Plurals

In our previous lesson, we learned that in Urdu, every noun falls into one of four categories. In the first category, we have masculine words that end in "a" such as "larka". Words in the first category are made plural by replacing the ending "a" with an "e". (From here on, the plural of a noun will be denoted by a (p).) For example:

• larka (m) = boy
• larke (mp) = boys
• beta (m) = son
• bete (mp) = sons
  

In the second category are masculine nouns that don't end in "a". The singular and plural versions of these words are the same:

• aadmi (m) = man
• aadmi (mp) = men
• ghar (m) = house
• ghar (mp) = houses

The third category consists of feminine nouns that end in "i". To pluralize these nouns, we add the suffix "an" to the end of the word; note that here, the "n" is pronounced using a soft, nasal sound. Here are some examples:

• larki (f) = girl
• larkian (fp) = girls
• beti (f) = daughter
• betian (fp) = daughters

Finally, the last category consists of feminine nouns that don't end in "i". These nouns are pluralized by adding the suffix "en" to the end of the word; again, the "n" here has a soft pronunciation. For example:

• aurat (f) = woman
• auraten (fp) = women
• sarak (f) = street
• saraken (fp) = streets

And that's all there is to it!