Arabic: An Essential Grammar

46

Chapter 10

Gender

10.1 There are two genders in Arabic. The term used for gender

is َأْلـ ِج ْن ُس

al-g ̆insu, which literally means ‘sex, race, kind’.

(a) Masculine nouns, ك ُرَّ َأْلـ ُم َذ

al-mud

̄

akkaru, are without special

form.

(b) Feminine nouns, نـ ُثََّأْلـ ُم َؤ

al-mu

annat

̄

u, have several forms as

explained below.

10.2 Ta ̄

marbu ̄t

̇

ah

When the letter ha ̄

(^) ...ـه ...ه /h/ (26) is written with two dots above
(ة... (^) ...ـة), it is pronounced as /t/, exactly like the letter ت /t/ (3). It
is then called ta ̄


marbu ̄t
̇
ah and occurs only at the end of a word, mostly
to indicate the feminine gender of nouns or adjectives.
The most common way to derive feminine nouns and adjectives is by
adding the ending ة .. َ.ـ ٌة ٌ .َ .. /...atun/ to the masculine form, e.g.
Note a: A few nouns with the feminine ending ta ̄


marbu ̄t
̇
ah are masculine,
because they are used only in reference to males, e.g.
Masculine Feminine
ُه َو َطاِل ٌب huwa t
̇
a ̄libun. ِه َي َطاِل َب ٌة hiya t
̇
a ̄libatun.
He is a student. She is a student.
ُهـ َو َواِلـ ٌد huwa wa ̄lidun. ِه َي َواِل َد ٌة hiya wa ̄lidatun.
He is a father. She is a mother.