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Is "sijaa'ir" the plural of "sijaar" (cigar), and is "sijaaraat" the plural of "sijaara" (cigarette)?

The singular form of (cigarette) is (seegaara سيجارة) while the singular form of (cigar) is (seegaar سيجار), notice the (g) is pronounced most of the time just as it sounds in English. The plural form of both words is (sagaa2er سجائر), so it is jam3 takseer.
Hope that helps.

Thank you for this very useful information, Ehab. In the podcast Mohamed pronounces the letter "jeem" like the "j" in Engl. "jam", but I'm sure an Egyptian would invariably pronounce the letter in question like the "g" in Engl. "cigar".

How do you pronounce ﻴﻗﻓﻝ (he closes / he shuts)? In J. Wightwick/M. Gaafar, “Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar” I found “yaqfil”, but in the “Berlitz Arabic Phrase Book” the verb form in question was transliterated as “yaqfil” on one page and “yuqfil” on another.

Well, the verb (yaqfil) is derived from the root (qafila) which means (he returned, came back). On the other side, the verb (yuqfil) is derived from the root (aqfala) which means (he closed, shut). So it is totally dependent on the meaning.

Thank you for clarifying this point, Ehab.

Why not say لا أستطيع قفل الصمام? I am confused as to why you said إقفال and how it relates to the root قفل

I am still confused as to what this word means, or how it makes sense in the sentence. الإقتراب

@ cwwolfe

The sentence constituent that is puzzling you consists of a definite article (al) and a verbal noun (iqtiraab). "Iqtiraab" means "approach" (i.e. the act of approaching). It is related to the verb "taqarraba" (approach). In Arabic, as in English, verbal nouns are often used instead of verbs. Thus, for instance, we can say "Would you mind closing the window?" In this instance the verbal noun "closing" is the direct object of the verb "mind".

In English it is very easy to form verbal nouns (gerunds) by adding "-ing" to a verb, but in Arabic verbal nouns can be formed in several ways. "Qatl" (killing), for instance, is the verbal noun of "qatala" (kill).