الجِنْس
THE GENDER OF NOUNS
This lesson explains the different categories of gender used for Arabic nouns. According to the Arabic grammar the gender is classified into the following four categories:
1. الجِنْسُ الحَقِيْقِيُّ (Real Gender) :
The words related to the male sex are مُذَكَّرٌ (♂) masculine, and those related to the female sex are مُؤَنَّثٌ (female ♀), e.g. رَجُلٌ ‘man’ is a real masculine and اِمْرَأَةٌ ‘woman’ is a real feminine, دَيْكٌ ‘cock’, دَجَاجَةٌ ‘hen’, اِبْنٌ ‘boy’, بِنْتٌ ‘girl’, أَبٌ ‘father’, أُمٌّ ‘mother’, أَخٌ ‘brother’, أُخْتٌ ‘sister’, etc.
2. الجِنْسُ المَجَازِيُّ (Formal Gender):
The nouns which do not have the ‘concept of pair’ are termed as feminine or masculine by form الجنس المجازي. The identification of gender for such noun is that the words ending with ‘round-ta’ ( تاء مربوطة = ة ) are generally feminine, and those ending with some other letter are assumed as masculine gender, e.g. سَاعَةٌ‘watch’, مِرْوَحَة ‘fan’, شَجَرَةٌ ‘tree’, سَيَّارَة ‘car’, نَافِذَة ‘window’ are feminine gender by form, and جِدَارٌ ‘wall’, كِتَابٌ ‘book’, قَلَمٌ ‘pen’, مَسْجِدٌ ‘mosque’, نَهْرٌ ‘canal’, بَابٌ ‘door’, etc. are considered 
masculine gender by form.
It may also be understood that feminine gender is often formed from the masculine by suffixing ‘ة’, e.g. مسلم ‘Muslim’ (♂), مسلمة ‘Muslimah’ (♀), كَافِر ‘disbeliever’ (♂), كَافِرَة ‘disbeliever’ (♀), صَادِقٌ ‘truthful’ (♂), صَادِقَة ‘truthful’ (♀), صَالِحٌ ‘pious’ (♂), صَالِحَة ‘pious’ (♀), جَدِيْدٌ ‘new’ (♂), جَدِيْدَة ‘new’ (♀), كَثِيْرٌ ‘many’ (♂), كَثِيْرَة ‘many’ (♀), etc.
3. الجِنْسُ اللَفْظِيّ (Exceptional Cases):
The nouns which do not fall under the above-mentioned two categories are termed as exceptional cases. The following nouns are feminine by usage even though they have no ‘x’ (ta) ending nor have they ‘pair-concept’.
- سَمَاءٌ ‘sky’, حَرْبٌ ‘war, شَمْس ‘sun’, نَارٌ ‘fire’, رَيْحٌ ‘wind’, خَمْرٌ ‘wine’, نَفْسٌ ‘soul, person, self’.
- Proper names of countries and towns are feminine by signification, e.g. مِصْرُ ‘Egypt’, بَاكِسْتَان ‘Pakistan’, أَمْرِيْكَا ‘America’, etc.
- Many parts of the body, especially those that are in pair, are termed as feminine, e.g. يَدٌ ‘hand’, عَيْنٌ ‘eye’, قَدَمٌ ‘foot’, رِجْلٌ ‘leg’, سَاقٌ ‘shin’, أُذُنٌ_ ‘ear’, خَدٌّ ‘cheek’.
- The nouns ending in ‘ى ’_ called ألِفٌ مَقْصُوْرَة (short alif) or اء called ألِفٌ مَمْدُوْدَة (lengthened alif) are also feminine, e.g. حُسْنَى ‘good, beautiful’, كُبْرى ‘great’, صُغْرَى ‘small’, بُشْرَى ‘good news’, صَحْرَاءُ ‘desert’, ضَرَّاءُ ‘harm’, زَهْرَاءُ ‘blooming’, زَرْقَاءُ ‘blue’, etc.
- All Arabic letters of alphabet are considered as feminine.
- Some broken plurals, e.g. اليَهُوْدُ ‘the Jews’, الرُسُلُ ‘the messengers’, النَصَارَى ‘the Christians’ are treated as feminine.
- Some collective nouns, e.g. قَوْمٌ ‘people’, رَهْطٌ ‘tribe’ are used as feminine. However, اَهْلٌ ‘family’, آلٌ progeny’ are masculine.
- Exceptional Masculine: Some nouns have ta ‘ة’ ending but they are used as masculine, e.g. خَلِيْفَة ‘caliph’, عَلَّامَة ‘learned’, حُذَيْفَة ‘a male name’. Some parts of body (single), e.g. رَأْسٌ ‘head’, بَطْنٌ ‘belly’, صَدْرٌ ‘chest’, etc. are also considered exceptional masculine.
Some nouns are used as masculine as well as feminine. These are termed as اسم الجنس, e.g. سَحَابٌ ‘clouds’, بَقَرٌ ‘cattle’, جَرَادٌ ‘locust’, ذَهَبٌ ‘gold’, نَحْلٌ ‘bees’, شَجَرٌ ‘trees’. These are masculine by form, feminine by signification.
An Explanation Regarding Exceptional Cases :
Here, I would like to clarify an important point regarding the exceptional cases in the grammatical rules. The learner should be mindful of the fact that the languages have not come into being through an academic process based on some predetermined sets of grammatical rules and forms but, on the contrary, the languages are spoken by the natives of the region long before the grammarians form the grammatical rules applicable to them. And the object of framing grammatical rules is essentially to facilitate the learning and better understanding of the languages by the non-natives or the foreigners. But, where they fail to apply uniform sets of grammatical rules, they categorize that as exceptional case. Hence, the exception-rule is a common feature to all the languages. Having said that, I must hasten to emphasis that the grammarians of Arabic language have contributed tremendously in facilitating the learning process of the language. In fact, they have developed an easy and effective method of learning the classic Arabic of the Holy Quran. Hence, their efforts cannot be undermined in any way.
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