Learn Arabic › A1 › أَلْف
أَلْف
thousand /ˈʔalf/
nounA1#391 most common
Also: a thousand (1,000), (figuratively) a great many, countless
Example sentences
عِنْدِي أَلْف دولار.
I have a thousand dollars.
اِشْتَرَيْتُ سَيّارةً بِأَلْفِ دينارٍ.
I bought a car for a thousand dinars.
يَسْكُنُ في هذه المَدينةِ أَكْثَرُ مِنْ أَلْفِ عائِلةٍ.
More than a thousand families live in this city.
تَبَرَّعَ الرَّجُلُ بِثَلاثةِ آلافِ دولارٍ لِلْمُسْتَشْفى.
The man donated three thousand dollars to the hospital.
رَغْمَ مُرورِ أَلْفِ عامٍ، ما زالَتِ القَلْعةُ صامِدةً.
Despite the passing of a thousand years, the fortress still stands.
رِحْلةُ الأَلْفِ مِيلٍ تَبْدَأُ بِخَطْوةٍ واحِدةٍ.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | أَلْفٌ | آلافٌ |
| Genitive | أَلْفٍ | آلافٍ |
| Accusative | أَلْفًا | آلافًا |
| Vocative | يا أَلْفُ | يا آلافُ |
Word family
آلافthousands (plural)
أَلْفانtwo thousand (dual)
أَلْفِيّةmillennium
أَلْفِيّthousandth, millennial
Etymology
أَلْف is the inherited Semitic word for the number 1,000. It goes back to a Proto-Semitic root ʾ-l-p tied to ideas of gathering and large quantity, the same root behind the letter aleph. Hebrew 'elef and Aramaic 'alpā carry the identical sense. The number also feeds derived words such as أَلْفِيّة, meaning millennium.
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