Gender matters

Diagnosis: Spelling

Arabic text in question

Arabic text as it should be

Note: You don’t use diacritics (تشكيل) in everyday Arabic. We use them here to clearly explain the grammar, spelling and meaning of words. To avoid confusion, we generally ignore auxiliary vowels that are necessary for pronunciation to avoid consonant clusters.

Analysis

This message (which literally means there is no satellite coverage currently) appeared when the Internet stopped working during an Emirates flight.

We will be very strict in this analysis because the verb-subject relationship in Arabic is not always as clear as it might seem. This is especially true for nouns that have acquired the feminine gender through endings (ة or ى or اء), which is the case in our example of the word تَغْطِيةٌ, which means coverage; covering.

➤ In principle, it is not a mistake to use the masculine form in a situation like this. However, grammarians mostly agree that the feminine form is better (الْأَفْصَحُ) and should be used. Since we are talking about official information on an airplane, it is recommended to use the most correct version.

Let’s begin our analysis.

In Arabic, the verb يُوجَدُ (is found = there is; present tense, passive) should match the gender of the subject. The word تَغْطِيةٌ is feminine (مُؤَنَّثٌ), so the verb should be تُوجَدُ and not يُوجَدُ.

Version on the airplane:

لا يوجد تغطية أقمار صناعية حاليا

Improved version (الْأَفْصَحُ):

لا توجد تغطية أقمار صناعية حاليا

Source: Real Place
Time the picture was taken:  2019

Location: United Arab Emirates
On an Emirates flight from Dubai to Shanghai.

Credit
Picture credit: Paul Ammann
Added: 04/21/2025 by Paul Ammann

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