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LESSON 12Masculine and Feminine Nouns
Lesson objective
In this lesson, you will learn how masculine and feminine nouns work in Darija.
Gender of nouns
In Darija, every noun is either masculine or feminine.
Feminine nouns ending in “a”
In general, nouns that end with an a sound are feminine.
| English | Darija |
|---|---|
| Name | smiya |
| City | mdina |
| One chicken | djaja |
| Television | tlfaza |
Forming a feminine noun
For words that describe professions or people doing an activity, the feminine form is often made by adding a to the masculine form.
| Masculine | Feminine |
|---|---|
| Male teacher — ustad | Female teacher — ustada |
| Worker — xddam | Worker — xddama |
Feminine words without “a”
Some feminine words do not end in a. There are three groups to be aware of.
1. Words that are naturally feminine
These words are feminine because of their meaning — for example om (mother) and amal (a girl’s name).
2. Most body parts that come in pairs
| English | Darija |
|---|---|
| An eye | 3in |
| A hand | yd |
| A foot | rjl |
| An ear | udn |
3. Other feminine nouns
Some nouns are feminine even though they do not follow one of the previous patterns — for example ḍ-ḍar (the house) and š-šms (the sun).
Transcription reminder
- j — the sound heard in the English word pleasure
- 3 — a deep throat sound introduced in the pronunciation lessons
Doubled letters
When the same character appears twice, the consonant has a shedda and must be pronounced longer.
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