What gender should you use for Arabic grammar terms?

When you read grammar books, you get the impression that there are no rules for the correct gender of grammar terms. Let’s take the Arabic term for indeclinable. Some authors choose the mas­culine form (مَبْنِيٌّ), others the feminine (مَبْنِيّةٌ). So, what is correct?

Both are correct.

Both forms are actually used as adjectives (نعت) – but for two different words which are not there, but understood anyway. What are these hidden words? Both are Arabic terms for word. Arabic has sev­eral words for word:لَفْظٌ, كَلِمةٌ or لُغةٌ.

Now we are getting closer to the answer.

Grammar terms like inde­clinable (word) are regarded as…

• Masculine – when they implicitly refer to the word لَفْظٌ.
• Feminine – when they relate to the gender of كَلِمْةٌ or لُغةٌ.

مَبْنِيٌّ is used to further describe these words. It is an adjective, and adjectives need to be in grammatical agreement with the word to which they relate. Thus, it is a matter of taste whether the au­thor had لَفْظٌ مَبْنِيٌّ or كَلِمةٌ مَبْنِيّةٌ in mind. So, you can use either form.

What about other grammar terms?

• Grammar terms which relate to اسْمٌ‎: They are usually mas­culine. For example, adjectives take the gender of اِسْمٌ which is the masculine form. For example: indeclinable noun (اِسْمٌ مَبْنِيٌّ).
• Grammar terms relating to a particle (حَرْفٌ): They are usually masculine. However, they may also be femi­nine because the author might relate to أَداةٌ (tool; instrument) and not to the masculine حَرْفٌ.
• The verb كانَ (to be) seems by common consent to be taken as feminine, e.g., كانَ النّاقِصةُ (defective “to be”) or كانَ التّامّةُ (com­plete verb “to be”). Note that mere words like كانَ are treated as proper names and do not take the article.
• What about the letters of the alphabet? They can have both gen­ders, but are usually treated as feminine.

Just in case you are not familiar with the terms اِسْمٌ and حَرْفٌ: