Arabic/Masculine and feminine

      Arabic words are either masculine or feminine. For example: رجل (ra-jul) which means man is masculine.امرأة (im-ra-ah) which means woman is feminine. These two examples are very logical. But just like many other languages, everyday objects have their own gender as well. For example the word for ear, must be either masculine or feminine.
      The most common way to tell a masculine word from a feminine word is the ة (taa' mar-boo-Tah). If a word ends in a ة (h/t) then it is most likely feminine. To make a masculine word feminine usually a ة (h/t) is added to the end of the word.
      For example:

      كلب

      kalb
      kalb
      dog


      كلبة

      kalba/kalbah
      kal-ba
      female dog, she-dog


      In Arabic nouns, as well as adjectives, have to agree in gender, as well as number.
      For example:
      الولد كبـيـر

      al_waladu kabeer(un)
      al-wa-la-du-ka-beer
      The boy is big


      البنت كبيـرة

      al_bint kabeerah(-tun)
      al-bint-ka-bee-rah
      The girl is big.

      Did you notice that we called the girl "big" with كبيرة (ka-bee-rah) while when we want to say the boy is big we said كبير(ka-beer). This is generally how it works for singular nouns.


      الولد صغير

      al_waladu Sagheer(un)
      al-wa-la-du-Sa-gheer
      The boy is small


      البنت صغيرة

      al_bintu Sagheerah(-tun)
      al-bin-tu-Sa-ghee-rah
      The girl is small.


      الولد قصير والبنت طويلة

      al_waladu qaSeer wa al_bintu Taweelah(-tun)
      al-wa-la-du--qa-Seer--wal-bin-tu--Ta-wee-lah
      The boy is short, and the girl is tall.


      Last modified on 25 August 2007, at 09:34