو فرس واحدة but not خيلاً واحدًا .



> ... But what is the singular of خيل?


Acording to ابن منظور (author of lisaan al-3arab) it doesn't have a singular.



> 2. If it's a collective noun, why does it have a separate plural form? I can't think of any collective noun that has a plural form.


I don't have examples either, but maybe because I've never really thought about the collective noun thing, I use words by "intuition" 



> Are both uses correct?


As I said before, I wouldn't use خيل واحد because to me خيل refers to many horses. If I want to say "a horse" I'd say حصان and this is what I always find in books or hear people saying.



> What does the sentence يجب أن أسقي الخيل mean to you?
> "I have to give water to the horses (in an unspecified number)," "I have to give water to the horse," or either, depending on the context?


It means "I have to give water to the horses (in an unspecified number)", and context wouldn't effect the meaning.


----------



## elroy

Two questions:

What, then, does the plural خيول (or أخيال) refer to?  Could you give me an example sentence in which you would use it?
How do you explain the 122,000 Google results for خيل واحد?


----------



## cherine

Most of the 122,000 results are written in 3ammeyya  so -I think- we can't consider them as references. Though they back your opinion of people using the word as a singular.
So here's a compromise I suggest : in fus7a, the word khayl refers to many horses, and in 3ammeyya people can use it the way they like (as we always do  )

Further reference : Do you know that Arabs were so fond of horses that they wrote books about them ?  
 الخيل - أسماء خيل العرب وفرسانها - أنساب الخيل... ​(Yes, they cared a lot about the "genealogy" of their horses) 

(I tried to post a link to those books but I won't work, sorry.  But those who are interested in reading those books can PM me and I'll tell them where they are)


----------



## elroy

Thanks for doing all that research, Cherine.  

I've done some of my own:

First off, there are 14,700 Google results for ثلاثة خيول.

I checked out some of the results from the first page and...

*If you read the story in the first post here, you'll see خيل clearly used to refer to one horse, and ثلاثة خيول to mean "three horses."
*In this story, خيول is used to refer to individual "horses," which would suggest that خيل would refer to one.  Consider this sentence, for example: 


> واستطاعت خيول سمو الشيخ راشد بن محمد آل مكتوم أن تسجل ثلاثية ولا اروع فيما جاء الشوط الرئيسي قمة في المتعة والإثارة.


 
*Read the announcement here. 

All of these texts are written in fuS7a, and I'm sure there are numerous other examples.  What do you have to say about that?


----------



## cherine

> All of these texts are written in fuS7a, and I'm sure there are numerous other examples. What do you have to say about that?


Yes, they're written in fus7a by regular people, like you and me, who can make mistakes  not by professional fus7a writers; I mean who should I take credit from : Ibn Manzuur, or X, Y,Z who are Arabic native alright but not as knowledgeable as he is ?

But, one more thing : the use of خيول is not strange here for the simple reason that this word is indeed plural.
Again, I'd say that خيل is a collective noun


----------



## elroy

Yes, it's plural but it's referring to individual horses. It's obvious, for example, in the announcement that the request is for *3 horses*. And if ثلاثة خيول means "three horses," that would suggest that خيل means "one horse."

If not, then when is خيول to be used? Can you give me an example of the *correct* use of the plural form?

I am not contesting that خيل is a collective. I am simply wondering a.) why it has its own plural form, and when/how the plural is to be used and b.) whether using it as a singular word is correct or simply a "common error" (as you seem to suggest in your last post).


----------



## Josh_

I would agree that using kheel as a singular must be mainly a colloquial thing -- After all there is a bit more flexibility with colloquial than there is in fusHa. I asked my professor and that while kheel really is collective, some people do use it as a singular, but technically, this is wrong. (I never right these things down but if I remember correctly) he also said that it really should always be used as collective in fusHa. 

My personal feeling is that it is a collective. I have always used it that way and it sounds wrong to my ears to use it as a singular. In fact, I did not even know that some people use it as a singukar until Elroy brought it up. Having seen the sources Elroy provided, I concede that it can be used as a singular, but personally I will never use it that way. I would say Husaan or faras.

Since kheel is collective I can't understand the need or the proper usage for khuyuul. It would seem to me saying "keel maSrii" and "khuyuul maSriyya" would mean the same thing, but again, the plural is not needed, if, indeed, kheel is a collective. I'm off to look into the issue further and maybe see if I can find some other collectives that act the same way. as it is right now, it appears that kheel is in a class by itself.


----------



## seitt

Greetings,

I gather that the Arabic word خيل is the source of the extremely common Persian word for ‘very’, خیلی.

Hans Wehr only gives ‘horses, horsepower’ for خيل, which is no doubt fine for the modern language, but please could you let me know the full range of meanings of the word (i.e. in Classical Arabic too)?

All the best, and many thanks,

Simon


----------



## rayloom

Hmm doesn't seem so.
The root خيل has other meanings which don't seem to be related to Persian خيلى. 
Some of the meanings include: arrogance, pride, imagination.

Maybe someone with a Persian etymological dictionary can shed some light on this.


----------



## Masjeen

طار - طير
خال - خيل
سال - سيل
مال - ميل
سار - سير
هان - هين
لان -لين
بان -بين

من السهولة أقامة الادعاءات والافتراضات
 على اساس تشابه الأشياء 
مثل شكسبير - شيخ زبير


----------



## إسكندراني

It could be possible that it's a play on خيالي ('very'≈'unbelievably'?)


----------



## seitt

Many thanks. Does it (or did it) ever mean 'army'?


----------



## Mahaodeh

خيل is also the مصدر of خالَ يَخَالُ which means ظنّ, especially عند تغليب الخيال على الحقيقة. Example: هذا سراب يخالَه الظمآن ماءً.

I don't think it ever meant army per se, but the word خيَّالَة in some colloquial dialects, especially the beduin based ones, has the meaning of فرسان = cavalry or horsemen.

However, back to the meaning of very, could it be possible that it comes from the word حيل (with a 7aa' not a khaa') that means in some dialects (especially Iraqi Arabic) very or much? I've noticed some non-Arabs turn the 7aa' into khaa' as it seems to be easier to pronounce for those who do not have such a letter in their native language.


----------



## seitt

Many thanks excellent.


----------



## ayed

seitt said:


> Many thanks. Does it (or did it) ever mean 'army'?


Yes, I've just found it .
The word _khail_ means 

_"a brigade" is formed for/to a prince (see alQamoos al-MuHeeT)._​


----------



## SofiaB

Chadi: khel and juwad  are used for horse are they interchangeable or singular plural?


----------



## muhammad2012

khel is singular and the  plural is Akhial ,khujool
Some times is plural with  no singular
جَمَاعَة الأفراس (لَا وَاحِد لَهُ من لَفظه) 
 (ج) أخيال وخيول 

juwad is singular 
من الخيل: النجيب، الأصيل، ج جياد وأجياد وأجاويد.


----------



## SofiaB

muhammad2012 said:


> khel is singular and the  plural is Akhial ,khujool
> Some times is plural with  no singular
> جَمَاعَة الأفراس (لَا وَاحِد لَهُ من لَفظه)
> (ج) أخيال وخيول
> 
> juwad is singular
> من الخيل: النجيب، الأصيل، ج جياد وأجياد وأجاويد.



shokran ya muhammad.


----------



## garet122

Hello,

What is the difference between خيل and حصان 

حصان means ''horse''

According to google translator the meaning of خيل is ''horses''

If خيل is the plural so what is خيول ? According to this dictionary it is the plural of خيل (http://www.welokee.nl/arabic/query_results_word.php?araword=gBw&font_id=0&n=1&v=1&a=1&p=1&o=1&x=1)


----------



## akhooha

Please don't rely on google translate. خيل is a collective  (*not* plural) noun for horse, and its being collective doesn't stop it from having a plural form خيول. It's like غنم, a collective noun meaning "sheep" (which also happens to be a collective noun in English), which has the plural form of أغنام. 
It may seem odd that a collective noun has a plural, but this occurs even in English, for example, "fish" can be considered collective, but it also has its plural form of "fishes".


----------



## panview

Hi. If I'd like yo say "Blue sky, white clouds, under white clouds the horses are running" in Arabic,
they are 
*السماء الزرقاء  والسُّحُبُ  وتحتها * الخيول

but I found on internet that is like this 
*السماء الزرقاء  والسُّحُبُ  وتحتها  الأخيال     link*

I wonder here *الأخيال* and الخيول ,which is right,and what their difference?


----------



## ayed

خيول : plural of abundance (many hourses)
أخيال: plural of paucity (a few hores): from 3 to 10 horses


----------



## elroy

According to prior discussions (see above), خيل already means "horses."


----------



## gbasfora

Hi,
what would be the translation of خيالة ?

Context : the last verse of the song طلعت يا محلا نورها

على شرط تقدموا مهري ميتين خيالة /n the condition that you offer as marriage contract two hundred ????? (horses ?) / (mare/female horses ?). 
Should not be *خَيْلِ ?
*

Thanks in advance


----------



## Sun-Shine

In Arabic, خيَّالة means horsemen.
In this context خيّالة means horses.


----------



## gbasfora

sun_shine 331995 said:


> In Arabic, خيَّالة means horsemen.
> In this context خيّالة means horses.


Thank you Sun_Shine. 

What would be the translation into arabic to horsewomen and mares(female horse) ?


----------

