In short

English quantifies with small function words in front of the noun: “all the students”, “every student”, “most people”, “both men”. Arabic has almost none of these. What it has instead is a handful of ordinary nouns meaning “the totality of”, “a part of”, “the greater part of”, and they take the noun they quantify as the second term of an إِضافَة. كُلُّ الطُّلّابِ is, word for word, “the-totality-of the-students”. That insight makes the whole set predictable: no article on the quantifier, genitive on the noun, and the quantifier alone carrying whatever case the sentence hands it.

The second half of the lesson is what happens when constructs get long. Because quantifiers are themselves first terms, chains of three and four nouns are completely ordinary in writing: كُلُّ طُلّابِ مَدْرَسَةِ القَرْيَةِ. A long chain is not a new construction - it is lesson 20’s rules applied at every joint - but two things now need planning: what each non-final word has to give up, and where an adjective can stand once the chain has closed off the middle.

The rule

1. كُلّ is a noun, and what follows it decides the meaning. Three patterns, three senses; learn them as three separate items, not as one word with a vague meaning:

• كُلُّ + definite plural = all of: كُلُّ الطُّلّابِ - all the students.
• كُلُّ + indefinite singular = every, each: كُلُّ طالِبٍ - every student.
• كُلُّ + definite singular = the whole of: كُلُّ اليَوْمِ - the whole day.

In all three, كُلّ is the مُضاف: it never takes الـ and never takes tanwīn, and the noun after it is مَجْرور. The case on كُلّ itself is free and comes from the sentence: هٰذا كُلُّ ما عِنْدي (predicate), قَرَأْتُ كُلَّ الكِتابِ (object), في كُلِّ بَيْتٍ (after a preposition).

One footnote: when the second term is dropped because it is obvious, كُلّ takes a tanwīn to stand in for it - كُلٌّ يَعْمَلُ بِطَريقَتِهِ (each works in his own way). That is the only time you see a tanwīn on this word.

2. Agreement follows the pattern you chose.

• With كُلُّ طالِبٍ, everything downstream is singular: كُلُّ طالِبٍ يَحْمِلُ بِطاقَتَهُ - every student carries his card. Not يَحْمِلونَ, not بِطاقاتِهِمْ.
• With كُلُّ الطُّلّابِ, a verb that comes first stays singular, because its فاعِل is كُلُّ: حَضَرَ كُلُّ الطُّلّابِ. When the phrase comes first and the verb follows, Arabic normally goes by sense: كُلُّ الطُّلّابِ حَضَروا.
• With a non-human plural, lesson 11 still rules: كُلُّ المُدُنِ جَميلَةٌ - feminine singular, whatever the quantifier.

3. The appositive pattern: الطُّلّابُ كُلُّهُمْ. The same words can follow the noun instead of preceding it, in a fixed shape: the noun, then كُلّ carrying the same case as the noun, then an attached pronoun agreeing with the noun.

• الطُّلّابُ كُلُّهُمْ نَجَحوا. / رَأَيْتُ الطُّلّابَ كُلَّهُمْ. / تَحَدَّثْتُ مَعَ الطُّلّابِ كُلِّهِمْ.
• قَرَأْتُ الكُتُبَ كُلَّها. - non-human plural, so the pronoun is ـها.

This is emphasis - formally التَّوْكيد, which lesson 58 names and systematises. Take the pattern now and the label later. جَميعُ works the same way (الطُّلّابُ جَميعُهُمْ), and جَميعًا also exists as a plain adverbial accusative: حَضَرَ الطُّلّابُ جَميعًا.

4. The construct family: بَعْضُ، مُعْظَمُ، جَميعُ، أَغْلَبُ. All four behave exactly like كُلّ - bare first term, definite noun in the genitive, no مِنْ needed:

• بَعْضُ الطُّلّابِ - some of the students; بَعْضُ الوَقْتِ - some of the time.
• مُعْظَمُ النّاسِ - most people; أَغْلَبُ الشَّرِكاتِ - most companies.
• جَميعُ المَوادِّ - all the subjects (a more formal كُلّ, with no “every” reading).

Their agreement copies rule 2: each is grammatically a masculine singular noun, so a verb before them is singular (يَعْمَلُ مُعْظَمُ السُّكّانِ في المَصْنَعِ) while a verb after them follows the sense (مُعْظَمُ السُّكّانِ يَعْمَلونَ في المَصْنَعِ), and a non-human plural inside the construct pulls the predicate to the feminine singular: مُعْظَمُ الشَّرِكاتِ صَغيرَةٌ.

5. The مِنْ family: كَثيرٌ مِنَ، قَليلٌ مِنَ، عَدَدٌ مِنَ. In this quantifying sense these are not first terms. They are ordinary indefinite nouns, they keep their tanwīn, and they reach the quantified noun through the preposition مِنْ:

• كَثيرٌ مِنَ الطُّلّابِ - many of the students.
• قَليلٌ مِنَ الوَقْتِ - a little of the time.
• عَدَدٌ مِنَ الزُّوّارِ - a number of the visitors.

Being free nouns, they decline normally, tanwīn and all: رَأَيْتُ عَدَدًا مِنَ الزُّوّارِ. They also take an adjective of their own, right where English puts it - عَدَدٌ كَبيرٌ مِنَ الزُّوّارِ - which the construct family cannot do, because nothing may stand between a quantifier and its noun. Modern prose often puts الـ on the first word instead (الكَثيرُ مِنَ النّاسِ), which is fine; mixing the two families is not. Drop the مِنْ and you get a real construct with a different meaning: عَدَدُ الطُّلّابِ is “the number of the students”, a count, not “some of them”.

6. كِلا and كِلْتا: “both”, and only with a dual. كِلا is for two masculine things, كِلْتا for two feminine things. What follows is either a definite dual in the genitive or a dual pronoun - nothing else:

• كِلا الرَّجُلَيْنِ، كِلا الطّالِبَيْنِ / كِلْتا الشَّرِكَتَيْنِ، كِلْتا الطّالِبَتَيْنِ.
• كِلاهُما / كِلْتاهُما - both of them.

Before a noun, كِلا never changes shape. Its final alif carries the case invisibly, exactly like the مَقْصور nouns of lesson 41: جاءَ كِلا الرَّجُلَيْنِ / رَأَيْتُ كِلا الرَّجُلَيْنِ / مَعَ كِلا الرَّجُلَيْنِ - one form in all three slots. With a pronoun attached it declines like a dual: كِلاهُما in the nominative, كِلَيْهِما in the accusative and genitive (feminine: كِلْتاهُما / كِلْتَيْهِما). The pronoun form is where you will most often meet it, standing after a dual noun as an appositive: سَأَلْتُ الطَّبيبَيْنِ كِلَيْهِما.

Agreement: treat كِلا as masculine singular and كِلْتا as feminine singular. كِلا الرَّجُلَيْنِ ناجِحٌ. كِلْتا الشَّرِكَتَيْنِ جَديدَةٌ.

7. Chains of three and more. The مُضافٌ إِلَيْهِ of one pair can be the مُضاف of the next, and the chain simply keeps going: مُديرُ مَدْرَسَةِ القَرْيَةِ - the headmaster of the village school. Read it from its first word, dropping an “of” at each joint. Two facts govern every chain, however long:

• Every term after the first is مَجْرور. Only the first word answers to the outer sentence.
• Every term except the last is a مُضاف, and therefore strips down: no الـ, no tanwīn, and no ن of the dual or the sound masculine plural. مُعَلِّمونَ + المَدْرَسَةِ gives مُعَلِّمو المَدْرَسَةِ, مُعَلِّمانِ gives مُعَلِّما المَدْرَسَةِ (and مُعَلِّمَيْنِ gives مُعَلِّمَيِ المَدْرَسَةِ). The sound feminine plural and the broken plurals have no ن to lose and just drop the tanwīn: مُعَلِّماتُ المَدْرَسَةِ، كُتُبُ المَكْتَبَةِ - while a diptote such as مَدارِس, which never had a tanwīn to lose, simply stands bare: مَدارِسُ المَدينَةِ.

Definiteness still comes from the last word alone: مُديرُ مَدْرَسَةِ قَرْيَةٍ is “a headmaster of a village school”. One article, at the end, for the whole chain - and a quantifier bolts onto the front to make a four-term chain with that same single article: كُلُّ طُلّابِ مَدْرَسَةِ القَرْيَةِ.

8. Nothing may be inserted between مُضاف and مُضافٌ إِلَيْهِ. Not an adjective, not a demonstrative, not an adverb. The two words are welded, so everything that would sit in the middle in English queues up after the chain ends. Hence a word order that surprises learners: هٰذِهِ سَيّارَةُ المُديرِ is a full sentence, “this is the manager’s car”, and the noun phrase “this car of the manager” has to put the demonstrative last - سَيّارَةُ المُديرِ هٰذِهِ.

9. The adjective follows the whole chain, and its endings say what it modifies. An adjective still obeys lesson 8 - gender, number, case, definiteness - so when it lands at the end of a chain its agreement points back at exactly one term:

• سَيّارَةُ المُديرِ الجَديدَةُ - the manager’s new car (feminine + nominative = سَيّارَةُ).
• سَيّارَةُ المُديرِ الجَديدِ - the new manager’s car (masculine + genitive = المُديرِ).

With three terms there are three candidate heads: مُديرُ مَدْرَسَةِ القَرْيَةِ الجَديدُ is the new headmaster, while مُديرُ مَدْرَسَةِ القَرْيَةِ الجَديدَةِ is the new village or the new school - both are feminine singular genitive, so the ending cannot separate them. Where candidates share gender, number and case, Arabic goes by sense or the writer rephrases with a preposition (مُديرُ المَدْرَسَةِ في القَرْيَةِ الجَديدَةِ). Adjectives for more than one term come out nearest-term-first: مُديرُ مَدْرَسَةِ القَرْيَةِ الكَبيرَةِ الجَديدُ.

10. The ة is pronounced as a ت before the next term. مَدْرَسَةِ القَرْيَةِ is said with a full ت - as ة is anywhere the word is not in pause, and a مُضاف never is - but the letter is still written ة, never rewritten as ت. It goes silent again only in the pausal form, and in a long chain the effect repeats at every feminine joint: مَكْتَبَةُ جامِعَةِ المَدينَةِ.

Forms & patterns

The quantifiers, with the shape each one demands and the agreement it triggers:

The dividing line: the first seven rows are first terms of an إِضافَة (no tanwīn, no مِنْ), and so are the last two - كِلا and كِلْتا, over a dual only; rows eight to ten are free nouns (tanwīn, and مِنْ obligatory).

كِلا and كِلْتا through the three cases:

The appositive pattern - the quantifier copies the case of the noun, the pronoun copies its gender and number:

Building a chain, one link at a time - watch what each non-final word gives up:

Where the adjective lands, and what its endings point at:

Examples

Common mistakes

• السَّيّارَةُ المُديرِ -> سَيّارَةُ المُديرِ - the first term of a construct drops الـ no matter how definite the English is; definiteness arrives from the last word of the chain.
• الكُلُّ الطُّلّابِ -> كُلُّ الطُّلّابِ - a quantifier is a مُضاف, so it too refuses الـ. (الكُلُّ exists standing alone - الكُلُّ يَعْرِفُ ذٰلِكَ - but never before a genitive.)
• كُلُّ الطّالِبِ يَحْمِلُ بِطاقَتَهُ -> كُلُّ طالِبٍ يَحْمِلُ بِطاقَتَهُ - “every” needs an indefinite singular. With الـ the phrase means “the whole of the student”.
• كَثيرُ الطُّلّابِ -> كَثيرٌ مِنَ الطُّلّابِ - كَثيرٌ، قَليلٌ، عَدَدٌ keep their tanwīn and need مِنْ. As quantifiers they are not first terms - عَدَدُ الطُّلّابِ is a perfectly good construct, but it means “the number of the students”.
• بَعْضٌ مِنَ الطُّلّابِ -> بَعْضُ الطُّلّابِ - and the reverse error: بَعْضُ، مُعْظَمُ، جَميعُ، أَغْلَبُ take the noun directly, with no مِنْ and no tanwīn.
• كِلا الرَّجُلانِ -> كِلا الرَّجُلَيْنِ - the noun after كِلا is the second term of a construct, so it is a genitive dual: الرَّجُلَيْنِ، الشَّرِكَتَيْنِ.
• رَأَيْتُ الرَّجُلَيْنِ كِلاهُما -> رَأَيْتُ الرَّجُلَيْنِ كِلَيْهِما - once a pronoun is attached, كِلا declines like a dual: كِلاهُما only in the nominative.
• مُعَلِّمونَ المَدْرَسَةِ -> مُعَلِّمو المَدْرَسَةِ - the ن of the sound masculine plural (and of the dual: مُعَلِّمانِ المَدْرَسَةِ -> مُعَلِّما المَدْرَسَةِ) falls before the next term.
• مُديرُ المَدْرَسَةِ القَرْيَةِ -> مُديرُ مَدْرَسَةِ القَرْيَةِ - in a chain only the last word keeps الـ; every middle word is stripped bare.
• سَيّارَةُ الجَديدَةُ المُديرِ -> سَيّارَةُ المُديرِ الجَديدَةُ - nothing comes between the two terms; the adjective waits until the chain is finished.

Tips

• One question sorts the whole quantifier list: does the word carry tanwīn in front of the noun? كُلُّ، بَعْضُ، مُعْظَمُ، جَميعُ، أَغْلَبُ، كِلا never do and take the noun directly; كَثيرٌ، قَليلٌ، عَدَدٌ always do and bring مِنْ with them.
• Say a chain out loud starting from its first word, inserting “of” at each joint: مُديرُ - of - مَدْرَسَةِ - of - القَرْيَةِ. If the English needs “the” in the middle, the Arabic still does not.
• Drill the ن-drop until it is automatic. مُعَلِّمو and مُعَلِّما look wrong to a beginner’s eye and are the most visible sign that you have understood constructs.
• Whenever an adjective wants to sit in the middle of a construct, finish the construct first, then attach the adjective and let its endings do the pointing.
• If two candidate heads share gender, number and case, do not trust the ending to disambiguate - even a native reader cannot. Rephrase with a preposition (في القَرْيَةِ) instead.
• Learn الطُّلّابُ كُلُّهُمْ as a fixed three-piece shape: noun, then كُلّ in the same case, then a pronoun matching the noun. The label for it comes in lesson 58.
• Ignore for now the accusative that specifies an amount (اِمْتَلَأَ الكوبُ ماءً) - that is التَّمْييز, lesson 61. Nothing in this lesson puts a fatḥa on the quantified noun.