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<p>In TKD §6.4, this is written of the word <strong>'ar</strong>:</p>
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<pre><span style="font-family:Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Finally, <strong>'ar</strong> <em>how many? how much?</em> follows the noun to which it refers. It can never follow a noun with a plural suffix
(-<strong>pu</strong><strong>'</strong>, -<strong>mey</strong>, -<strong>Du'</strong>; see section 3.3.2).</span></pre>
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<p>I've always taken this to mean that a noun followed by <strong>'ar</strong> is grammatically singular, and so we must say, for example,
<strong>qachvam</strong><strong> Dab nuv 'ar?</strong>, rather than *qachvam luDab nuv 'ar?*.</p>
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<p>However, it now strikes me that there is another possible interpretation, namely that while the noun followed by
<strong>'ar</strong> is never marked with a plural <em>suffix</em>, it could still be considered grammatically plural, and thus allow for sentences such as *qachvam luDab nuv 'ar?*.<br>
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<p>Unfortunately, the canonical example sentences we have using <strong>'ar</strong> don't really shine much of a light on this. The only example I've found that uses a number-specific verb prefix to go with the NOUN +
<strong>'ar</strong> construct is <strong>nIn 'ar wIghaj.</strong> ("How much fuel do we have?") However, this example is of limited use, as the quantity of
<strong>nIn</strong> ("fuel") is a presumably continuous, rather than discrete; while we would normally treat
<strong>nIn law'</strong> and <strong>nIn puS</strong> as singular, we would treat
<strong>nuv law'</strong> and <strong>nuv puS</strong> as plural.</p>
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<p>Can anybody think of any examples that could help to resolve this matter? Or is there an unofficial but commonly accepted answer?<br>
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