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:

• 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:

• 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.

2. 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

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

• The verb doers in these sentences are الأَوْلادُ (children) and النَّاسُ (people). The two nouns are broken plural (جَمْعُ تَكْسِيرٍ) forms (Lesson 13). This means that if the verb doer is a broken plural, the verb can be masculine or feminine, but if it is intact feminine plural (جَمْعُ مُؤَنَّثٍ سَالِمٌ), such as طَبِيبَاتٌ, مُهَنْدِسَاتٌ and بَنَاتٌ and comes directly after the verb, it must be obligatory feminine.
• But if the verb doer is intact masculine plural, such as مُهَنْدِسُونَ, لَاعِبُونَ and مُسْلِمُونَ, the verb must be obligatory masculine.
• However, in other than the above-mentioned cases, the verb must be obligatory masculine.