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    • Archive for July, 2007

    Singular Feminine Words

    Saturday, July 28th, 2007

    Some singular feminine words: darraajah (bicycle), mil’aqah (spoon), baqarah (cow), baydah (egg), naafidhah (window), saa’ah (watch), dajaajah (hen), madrasah (school), hadiyqah (garden)

    Feminine Words Without Ta-Marbuwta

    Thursday, July 26th, 2007

    As you may remember, singular feminine words in Arabic end with ta-marbuwta (ة)–with a handful of exceptions. Some of these exceptions are:

    Ash-Shams (الشَمسُ): the sun
    Qidrun (قِدرٌ): pot
    Harbun (حَربٌ): war

    Also, any body-part that humans have in pairs is considered feminine. This includes:

    3ynun (عَينٌ): eyes
    2thnun (أُثنٌ): ears
    Yahdun (يَهدٌ): hands

    Sound Feminine Plurals Take Kasra When Mansoob

    Saturday, July 21st, 2007

    The sound feminine plural pattern takes kasra when it’s mansoob (not fatha, as you’d expect). For example, khalaqa Allahu samawaaTI, not samawaaTA. When a sound feminine plural pattern takes kasra, you need to think to determine if it’s majruwr or mansoob.

    Singular Masculine Words

    Saturday, July 14th, 2007

    Some singular masculine words: bed (sariyr), book (kitaab), cat (qitt), chair (kursiy), dog (kalb), door (baab), key (miftah), mosque (masjid), pen (qalam), shirt (qamiys)

    Word Gender

    Saturday, July 7th, 2007

    All nouns in Arabic fall into one of two genders: masculine (muthakkar) or feminine (mu’annath). There IS no third, gender-neutral version–though the masculine can be used to mean both. Many words have both masculine and feminine versions.