The Feminine
A word about Gender
In Arabic there are only 2 genders: masculine and feminine. There is no neuter like in English, which accounts for the absence of a specific equivalent for "it". "It" becomes "he" or "she", usually depending on the way the word is written.
For people, the gender is clear and there is no need to look at the ending of a particular noun to determine whether it is masculine or feminine. But for other than that, we will normally have to rely on the ending of a noun to know its gender.
The Feminine ending
The Feminine in Arabic is usually denoted by the ending ة (called تاء مُقْفَلَة [meaning: closed taa]). It occurs only at the end of a noun, and the letter before it is always vowelled with a ــَـ. There are other endings denoting feminine that we will learn later.
| English | Arabic |
|---|---|
| school | مَدْرَسَةٌ |
| garden | حَدِيْقَةٌ |
| copybook | كُرَّاسَةٌ |
| car | سَيَّارَةٌ |
| bus | حَافِلَةٌ |
| airplane | طَائِرَةٌ |
| ship | سَفِيْنَةٌ |
Forming feminine nouns
The feminine ending not only denotes that a word is feminine, it is also added to many a masculine noun to form its feminine. For example, most of the nouns in Table 1.1 will become feminine when suffixed with a ة:
| English | Arabic |
|---|---|
| a teacher | مُعَلـِّمَةٌ |
| a student | طَالِبَةٌ |
| a pupil | تِلْمِيْذَةٌ |
| a doctor (medical) | طَبـِيْبَةٌ |
| an engineer | مُهَنْدِسَةٌ |
| a translator | مُتَرْجـِمَةٌ |
| a professor | أُسْتـَاذَةٌ |
| a president | رَئِيْسَةٌ |
Summary
- Usually a noun ending in ة is feminine
- There is no "it" in Arabic; any "it" must be converted to "he" or "she".
- To form a feminine noun, we usually add a ة to the masculine form (at the end).
Vocabulary
| English | Arabic |
|---|---|
| girl | بِنْتٌ |
| woman | اِمْرَأَةٌ |
| mother | وَالـِدَةٌ |
| writer | كَاتـِبَةٌ |
| (girl)friend | صَدِيْقَةٌ |
| princess | أ َمِيْرَةٌ |
| queen | مَلِكـَةٌ |
| lady/Mrs. | سَيّـِدَة |
| miss | آنِسَة |
Exercise
Find out the masculine form of the following:princess, queen, sir, and Mr.