Page 262 - The Rough Guide Phrasebook - Egyptian Arabic

Nouns
Gender
HOW
All Arabic nouns have one of two genders – masculine or
feminine. Most nouns ending in -a are feminine:
THE
maktaba ahwa garsona
library coffee; café waitress
Some nouns that do not end in -a are feminine:
bint omm shams floos
girl mother sun money
LANGUAGE
The names of many countries, cities and parts of the body are
feminine:
masr aswān tanta
Egypt Aswan Tanta
WORKS

rās rigl eed
head leg hand
Feminine nouns that do not end in -a and are not obviously
feminine are marked (f) in the English-Arabic section of this
■ N o u n s
book.
Some masculine nouns end in -a; these are also indicated in the
English-Arabic section:
howa
air (m)
All other nouns that do not end in -a or fall into the above
categories can be assumed to be masculine.
Construct Form
Some rules require the final -a of a feminine noun to be
replaced by -it when two nouns are used together. This is
known as the construct form:

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