‎plural of ‫جَمِيلٌ‬?

[Gro-Tsen]

‎What is the plural of ‫جَمِيلٌ‬ — I mean, the adjective meaning "beautiful" or "handsome" or some such thing, in the masculine — in modern standard Arabic? For some reason my dictionary doesn't give it, but it's not a very good dictionary so this absence could mean various things (that the plural doesn't exist, that it's not used, that it's regular for some definition of "regular") and I don't know what I should conclude.

In the page http://vegasociety.com/arabic/adjectives.html, it is explicitly given as ‫جَمِيلُونَ‬ (as a regular/external/sane plural, that is), but I'm not sure how reliable this is. And googling for this form gives a totally ridiculous number of results compared to the masculine singular, feminine singular or feminine plural. On the other hand, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_number#Exceptions uses "‫رِجَالٌ جِمَالٌ‬" to translate "handsome men" (and my grammar does mention "‫فِعَالٌ‬" as a common irregular/internal/broken plural for adjectives of the form "‫فَعِيلٌ‬"), but again Google comes up with a ridiculously small number of pages containing the words "‫رِجَالٌ جِمَالٌ‬" (and since the latter certainly means "camels", I can't conclude much by searching for it alone). So I'm left in doubt.

(Basically I'm looking for an adjective whose meaning would go well with pretty much any noun, animate or inanimate, so I could use it in simple sentences to memorize which forms are singulars and which forms are plurals or some such things. So ‫جَمِيلٌ‬ seemed like a nice candidate, but if it doesn't have a plural or if there is a subtlety of some kind perhaps I should look for another one. Any suggestion?)

PS: If someone has a computerized (e.g., plain text) comprehensive list of Arabic broken plurals, I'd be glad to have it!

Also, please include full vocalization in replies.

Thanks for the help!

[huhmzah]

Hmm I believe the masc. plural of جَميل is "جُملا" (jumala') but I might be mistaken. I'll wait for a native to respond . Also if you want to say "Handsome Men" you don't have to add in "رجال" because that is implied in the adjective already. The masculine plural form is only used when describing human males.

I dno of any comprehensive list of adjectival forms and their plurals -- I'm sure its out there though, maybe someone else will post it.

There are a lot of variations and I suppose the usage of some plural forms depends on context. Feminine human plurals are for the most part completely regular (i.e -ât) and non-human feminine/masculine plurals are always rendered feminine singular.
ex. مَدينة جميلة --> مُدُن جميلة or كتاب قديم --> كُتُب قديمة
(Beautiful cities, Ancient books)

Here's an overview:

Form I has perhaps the most options -- these are the three major masc. plural forms, some adj. have one, some two, some three, and some (like قليل) even more:

Form I: فَعيل --> فُعَلاء \ فِعال \ فعيلون
ex. (weak): ضعيف --> ضُعَفاء \ ضِعاف
ex. (big): كبير --> كَبيرون \ كِبار
ex. (distant): بعيد --> بُعداء \ بعيدون \ بِعاد

Form II: فَعِّل --> sound regular plurals for the most part.
ex. (fine/good) طَيِّب --> طَيِّبون، طَيِّبين

Form III: فَعِل --> sound regular plurals for the most part.
ex. (dirty) وَسِخ --> وَسِخون، وَسِخين

Form IV: فُعْل \ فَعْل --> varies
ex. (huge) ضَخْم --> ضِخام
ex. (free) حُرّ --> أحْرار \ حَرائِر

Form V: فَعَل --> varies
ex. (good) حَسَن --> حِسان
ex. (medial) وَسَط --> أوْساط

Form VI: فَعْلان --> often sound regular plural*, but with several exceptions.
ex. (hungry) جوعان --> جياع
ex. (thirsty) عطشان --> عِطاش \ عَطشى
ex. (tired)* تعبان --> تعبانون

Form VII: فَعّال --> sound regular plurals.
ex. (attractive) جَذّاب --> جذّابون، جَذّابين

Other than that, another main category is colors and adjectives that denote someone's physical features or defining quality. For the most part* they are this:

أفْعَل --> فُعْل
ex. (black) أسْوَد --> سُوْد
ex. (brown) أسْمَر --> سُمْر
[ex. Native Americans are called الهُنود الحُمْر i.e. Red-Indians)
ex. (blond) أشْقَر --> شُقْر
ex. (stupid) أحمق --> حُمْق

There are however exceptions and variations in these forms are well, such as
ex.(white) أبْيَض turns into بِيض.

Hope that helps!

***My reference source is Prof. Karen Ryding's reference grammar of modern standard Arabic. She has a whole chapter (p. 239 - 275) dedicated to the form and function of adjectives in Arabic.