المُذَكَّر والمُؤَنَّث في اللغة العربية
Masculine and Feminine in Arabic
Part 1
Languages differ when it comes to distinguishing between masculine and feminine words. Some languages have no difference between both of them, while others have some rules regarding this subject including Arabic.
So, how can we differentiate masculine and feminine in Arabic?
The answer is: signs of femininity “علامات التَّأنيث”, in Arabic we have some signs that help us recognize most of feminine words and they are:
المَعْنَى
Meaning | مِثال
example |
شَكْلها How it looks like |
علامة التأنيث Sign of femininity |
|---|---|---|---|
Female student
|  طالِبَة | ة \ ــة | تَاء مَربوطة |
Sky | سَمَاء | اء | أَلِف مَمْدودة |
Laila (female name) | لَيْلَى | ى | ألِف مَقْصورة |
- However, there are some exceptions as some masculine words have one of these signs and other feminine words don’t. To have a better understanding of this matter, we should know the types of feminine words:
Most of the feminine words in Arabic have one of the signs that we have mentioned earlier. However, there are also some words that are considered feminine without having a sign of femininity. So, now let’s see the types of feminine words in Arabic:
:مُؤَنَّث لَفْظِي *
A word that has a sign of femininity but indicates a masculine meaning.
Examples:
| Traveler | رَحَّالة |
| Bushra (name of a man) | بُشْرَى |
| Scholar/ expert | علَّامة |
| Hamza (name of a man) | حَمْزَة |
:مُؤَنَّث مَعْنَوي *
A word which indicates a feminine meaning but doesn’t have a sign of femininity.
Examples:
| Sun | شَمْس |
| House | دار |
| Zainab (female name) | زَيْنَب |
| Hend (female name) | هِنْد |
:مُؤَنَّث لفظي ومعنوي *
A word that has a sign of femininity and indicates a feminine meaning:
Examples:
| Female doctor | طبيبة |
| Esraa (female name) | إسْراء |
| Fatema (female name) | فاطِمَة |
| Salma (female name) | سَلْمَى |
* Now, here are some other examples. Can you identify each type of them?
مُعَلِّمَة، بِنْت، طاوِلَة، كَأس، صَحَراء، ذِكْرَى، طائِرَة، قِطَّة، عَيْن
* Note: An easy rule to change the gender from masculine to feminine here is to add the letter "taa marbouta" "ة" to the masculine form for most of the Arabic adjectives to make it feminine. Depending on the letter that precedes it "taa marbouta" can look like this (ة) or like this (ـة).
| Word | مُؤَنَّث
Feminine |
مُذَكَّر Masculine | |
|---|---|---|---|
Beautiful | جَميلة | جَميل | |
Big, old | كبيرة | كبير | |
Small, young | صغيرة | صغير |
To be continued
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