جِنْسٌ

In Arabic every إِسْمٌ is grammatically treated as either Masculine ( مُذَكَّرُ ) or Feminine ( مُؤَنَّثُ )

مُذَكَّرُ

إِسْمٌ are assumed to be masculine (مُذَكَّرُ) unless it can be proved that they are feminine (مُؤَنَّثُ).

مُؤَنَّثُ

Feminine (مُؤَنَّثُ) signs on إِسْمٌ maybe visible or hidden. Feminine signs include:

1. إِسْمٌ ending with ة such as رَحْمَةٌ ، صَلاةٌ ، عِبَادَةٌ

2. إِسْمٌ ending with آء such as صَفْرآءُ ، حَمْرآءُ ، سَوْدآءُ

3. إِسْمٌ ending with ىٰ such as الكُبْرىٰ ، الصُّغْرىٰ ، العُظْمىٰ

4. Names of Females such as مَرْيَمُ or زَيْنَبُ.

5. إِسْمٌ denoting female gender such as أُمٌّ (mother), أُخْتٌ (sister).

6. Names of countries, cities, towns and tribes such as قُرَيْشٌ (Quraish), مَكَّةُ (Makkah), المَغْرِبُ (Morocco).

7. The parts of the body found in pairs.

شَفَةٌ (Lips)

أُذُنٌ (Ear)

يَدٌ (Hand)

سَاقٌ (Shin)

قَدَمٌ (Foot)

رِجْلٌ (Leg)

عَيْنٌ (Eye)

8. Names of various types of winds such as رِيْحٌ, صَرْصَرٌ

9. Names of Hell such as جَهَنَّمُ , سَقَرُ

10. Letters of the Alphabet such as ء ب ت

11. There are some إِسْمٌ that are feminine because of usage, they are مُؤَنَّثُ because the Arabs said so. These إِسْمٌ are referred to as مُؤَنَّثٌ سِماعِيٌّ. These include:

حَرْبٌ War

سَمآءُ Sky

شَمْسٌ Sun

نَفْسٌ Self

دَلْوٌ Bucket

سَبِيْلٌ Pathway

أَرْضٌ Earth

بِئْرٌ Well

دَارٌ House

كَأْسٌ Glass

خَمْرٌ Wine

عَصَا Staff

حَرْثٌ Trillage/Field

نَارٌ Fire

12. إِسْمٌ that are feminine because of being Prulars, in the category:

• Broken Plurals with human meaning
• All plurals with Non-Human meaning

(Plurals will be discussed in a later lesson)