Masculine and Feminine with Possessives – Elementary Arabic I (2024)

FAQs

How to tell if an Arabic word is masculine or feminine? ›

The most common way to tell a masculine word from a feminine word is the ة (taa' mar-boo-Tah). If a word ends in a ة (h/t) then it is most likely feminine. To make a masculine word feminine usually a ة (h/t) is added to the end of the word.

Arabic Possessive Pronouns: A Brief Introduction

كَ (ka) – your (masculine singular) كِ (ki) – your (feminine singular) هُ (hu) – his. هَا (ha) – her.

To show possession, Arabic uses the إضافة idhāfa or the 'genitive construct'. This simply refers to two words being linked together to show possession. The idhāfa is similar to 'of' (the King of Spain) or the possessive suffix '-'s' (the teacher's book) in English.

In Arabic, the possessive phrase represents a union of two nouns. The first noun signifies the object being owned, while the second noun denotes the possessor or owner. Together, they convey a relationship of ownership or affiliation.

Sound Masculine Plural is formed by adding ين/-ون- to the end of the word in masculine nouns/adjectives depending on the grammatical case of the word. Sound Feminine Plural is formed by adding ات- to the end of the word in feminine nouns/adjectives.

In Arabic, you have singular, dual, and plural pronouns in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person. The dual pronouns are used when there are only two people you're talking about. If it's three or more, you have to use plural Arabic pronouns. This only exists in Modern Standard Arabic, but not in Egyptian Arabic.

What is feminine possessive in Arabic? ›

To form the possessive, add apostrophe + s to the noun. If the noun is plural, or already ends in s, just add an apostrophe after the s. For names ending in s, you can either add an apostrophe + s, or just an apostrophe. The first option is more common.

The four forms a letter can have are: isolated, initial, medial and final form. The exception to this are ا (alif), د (daal), ذ (dhaal), ر (raa), ز (zayn / zaa), and و (waaw) which are called selfish letters because they do not connect with others.

Arabic grammatical gender

Arabic has a two-gender system that classifies all noun, animate and inanimate, as either masculine or feminine. Verbs, nouns, adjectives, personal, demonstrative, and relative pronouns that are related to the noun in the syntactic structure of the sentence show gender agreement.