Lesson 6

Feminine and masculine

In Arabic, there are names we can specify their gender directly when hearing them, like "Man", "Woman", "Girl", "Boy, and so on, but there are names we can figure out their gender by something else. This thing is letter “ت”.

In Arabic we can differentiate between feminine and masculine for that kind of names by the last letter in the name. If this letter is "ت", the name is feminine. But remember there are exceptions for this rule.

Here are examples of some known gender names:

English	Arabic	F	M	Pronunciation
Man	رجل		-
Woman	ست	-
Girl	بنت	-
Boy	ولد		-
Cow	بقرة	-
Ox	تور		-
Hen	فرخة	-
Rooster	ديك		-
Ewe	نعجة	-
Ram	خروف		-

Here are some examples of the names that we know their gender by the last letter:

English	Arabic	F	M	Pronunciation
Paper	ورقة	-
Pen	قلم		-
Notebook	كراسة	-
Book	كتاب		-
Pillow	مخدة	-
Bed	سرير		-
Sun	شمس	-
Moon	قمر		-
Cat (female)	قطة	-
Cat (male)	قط		-
Dog (female)	كلبة	-
Dog (male)	كلب		-
Car	عربية	-
Train	قطر		-
Tree	شجرة	-
Street	شارع		-

Remember: “شمس” is a feminine name although it does not end with letter “ت”, this is an exception. Another exception is my name. My name is “أُسَامَة” in Arabic. This name is masculine although it ends with letter “ت”. By the way, “أسامة” means “The angry lion” in classical Arabic.