Lesson 30 – الدَّرْسُ الثَّلاثُونَ

Masculinity and Feminization of Verb- تَذْكِيرُ الْفِعْلِ وَتَأْنِيثُهُ

Introduction – مُقَدِّمَةٌ

  • This is lesson thirty of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • In a previous lesson of the course, we studied the masculine and feminine Arabic nouns and recognized the signs that differentiate between a masculine and a feminine noun. Here we will do the same with verbs. Verbs are like nouns; they are subject to rules of masculinity and feminization according to the verb doer. Sometimes the verb doer makes the verb obligatory feminine – i.e. it is always feminine, as in the following examples:

Picture

English

Arabic

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The Arab woman plays an important role in the formation of the family

تَقُومُ المَرْأَةُ العَرَبِيَّةُ بِدَوْرٍ مُهِمٌّ في تَكْوينِ الأسْرَة ِ

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The university helps the youth draw their country’s future

الْجَامِعَةُ تُسَاعِدُ الشَّبَابَ فِي تَكْوِينِ مُسْتَقْبَل ِ بَلَدِهِم

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The girls and boys participated in the contest

اِشْتَرَكَتْ الْبَنَاتُ مَعَ الأوْلادِ فِي الْمُسَابَقَةِ

  • In other cases the verb doer makes a verb permissible feminine or masculine – i.e. it can be either gender, as in the following examples:

English

Masculine Verb

الفعل المذكر

Feminine Verb

الفعل المؤنث

Arabs disagreed, thus their influence waned.

اِفْتَرَقَ العَرَبُ فَضَعُفَتْ قُوَّتُهم

اِفْتَرَقَتِ العَرَبُ فَضَعُفَت قُوَّتُهم

Fatima attended the lesson today

حَضَرَ الدَّرْسَ اليَوْمَ فاطِمَةُ

حَضَرتِ الدَّرْسَ اليَوْمَ فَاطِمَةُ

  • Therefore, we should study three important points:
    1. When a verb doer makes a verb obligatory feminine.
    2. When a verb doer makes a verb obligatory masculine.
    3. When a verb doer makes a verb permissible feminine or masculine.
  • We shall also study the signs of the feminization of the present and past verbs, as in the following examples:

Feminine sentence translation

مُؤَنَّثٌ 
Feminine sentence

Masculine sentence translation

مُذَكَّرٌ
Masculine sentence

The girl came early

حَضَرَتِ البِنْتُ مُبَكِّرةً

The boy came early

حَضَرَ الوَلَدُ مُبَكِّراً

The female student writes with a pen

تَكْتُبُ الطَّالِبَة ُ بِالقَلَمِ

The male student writes with a pen

يَكْتُبُ الطَّالِبُ بِالْقَلَمِ

The mother does her duty towards her family

أَدَّتِ الْأُمُّ مَا عَلَيْها لِأُسْرَتِها

The father does his duty towards his family

أَدَّى الأَبُ ما عَلَيْهِ لأُسْرَتِهِ