Last updated: February 20, 2022
Usually, it is pretty easy to identify the gender in Arabic. But there are exceptions.
Indicators for feminine words
Let us first have a look at the regular feminine endings. In Arabic, there are 3 different indicators or signals to define a word as feminine.
| 1 | تاء تَأْنِيث | ة | طالِبة |
| 2.1 | ألِف تَأْنِيث | مَمْدُودة – اء | صَحْراء |
| 2.2 | ألِف تَأْنِيث | مَقْصُورة – ى / يا | كُبْرى, عُلْيا |
Special kind of nouns
- The ending اء is also the 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:
| desert | صَحْراء | smaller | صُغْرَى | |
| colour red | حَمْرَاء | memory | ذِكْرَى |
The 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 – words that look masculine but are feminine
| war | حَرْب | fire | نار | sun | شَمْس | ||
| land | أَرْض | house | دار | wind | رِيح | ||
| soul | نَفْس | cup | كَأْس | well | بِئْر | ||
| market | سُوق | paradise | الْفِرْدَوْس | Ghoul; ghost | غُول |
Watch out! If you want to add an adjective, you will need the feminine form:
| central market | سُوق مَرْكَزِيّة |
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
| country | بَلَد | sky | سَماء | wine | خَمْر | ||
| way | سَبِيل | road | طَرِيق | alley | زُقاق | ||
| power | سُلْطان | situation | حال | salt | مِلْح | ||
| gold | ذَهَب | hell(fire) | جَحِيم | soul | رُوح |
More grammar related topics:
- A crash course in the conditional sentence in Arabic: ف and tenses (3/3)
- A crash course in the conditional sentence in Arabic: particles and words (2/3)
- A crash course in the conditional sentence in Arabic: the basics (1/3)
- The word كَتَبُوا – What is the function of the Aleph at the end of an Arabic verb?
- What does the vowel on the second root letter of an Arabic verb tell us?
picture credit: Image by Robert Waghorn from Pixabay
since sex organ (penis or vagina) is single, can I say them masculine?
thank you.
Hi you mentioned سوق is feminine when in reality it can be both masculine and feminine
Very interesting read!
I will add حَرْب to my list of growing words that are feminine for some weird reason even though they break the usual laws.
I am just curious as a beginner to MSA what resources can we refer to to identify if a word is masculine or feminine?
All the dictionaries that I have tried dont seem to list grammatic gender which is very frustrating to a beginner
Thanks!
Hi Mike! The dictionary of Hans Wehr will tell you the gender. If you check, for example, the root ح-ر-ب, you will see the letter “f.” after the word حَرْب. If you don’t have the dictionary, you’ll find some useful links here: Arabic Dictionaries
Thanks a lot Gerald!
That was very helpful of you!
I havent checked ot for all the words but most of the words I checked have the “f” for female.
Thanks again and sorry for the late reply
Are you muslim? Or it is your native language?