Masculine and Feminine Adjective Forms

Egyptian Arabic adjectives agree with singular nouns in grammatical gender. A masculine noun takes a masculine adjective such as كبير “big,” while a feminine noun takes كبيرة. For many adjectives, the feminine is built with ـة, but common color forms and a few lexical classes must be learned separately.

English adjectives never change for gender, so learners must make agreement an active part of every description. Unless marked otherwise, the examples use mainstream Cairene (informal).

Rule 1: Add ـة in the Productive Pattern

Many frequent adjectives form the feminine by adding ـة to the masculine stem. Egyptian pronunciation often includes vowel adjustments that the romanization records.

Degree words such as شوية and adverbial قوي do not alter the agreement form. Gender belongs to تعبان/تعبانة.

Rule 2: Follow the Noun's Grammatical Gender

With people, gender often corresponds to the referent. With objects and ideas, it belongs to the noun itself. The adjective agrees with the Arabic noun, not with an English translation such as it.

كتاب، قمر are masculine; شنطة، شمس are feminine. The visible ـة of شنطة helps, but markerless شمس proves that noun gender must also be learned lexically. See noun gender.

Rule 3: Some Common Forms Are Not Simple Add-ـة Pairs

Several high-frequency color and physical-description adjectives have inherited feminine stems. Their spellings reflect ordinary Egyptian forms rather than an automatic suffix operation.

قميص is masculine, while جزمة is feminine, so the two inherited color adjectives use different gender forms. These pairs must be learned rather than generated by simply adding ـة.

The full color system, including plural forms, is covered under colors and physical descriptors.

Rule 4: Attributive and Predicative Adjectives Share Gender Agreement

An adjective agrees whether it belongs inside the noun phrase or serves as the predicate. Definiteness—not gender—distinguishes those structures.

In البنت الصغيرة, definite feminine الصغيرة modifies the noun. In البنت صغيرة, bare feminine صغيرة predicates a property. Both forms agree with feminine بنت.

Rule 5: Plural Agreement Is a Different Layer

Human plurals normally take a plural adjective, and everyday Egyptian often uses the same general plural form for male, female, and mixed groups.

Nonhuman plurals commonly take a feminine-singular adjective in the broad baseline:

Spontaneous Egyptian also allows plural agreement with some individualized or animate nonhuman groups. Do not turn the formal MSA feminine-singular rule into an exceptionless description of every Egyptian speaker. The nonhuman plural adjective page gives the production baseline and real variation.

A Natural Descriptive Exchange

The English adjective stays nice; Egyptian alternates masculine حلو with feminine حلوة.

Register and Variation

Gender agreement is robust across mainstream urban varieties, but the gender assigned to loanwords and a few lexical items can vary by age, community, or professional field (age/community/professional). Formal MSA may use different lexical feminine or plural forms and adds case agreement (formal). Those differences should be labeled, not treated as failed Egyptian.

Common Mistakes

1. Leaving a feminine noun with a masculine adjective

2. Using a feminine adjective with a masculine noun

3. Putting the adjective before the noun

4. Omitting article agreement inside a definite phrase

5. Applying human plural agreement mechanically to objects

Key Takeaways

• Many feminine adjectives add ـة, but common color forms such as حمرا must be learned.
• Agreement follows the Arabic noun's gender, including with objects and markerless nouns.
• Attributive and predicative adjectives both show gender agreement.
• Human plural and nonhuman plural agreement are separate from singular gender formation.
• English adjective invariance is not a model for Egyptian agreement.