Lower Intermediate - Demonstratives

Thank you for this lesson, but, as you mention, this is a very wide subject. I am informed, for example, that the plural demonstratives in Arabic--hawlaai (these) and ulaaika (those)--are only used in reference to nouns that are both MASCULINE and HUMAN. I am informed, further, that for plural feminine nouns, Arabic uses the SINGULAR FEMININE demonstratives--hadhihi and tilka. I wonder, is this true? Secondly, what is the logic behind this apparent quirk? Can you (Mohammed and Ehab) give us examples of other quirks that we (learners of Arabic) need to be aware of at this stage?

This lesson ties in very nicely with the next one ("My feet hurt"), since both of them deal with demonstratives. I find the grammatical explanations in English very useful, especially since you mention the Arabic terms for the grammar. The intermediate lessons with explanations in Arabic are still a little too daunting for me, so thank you all for paving the way to the next level!

Hej Mohamed and Ehab! I would love to have an answer to my question.

Sorry for the delay in answering the questions, Mwanafunzi.
Plural form of objects in Arabic are dealt with as feminine entity, for example, you say (abwaab katheerah أبواب كثيرة), notice the use of (katheerah كثيرة) which is a feminine adjective although (baab باب) is masculine in the singular form.
So if you want to use demonstratives with a group of objects (non-human), then you don't use the masculine demonstratives even if the object sounds masculine. Examples:
haad'ihi alkutub هذه الكتب
telka alabwaab تلك الأبواب
I hope you can see now why (haa2ulaa2 هؤلاء) and (telka تلك) are used just with human and masculine, which is because objects in plural form are dealt with as feminine.

The use of (haad'ihi هذه) is very wide. You can use it with feminine words in singular form and even in plural, but the later one is less used so we didn't focus on it in the lesson.

We will indeed make some podcasts to talk about irregular cases in Arabic grammars, also ordinary podcasts sometimes contain irregular cases of words usage so the more you come across it the more you get used to it.

Hope that helps.

Yes, Ehab, that is a helpful answer. Shukran jazeelan!