Why is the Word for “War” (حَرْب) Feminine? Arabic Gender Exceptions Explained

While identifying the grammatical gender in Arabic is usually straightforward, there are notable exceptions that often challenge learners.

This article explores the common indicators for feminine words in Arabic (such as ة, اء, and ى), but more importantly, it delves into common exceptions, providing a comprehensive list of nouns that appear masculine but are in fact feminine, like the word for war (حَرْب).

Indicators for Arabic feminine words

Let us first take a look at the regular feminine endings. In Arabi­c, there are 3 different indicators or signals to define a word as feminine.

Special kind of Arabic nouns

• The ending اء is also the Arabic pattern for adjectives (صِفة) for colors and physical deficiencies in the singular feminine form.
• The letter ى is the pattern for the feminine form of a com­parative (اِسْم تَفْضِيل). For example: older, smaller.

Here are some examples:

The Arabic word for “war”: حَرْب

It doesn’t look feminine – but it is feminine!

Like in other languages, there are words that look masculine by shape but are exceptions.

Common exceptions – Arabic words that look masculine but are feminine

Here is a vocabulary list with words that look masculine but are feminine.

Watch out: If you want to add an adjective, you will need the femin­ine form:

Gender of body parts in Arabic

When you have two parts of one (mostly pairs) like: legs (رِجْل), eyes (عَيْن), ears (أُذُن), tooth (سِنّ) or hands (يَد), then these words are also feminine. In contrast, the words for nose (أَنْف), mouth (فَم), etc. are masculine as you only have one!

Some parts of the body can be either masculine or feminine, like: head (رَأْس), liver (كَبِد) or upper arm(عَضُد)

Also feminine are:

• names of newspapers and magazines, for example: al-Ahram (الْأهْرام)
• names of countries, cities and towns are normally femin­ine, except: Morocco (الْمَغْرِب), Jordan (الأُرْدُن), Lebanon (لُبْنان), Iraq (الْعِراق) and Sudan (السُّدان)

Arabic nouns which can be treated as masculine or feminine

Some examples:

• Omar al-Mukhtar and the Airplanes Under the Throne
• Lexicalization in Arabic: The Secret Life of Broken Plurals
• The Truth About Emphatic Consonants in Arabic: Are They Really That Different?