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Gender
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Lesson 8
Gender
Arabic nouns are either masculine مُذَكَّر (muḏakkar) or feminine مُؤَنَّث (mu’annath).
Masculine Nouns
The base category – the vast majority of nouns are masculine:
| Lord | rabb | رَبّ | way | sabīl | سَبِيل |
| matter | amr | أَمر | people | qawm | قَوم |
| Musa (proper noun) | Mūsā | مُوسَى | day | yawm | يَوم |
يَومٌ واحدٌ
One day
أمرٌ صعبٌ
A difficult matter
أحمدُ يدرسُ
Ahmed is studying
Feminine nouns
1.Nouns ending with ة (tā’ marbūṭa):
This includes words that are exclusively female, like ‘mother/sister/daughter’, feminine names like ‘Zainab’ or things considered feminine in Arabic like cities and countries
| Mother | أُمّ |
| Sister | أُخت |
| Daughter | بِنت |
| Tunisia | تُونِس |
| Quds (Palestine) | القُدس |
| Egypt | مَصر |
| Syria | سُورِيا |
| France | فَرَنسا |
| Zainab | زَينَب |
| Hanan | حَنَان |
| Salma | سَلمَى |
ألأُمُّ مَدْرَسَةٌ
The mother is a school
نَجلاءُ أُختِي
Najlaa is my sister
3. Body parts which come in pairs are treated as feminine:
| ear | udhun | أُذُن | hand | yad | يَد |
| eye | 'ain | عَين | leg | qadam | قَدَم |
يَدُ الطِفْلِ جَمِيلَةٌ
The child's hand is beautiful
قَدَمِي تُـؤلـِـمُنِي
My foot hurts me
4. A limited number of Arabic nouns are treated as feminine arbitrarily, these include:
| fire | nār | نَار | soul | nafs | نَفس |
| house | dār | دَار | water well | bi’r | بِئر |
| war | ḥarb | حَرب | earth | arḍ | أَرض |
| age | sinn | سِنّ | sun | shams | شَمس |
| wine | khamr | خَمر | cup | ka’s | كَأس |
دَارُ الآخِرَةِ
The abode of the hearafter
النَفسُ الّلوّامَة
The self-blaming soul
إذا الشَمسُ كُوِّرَت
When the sun is put out
Quiz Time!
Let's test your knowledge.
Which of the following words is feminine?
البيتُ
القمر
الشمس
الولد
You have completed Lesson 8
You have now understood how to use gender in Arabic.
Next Up
Adjectives
How adjectives work in Arabic
