Arabic → English
الأوَّل in English
- Pronunciation
- ʾawwal
- Arabizi
awwal- Type
- adjective · masculine
- Plural
- الْأَوَّلُونَ al-ʾawwalūn
- Root
- و ل ي
How to use it
Al-ʾawwal (الأول) is the masculine form of 'first'. The feminine form is 'al-ʾūlā' (الأولى). It's used for ordinal numbers and to indicate precedence.
Example sentences
-
هَذَا هُوَ الْبَيْتُ الْأَوَّلُ فِي الشَّارِعِ.
hādhā huwa l-baytu l-ʾawwalu fī sh-shāriʿi.
This is the first house on the street.
-
كَانَ الْفَائِزُ الْأَوَّلُ فِي سِبَاقِ الْجَرْيِ.
kāna l-fāʾizu l-ʾawwalu fī sibāqi l-jaryi.
He was the first winner in the running race.
-
هَذَا هُوَ الْفَصْلُ الْأَوَّلُ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ.
hādhā huwa l-faṣlu l-ʾawwalu mina l-kitābi.
This is the first chapter of the book.
Examples from real texts
Sentences taken from published bilingual texts (subtitles, documents). They show the word in context and are not reviewed one by one.
وقد قدَّر الناشطون ما يقارب من ثلاثة آلاف قصةً مشاركةً في تويتر، وحدَّدوا بأنَّ العمر الوسطيَّ المذكور لحوادث التحرّش الأوَّل هو ما بين 7-9 سنوات.
The activists discussed a fraction of the 3,111 stories shared on Twitter and found that on average, a poster's first experience of harassment occurred at 9.7 years old.
Questions and answers
How do I say 'the first' for a feminine noun?
You use 'al-ʾūlā' (الأولى). For example, 'al-ṣafah al-ʾūlā' (الصفحة الأولى) means 'the first page'.
What is the plural of 'al-ʾawwal'?
The plural is 'al-ʾawwalūn' (الأولون), which is used for masculine groups. For example, 'al-ʾawwalūn min al-nabiyyīn' (الأولون من النبيين) means 'the first of the prophets'.
Related words and expressions
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