Gender, Plurals & el-
Core noun machinery of Egyptian Arabic: gender endings, sound vs. broken plurals, and the el- article with sun/moon letters.
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Questions Covered in This Set
10 cards to master
How can you usually tell a noun is feminine in Masri?
It ends in -a (the letter ة, taa marbuuTa): madrasa, 3arabeyya, mudarrisa.
Name four feminine nouns that do NOT end in -a.
bint (girl), umm (mother), shams (sun), and paired body parts like eed (hand), rigl (leg), 3een (eye). Cities/countries are feminine too (MaSr).
How do you form the sound plural for masculine and feminine nouns?
Masculine: add -iin (mudarris → mudarrisiin). Feminine: replace -a with -aat (mudarrisa → mudarrisaat).
What is a broken plural (gam3 taksiir)?
A plural made by rearranging the word's internal vowels — unpredictable, so memorize it with the singular: beet → biyuut, kitaab → kutub.
How are non-human plurals treated for agreement?
As feminine singular: el-kutub gidiida ('the books are new').
How do you say 'a house' vs. 'the house'?
There is no word for 'a': beet = 'a house'; add el- for 'the': el-beet.
What happens to el- before a sun letter?
The l disappears and the following consonant doubles: esh-shams, et-tuffaaH. Spelling stays the same — only pronunciation changes.
Give two moon letters and an example with el-.
b and k are moon letters: el-beet, el-kitaab — the l is pronounced normally.
Which noun form follows numbers 3–10 vs. 11 and up?
3–10 take the plural (talat kutub); 11 and up take the singular (khamastaashar kitaab).
Why does gender matter in Arabic?
Adjectives and verbs must agree: beet kibiir (big house) but madrasa kibiira (big school); huwwa Masri / heyya Masreyya.
