Look at how the compound number (eleven) remains completely unchanged across different case environments: Case / Sentence Role Arabic Example Grammatical Analysis (I'rab) Nominative (Subject) جَاءَ أَحَدَ عَشَرَ رَجُلًا Ahada 'Ashara is the subject but remains fixed with Fathah. Accusative (Object)
These act as adjectives ( Na't ). The Ma'dud comes first, and the 'Adad follows it, matching in gender and case.
Even though "eleven" is the subject ( fa'il ), both parts retain the fatha ending. tarkib adadi
These numbers are built from two parts, creating a single, indeclinable word for numbers 11, 13 through 19 (12 is a special case).
Mastering this concept is essential for any student of Arabic, as compound numbers follow strict rules regarding gender agreement ( Tadhkir wa Ta'nith ) and invariant grammatical casing ( Bana' ). The Linguistic and Technical Definition Look at how the compound number (eleven) remains
: The number agrees with the numbered item in gender. This is the most intuitive rule.
The second part ʿashar (masculine) vs ʿashrata (feminine) follows a reverse gender rule: Even though "eleven" is the subject ( fa'il
The gender of the number is opposite to the gender of the singular form of the noun. Furthermore, the counted noun must be plural and in the genitive case ( Numbers 11 to 99: The counted noun becomes singular and accusative ( 4. Semantic Significance and Usage Beyond the mechanical rules of grammar, Tarkib-e-Adadi serves critical functions in human communication: Precision and Clarity:
Arabic numbers are split into four structural categories within a Tarkib Adadi . Each group follows its own unique morphosyntactic behavior: 1. Mufrad (Single Numbers: 1 to 10)
For example, the number fifteen in Arabic is written as khamsata 'ashara (خَمْسَةَ عَشَرَ). Mechanically, this functions as an abbreviation of khamsatun wa 'asharatun ("five and ten"). Because the conjunction is omitted, the two numbers merge into a single compound phrase. Grammatical Features and Inflexibility (Mabni)