وَاحِدٍone

Example sentences

• غَيْرُ رَجُلٍ وَاحِدٍ تَرَكَ الَّذِي لَهُ وَذَهَبَ

  All but one man left what belonged to him and departed.

  وَاحِدٍ — one. A numeral acting as an adjective on 'man', and it copies that noun's genitive ending to agree with it. Arabic makes describing words echo the case of what they modify, so the matching ending is the glue linking 'one' to 'man'.

  From: Trapped and Delivered →

• وَأَكْثَرُهُمْ لَا صَبْرَ لَهُ عَلَى وَاحِدٍ مِنَ الأَمَرَّيْنِ

  Most of them have no patience for either of the two matters.

  وَاحِدٍ — one. An indefinite numeral ('one') in the genitive ending as the object of the preposition before it. It heads an 'of' link with the dual that follows ('one of the two'). The absent al- and the -in tail mark it as 'one' picked indefinitely from the pair.

  From: Patience and the Human Self →