Learn more about grammatical gender in Arabic
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Intro |
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| Michael: Do adjectives have a gender in Arabic? |
| Nora: And does noun gender influence adjectives? |
| Michael: At ArabicPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Karen and Rashad are talking about what they'd like to buy in the near future. Karen says, |
| "I want to buy a new car." |
| .أُريدُ أََن أَشتَري سَيّارَةً جَديدَة (ʾurīdu ʾaan ʾaštarī sayyāratan ǧadīdah.) |
| Dialogue |
| Karen Lee: .أُريدُ أََن أَشتَري سَيّارَةً جَديدَة (ʾurīdu ʾaan ʾaštarī sayyāratan ǧadīdah.) |
| Rashad Radi: .وأَنا أُريدُ أَن أَشتَري مِعطَفاً جَديداً (waʾanā ʾurīdu ʾan ʾaštarī miʿṭafan ǧadīdan.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Karen Lee: .أُريدُ أََن أَشتَري سَيّارَةً جَديدَة (ʾurīdu ʾaan ʾaštarī sayyāratan ǧadīdah.) |
| Michael: "I want to buy a new car." |
| Rashad Radi: .وأَنا أُريدُ أَن أَشتَري مِعطَفاً جَديداً (waʾanā ʾurīdu ʾan ʾaštarī miʿṭafan ǧadīdan.) |
| Michael: "And [I want to buy] a new coat." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Adjectives describe nouns. In Arabic, all nouns have grammatical gender and are either singular or plural or dual, a fact that determines the form of other words in the sentence, including the adjectives that describe them. In this lesson, you'll learn how descriptive adjectives change according to the gender of the nouns they refer to. We will also touch on the three possible feminine markers for adjectives in Arabic. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Karen says "I want to buy a new car?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Nora as Karen Lee: .أُريدُ أََن أَشتَري سَيّارَةً جَديدَة (ʾurīdu ʾaan ʾaštarī sayyāratan ǧadīdah.) |
| Michael: As we have already mentioned in the previous episode, adjectives follow the nouns they describe with respect to gender. |
| Michael: In this case, the adjective "new," or in Arabic: |
| Nora: جَديدَة (ǧadīdah) |
| Michael: agrees with the noun "car," or |
| Nora: سَيّارَةً (sayyāratan) |
| Michael: which is singular and feminine. The dictionary form, or the base form, of the adjectives is conventionally the masculine form, in this case |
| Nora: جَديد (ǧadīd) |
| Michael: As you can hear, this lacks the final sound |
| Nora: ةَ (ah) |
| Michael: in |
| Nora: جَديدَة (ǧadīdah) |
| Michael: which is a feminine marker that is added because the word "car" in Arabic happens to be a feminine noun. Both the noun and the adjective describing it have to match in gender, number, and case, in this case, feminine, singular and accusative. |
| Let's hear the full sentence one more time. |
| Nora: .أُريدُ أََن أَشتَري سَيّارَةً جَديدَة (ʾurīdu ʾaan ʾaštarī sayyāratan ǧadīdah.) |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Rashad says "And [I want to buy] a new coat?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Nora as Rashad Radi: .وأَنا أُريدُ أَن أَشتَري مِعطَفاً جَديداً (waʾanā ʾurīdu ʾan ʾaštarī miʿṭafan ǧadīdan.) |
| Michael: Here, the adjective "new," or in Arabic: |
| Nora: جَديداً (ǧadīdan) |
| Michael: agrees with the noun "coat," or |
| Nora: مِعطَفاً (miʿṭafan) |
| Michael: which is singular and masculine, so it also corresponds to the adjective base. It might look confusing in its current form because both words don't have a definite article and are in the accusative case. That adds a |
| Nora: اً (an) |
| Michael: sound at the end of these words, indicating that the noun is an object, seeing that the coat is the item being bought in this sentence, and the adjective follows it in case, gender, and number. Make sure not to confuse case endings like these with feminine markers. Without these case endings, "a new coat" in Arabic would sound like: |
| Nora: مِعطَف جَديد ( miʿṭaf ǧadīd) |
| Let's hear the full sentence one more time. |
| Nora: .وأَنا أُريدُ أَن أَشتَري مِعطَفاً جَديداً (waʾanā ʾurīdu ʾan ʾaštarī miʿṭafan ǧadīdan.) |
| Michael: One thing that doesn't follow what we just mentioned is the irregular plural form. When describing an irregular plural noun, the adjective takes the singular feminine form. For example, the plural form of "coat" in Arabic is in the irregular form. |
| Nora: مَعاطِف (māʿāṭif) |
| Michael: meaning "coats." Now, if you need to describe these coats as new, you would say |
| Nora: مَعاطِف جَديدَة (māʿāṭif ǧadīdah) |
| Michael: meaning "new coats," using the singular feminine form of "new." Other than that, masculine regular plural nouns take masculine plural adjectives, feminine regular plural nouns take feminine plural adjectives, masculine dual nouns take masculine dual adjectives, and so on. Most adjectives use |
| Nora: ة (ah) |
| Michael: as a feminine marker suffix, like in the word |
| Nora: جَديدَة (ǧadīdah) |
| Michael: the feminine singular form of "new." However, there are other feminine markers. One pattern that is easy to notice is basic colors. Let's see the adjective "blue" as an example. |
| Nora: أَزرَق (ʾazraq) |
| Michael: is the masculine version of the adjective "blue," but in the feminine form, |
| Nora: زَرقاء (zarqāʾ) |
| Michael: This is an entire form change, not just an addition of a feminine marker as a suffix. This pattern also works with multiple words, most prominently including colors like red, blue, yellow, black, among others. For example, a blue car would be: |
| Nora: سَيّارَةٌ زَرقاء (sayyāraẗun zarqāʾ) |
| Michael: The third and last feminine marker for Arabic adjectives is |
| Nora: ى (ā) |
| Michael: This also is an entire form change, not just an addition of a feminine marker as a suffix. This one is most notably used with comparative and superlative forms of adjectives, like |
| Nora: كُبرى (kubrā) |
| Michael: meaning "older" in the feminine singular form, as in "older sister" or |
| Nora: الأُخت الكُبرى (al-ʾuḫt al-kubrā) |
| Michael: In the masculine form, that would be: |
| Nora: أَكبَر (akbar) |
| Michael: meaning older or greater in the singular masculine form. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: Let's summarize the three feminine markers of adjectives in Arabic: |
| Nora: ة (ah) |
| Michael: most adjectives in Arabic will use this marker suffix that sticks to the end of the word. Other than that, we have |
| Nora: اء (āʾ) |
| Michael: which works mostly for basic colors. Lastly we have: |
| Nora: ى (ā) |
| Michael: which works for some comparative and superlative forms of adjectives like bigger and smaller. |
| Review |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after the native speaker, focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how to say "I want to buy a new car?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Nora as Karen Lee: .أُريدُ أََن أَشتَري سَيّارَةً جَديدَة (ʾurīdu ʾaan ʾaštarī sayyāratan ǧadīdah.) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Nora as Karen Lee: .أُريدُ أََن أَشتَري سَيّارَةً جَديدَة (ʾurīdu ʾaan ʾaštarī sayyāratan ǧadīdah.) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Nora as Karen Lee: .أُريدُ أََن أَشتَري سَيّارَةً جَديدَة (ʾurīdu ʾaan ʾaštarī sayyāratan ǧadīdah.) |
| Michael: And do you remember how to say "And [I want to buy] a new coat?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Nora as Rashad Radi: .وأَنا أُريدُ أَن أَشتَري مِعطَفاً جَديداً (waʾanā ʾurīdu ʾan ʾaštarī miʿṭafan ǧadīdan.) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Nora as Rashad Radi: .وأَنا أُريدُ أَن أَشتَري مِعطَفاً جَديداً (waʾanā ʾurīdu ʾan ʾaštarī miʿṭafan ǧadīdan.) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Nora as Rashad Radi: .وأَنا أُريدُ أَن أَشتَري مِعطَفاً جَديداً (waʾanā ʾurīdu ʾan ʾaštarī miʿṭafan ǧadīdan.) |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Matching gender, number, and case is not optional in Arabic, and it is a challenging thing especially if a learner's mother tongue does not have an extensive gender system. But the fact that the markers are mostly similar for nouns and adjectives makes it easier to apply the same marker to both of them in a row. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Nora: !سلام (Salam!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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