Lower Intermediate - Weighing

How do you say, discount or sale. For instance, the onions are on sale.

The following words in Arabic mean discount or sales and are widely used

تخفيضات – Ta7’fee9’aat – Reductions
خصم – 7’a9m – Discount : خصم is usually associated with a percentage of the discount

e.g.
تخفيضات ملابس – Ta7’fee9’aat Malaabes – Clothes on Sale
خصم 20% على الملابس –
7’a9m 20% 3ala almalaabes – 20% discount on clothes

The word "kilo" comes from Greek (khilioi = thousand).

That's interesting, I didn't know that it comes from Greek.
Does "kilo" in Arabic have a plural form?

Dear Leila,

You'll find an answer to your question on the following webpage: http://www.sunniforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35436&page=2 You'd better ask Ehab whether the information provided by Husain is reliable.

Ahlan Desmond,

The discussion in the link you provided is about a quotation from a book on how the word (kilo كيلو) was made plural. The book claims that the plural is (kaylaat كيلات) which can be true based on the fact that (kilo كيلو) it is a borrowed word from Greek, and any non-Arabic word is made to be plural by applying the feminine plural rule onto it, which is to add (aat ـات) suffix after the noun, like the word (baa9 باص) which is (bus), although it is a masculine word, we apply the feminine plural pattern to it so it becomes (baa9aat باصات).
However, the most common method that is used in the media and many Arabic sources is to apply the plural suffix to the word that is associated with (kilo) like (graam جرام) or (metr متر), so you say (kilo gramaat كيلوجرامات) or (kilo metraat كيلومترات), see these examples from BBC Arabic service and Alarabiya news TV:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/arabic/sci_tech/newsid_6681000/6681565.stm

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2005/03/04/10902.html

Although these are well known and authentic sources, I say that the first suggestion of adding (aat ـات) to the word (kilo) itslef is the right way of forming the plural of (kilo) in Arabic.
The reason behind my answer is the fact that in classical Arabic, we add the plural suffix to the countable word, like (خمسة أكياس رز) which is (five bags of rice), and the word (bags أكياس) took the plural form while the word (rice رز) was singular. Same thing should be done with (kilo), which should take the plural form (feminine plural because it is non-Arabic word).

I hope it clarifies your query, and sorry for those lower intermediate listeners because I guess they got lost by now :).

Alf shukran wa shukran ya Ehab!

Information about the inflexional morphology of contemporary Arabic is always welcome. It's very useful to know that masculine loan words take feminine endings when they are used in the plural. Most Europeans will no doubt find this kind of linguistic transvestism rather bewildering although French masculine nouns like "étage" and "bouillon" become feminine when they take root on German soil.

The rule cited by Ehab is mentioned briefly by Gérard Lecomte in "Grammaire de l'arabe" (Paris: PUF, 1980), p. 96. Lecompte cites examples like "telefon" (pl. telefonaat). He might have added a reference to "bantaloon" (pl. bantaloonaat), which has evidently been borrowed from a Romance language - probably Italian (cf. Ital. "pantaloni").

Been a bit busy so just got a chance to sign in. Wonderful to see those answers, thanks Desmond and Ehab for clarifying about the plural form of kilo.

pantalon is the same word in french, spanish, and italian comes from talon which in the same three languages means heel

?لو سمحت ما معنئ صراحة
شكرا ماثيو

@mgraulich, it means honestly :-)