Nouns in the Arabic Language

Nouns الأسـماء

Arabic nouns are either masculine or feminine. Usually when referring to a male, a masculine noun is usually used and when referring to a female, a feminine noun is used. In most cases the feminine noun is formed by adding a special character, the ta marbuta ـة ة, to the end of the masculine noun.

Feminine Singular Masculine Singular
teacher مُعلِّمة
مُعلِّم

professor/teacher أستاذة
أستاذ

student طالبة
طالب

friend صَديقة
صَديق

colleague زميلة زميلٌ
muslim مسلمة مسلم
thinker مفكّرة مفكّر
translator مترجمة مترجم
beginner مبتدئـة
مبتدىء

expert خبيرة
خبير

envoy, reporter
(someone sent on a mission) مراسلة مراسل
writer, author مؤلفة مؤلف

Sometimes the noun used to refer to a male and the noun used for a female are completely different.

woman امرأة
man رَجُلٌ

It's not just nouns referring to people that have gender. Inanimate objects (doors, houses, cars, etc.) is either masculine or feminine. Whether an inanimate noun is masculine or feminine is mostly arbitrary. A lot of inanimate nouns ends in ta marbuta. When this is the case you know it is feminine.

table طاولة
city مدينة

Unfortunately, not all feminine nouns end in ta marbuta. Whenever you learn a new word, and that word is a noun, it's best if you learn it's gender too. Here are some masculine nouns..

book كتاب nose أنف

and here are some feminine nouns..

wind ريح
desert صحراء