Learning the gender of words in Arabic is often tricky to non-native speakers, as there is not an easy rule that tells us whether a word is masculine or feminine, and many rules have exceptions. One of the most useful rules is that words that end in ta’ marbouta (ة) are feminine, e.g.  سميرة,  أميرة, etc. However, we find some masculine names that end in (ة), e.g.  طلحة,  حمزة, etc. There are other feminine endings, including (اء), e.g.  صحراء,  سناء, etc and (ى), e.g.  ليلى,  منى, etc. We should note that there are some masculine names that end in (ى), e.g.  مصطفى.

It is to some extent easy to determine their gender of words that end in one of these suffixes. However, there are other feminine words that do not end in these endings, and these are harder to recognize, e.g.

حرب = war

أرض = land

شمس = sun

يدّ  = hand

دار = house

عين  = eye/spring (of water)

رِجل = leg

It is interesting to note that some adjectives can be used in the masculine form with feminine words, e.g. adjectives in the patterns (فعول) and (فعيل), e.g.

هي امرأة حنون وهو رجل صبور.

She is a kind woman and he is a patient man.

بعد الحادث، رأيت المرأة القتيل والرجل الجريح.

After the accident, I saw the dead woman and the wounded man.

However, the feminine adjective can also be marked appropriately for the gender in these

هي امرأة حنونة وهو رجل عجوز.

بعد الحادث، رأيت المرأة القتيلة والرجل الجريح.