Lesson 30 – الدَّرْسُ الثَّلاثُونَ

Masculinity and Feminization of Verb- تَذْكِيرُ الْفِعْلِ وَتَأْنِيثُهُ

Permissibility of verb feminization or masculinity – جَوَازُ تَأْنِيثِ الْفِعْلِ وَتَذْكِيرِهِ

  • We are still in lesson thirty of our free Arabic language course. This Arabic course with images and audios will help you learn Arabic.
  • In the previous part, we studied the two cases in which an Arabic verb must be obligatory feminine. In this part, we will study the cases in which an Arabic verb may be permissibly feminine or masculine.
  •  Consider the following examples:

English translation

الْفِعْلُ مُؤَنَّثًا

Feminine Verb

الْفِعْلُ مُذَكَّرًا

Masculine Verb

Fatimah attended the lesson today.

حَضَرَتِ الدَّرْسَ اليَوْمَ فَاطِمَةُ

حَضَرَ الدَّرْسَ اليَوْمَ فَاطِمَة ُ

The girls will go today to the garden

تَذْهَبُ اليَوْمَ إلى الحَدِيقةِ البَنَاتُ

يَذْهَبُ اليَوْمَ إلى الحَدِيقةِ البَنَاتُ

The sun rises from the east

تَخْرُجُ الشَّمْسُ مِنَ الشَّرْق ِ

يَخْرُجُ الشَّمْسُ مِنَ الشَّرْق ِ

The plane landed in the airport

هَبَطَتِ الطَّائرةُ في المَطَار

هَبَطَ الطَّائرَةُ في المَطَار ِ

The boys played football for an hour

لَعِبَتِ الأَوْلادُ بالكُرَةِ ساعَة ً

لَعِبَ الأَوْلادُ بالكُرَةِ سَاعَة ً

People said ‘this is strange’

قالَتِ النَّاسُ هَذا شَيْءٌ عَجِيبٌ

قَالَ النّاسُ هّذا شَيءٌ عَجِيبٌ

  • We notice that the cases in which a verb can be feminine or masculine are three, as follows:
    1. In the first two examples, the verb doer in the sentences is as follows:

حَضَرَتِ الدَّرْسَ اليَوْمَ فَاطِمَة ُ

حَضَرَ الدَّرْسَ اليَوْمَ فَاطِمَة ُ

      • We notice here that the verb doer فاطمة is a real feminine, but it is permissible to make the verb feminine or masculine, because the sentence lacks an essential condition to be obligatory feminine (the verb doer must come directly after the verb). Here the verb حَضَرَ and its doer فَاطِمَة is separated. For this reason we can make the verb feminine or masculine. The same also applies to the second sentence.

تَذْهَبُ اليَوْمَ إلى الحَدِيقَةِ البَنَاتُ

يَذْهَبُ اليَوْمَ إِلَى الْحَدِيقةِ البَنَاتُ

    1. In the second set, we notice that the verb doers in the two sentences are الشَّمْسُ and الطَّائِرَةُ. These nouns are not real feminine, but figurative because they neither beget nor lay eggs. For this reason, their verbs can be feminine or masculine

تَخْرُجُ الشَّمْسُ مِنَ الشَّرْقِ

يَخْرُجُ الشَّمْسُ مِنَ الشَّرْقِ

هَبَطَتِ الطَّائرةُ في المطَار

هَبَطَ الطَّائرَةُ في المطَارِ

    1. In the third set of examples, we notice the third case in which a verb can be permissible feminine or masculine:

لَعِبَتِ الأَوْلادُ بالكُرَةِ ساعَةً

لَعِبَ الأَوْلادُ بالكُرَةِ سَاعَةً

قالَتِ النَّاسُ هَذا شَيْءٌ عَجِيبٌ

قَالَ النّاسُ هَذَا شَيْءٌ عَجِيبٌ