Arabic Nouns: Gender, the Definite Article ال, and Tāʾ Marbūṭa

Masculine and feminine

Arabic nouns come in two genders with no neuter option. Most feminine nouns end in ة (tāʾ marbūṭa) — pronounced -a at the end of a phrase: مدرسة madrasa 'school'. Unmarked nouns default to masculine: كتاب kitāb 'book'. Some feminine nouns have no ة — الشمس 'sun' and أم 'mother' — but ة is the reliable signal for beginners.

ة becomes '-at' before endings or in iḍāfa links — madrasa → madrasat al-walad.

Definite and indefinite — ال

ال = the. It prefixes directly to the noun with no space: بيت 'a house' → البيت 'the house'. Removing ال makes the noun indefinite — there's no word for 'a/an'; indefiniteness is just the absence of ال (or a tanwīn ending in fully vocalized text).

Sun/moon assimilation: the ال is always written the same; only pronunciation changes.

Singular, dual, and plural — the essentials

Arabic counts in three numbers: one, two (the dual, ending -ān), and three-plus (plural). Duals are simple and regular — add -ān. Plurals are often 'broken' — they reshape the word itself rather than adding a suffix, so each is learned with its noun.

At beginner level, recognize -ān as 'two' and learn common plurals as vocabulary.

A word about case endings

Formal grammar gives nouns case endings (-u subject, -a object, -i after prepositions/possession). In natural MSA reading and speech these are dropped at pause — the course's transliteration reflects that natural reading. Prepositions still matter: they hold their noun regardless — في البيت fī l-bayt 'in the house', إلى المدرسة ilā l-madrasa 'to the school'.

Mini practice