Lesson 6

Grammatical Gender in Arabic

There are two grammatical genders in Arabic: masculine and feminine. The belonging of a noun to the masculine or feminine gender, as a rule, is not connected with its subject meaning.

Arabic adjectives agree with the modified nouns in gender.

Masculine Gender

So far we have dealt only with nouns of masculine gender.. We have seen that they all have the ending /-un/, represented in writing as a vowel mark over the last consonant of the word (نَادِرٌ بَارِدٌ بَيْتٌ بَابٌ etc.).

We have also seen that the adjective agrees with the noun in gender, e.g.: كِتَابٌ نَادِرٌ؛ لَبَنٌ بَارِدٌ

You could also see the gender in Arabic is hard to grasp by logic:

door – بَابٌ (fem. g.)
book – كِتَابٌ (fem. g.)
milk – لَبَنٌ (masc. g.)

Feminine Gender and the letter ة

Feminine nouns end in writing with a special letter ة called ‘tā-marbūta’ (tied tā) which stands for the Arabic consonant /t/ known to us, but unlike the letter ت, the letter ة (tā-marbūta) is used only in the endings of feminine nouns, that is, at the end of words. Therefore, it can only have an isolated or final form:

In the isolated form, the letter ة is written after the unconnected letters to the left.

In feminine nouns, the penultimate letter has the vowel mark /a]/, and the last letter (tā-marbūta) has the vowel mark /un/. Thus, the feminine characteristic is the ending /-atun/. Here are some feminine words to learn:

The words for text 1 of lesson 6

Feminine adjectives are formed from masculine adjectives by replacing the masculine ending [-un] with the feminine ending [-atun], expressed in writing with the letter ة (tā-marbūta):

Exercise 1. Write down the letter ‘tā-marbūta’ in the isolated and final forms 10 times.

Exercise 2. Form the feminine adjectives from the following masculine adjectives. Write down in Arabic letters and give the transcription.

١) كبير٢) نادر ٣) لذيذ ٤) وثير ٥) بارد ٦) بارز

Text 1 of Lesson 6

١) لنا وزارة كبيرة ٢) لنا دولة كبيرة ٣) لكَ وردة نادرة ٤) لكِ وردة كبيرة ٥) لى نبات نادر ٦) لكِ لبن بارد وزبدة باردة ٧) لنا نبيذ لذيذ ٨) لنا ديوان وثير ٩) لكَ كتاب كبير ونادر ١٠) لنا بيت كبير ١١) لي بدلة ١٢) لكِ بلبل وديك وثور

In the audio above, sentences 7 and 8 are skipped by the speaker.

Exercise 3. Read and translate, write down with vowel marks and transcribe text 1 of lesson 6.

Exercise 4. Translate from English into Arabic.

1) We have a big country. 2) You (f) have a rare rose. 3) I have a rooster and a nightingale. 4) You (m) have a big bull. 5) I have cold milk, cold butter and delicious wine. 6) You (f) have a rare book. 7) We have a soft and big divan. 8) We have a big house.

The letter ه and the sound /h/

The letter ه (hā) is similar to the English letter ‘h’ with its /h/ sound.

The letter ه connects both ways and has four graphic shapes (see from right to left):

There is no animation for the medial shape. Start with a line to the left, then make a semicircle from bottom to top, and end with a curl to the left. You can also make a line to the left, then from this position write the number 8 and go out again to the line to the left. There is also another writing variation of the medial form, but it is not available online.

Exercise 5. Read from right to left. Write it down 5 times.

هَ هِ هُ هِهَهُ هُهَهِ هِهُهَ هَهِهُ

Exercise 6. Read and write down the transcription.

Exercise 7. Write down the words in Arabic letters with vowel marks.

/hal, huwa, hija, bajtuhā, bahwun, bābajhā, waladāhu, wālidāhā, hunā, hunāka, hajlun, tahðībun, bahwuhā, harabti, lahu, lahā/

The words for text 2 of lesson 6

Text 2 of Lesson 6

١) له كتاب كبير. هو نادر. هو هنا.
٢) هناك بهو كبير. هو بارد.
٣) هنا ديوان وثير. هو كبير.
٤) لها وردة كبيرة. هي نادرة.
٥) هناك وردة باهرة. هي كبيرة.
٦) هنا زبدة باردة. هي لذيذة.
٧) لنا بيت كبير. هو هناك.
٨) هنا ديك كبير وهناك بلبل نادر.
٩) لي كوب كبير وهناك لبن بارد ولذيذ.
١٠) هناك نبات نادر. هو باهر.

In the audio above, the speaker has substituted the word دِيوَانٌ - divan for فِرَاشٌ - bed. We haven’t studied this pronunciation yet, so for now, try to catch it yourself and don’t get confused when listening to it. There are a couple of minor inaccuracies with the endings, as mentioned earlier, in modern spoken language -un is dropped.

Exercise 8. Read the text, transcribe it, write it down with vowel marks. Translate the text putting the verb ‘to be’ in the English version where necessary, the Arabic version does not have it.

Exercise 9. Translate from English into Arabic. Do not forget the vowel marks.

1) Here is a big house. 2) He has a big glass. There is cold milk. 3) There is a rare book. It is big. 4) We have big ministry. It is there. 5) I have a splendid rose. It is big. 6) He has a big bull and a rooster. 7) I have a suit. It is here. 8) There is a nightingale. 9) Here is a boy. He has a book. 10) She has tasty milk and cold butter.