To talk about academic disciplines, you often turn nouns into adjectives—like changing "university" (جامعة) to "academic" (جامعي). In Arabic, we do this by adding the Nisba (relative) suffix: يّ for masculine or يّة for feminine.
Dropping the Taa' Marboota (ة)
If a noun ends in a ة, like هندسة (engineering) or جامعة (university), drop the ة before adding the Nisba suffix.
Here is the base noun for engineering:
| My brother wants to study in the faculty of engineering. | يريد أخي أن يدرس في كلية الهندسة.yurîdu akhî an yadrusa fî kulliyyati-l-handasah |
To describe a company as an "engineering" company, drop the ة from هندسة and add the feminine suffix يّة (matching the feminine شركة):
| He works in an engineering company. | يعمل في شركة هندسية.yamalu fi sharikatin handasiyyatin |
The same applies to جامعة (university). Drop the ة and add the masculine suffix يّ to get جامعي:
| Indeed, the university building is crowded. | إن المبنى الجامعي مزدحم.inna al-mabna al-jaami'iyya muzdahimun |
Dropping Final Weak Vowels
Some nouns end in a weak vowel, such as the long ا in جغرافيا (geography). Just like the ة, drop this final vowel before attaching the Nisba suffix.
| We studied the geography of Egypt. | درسنا جغرافيا مصر.darasnâ jughrâfiyâ misra |
By dropping the final ا and adding the masculine suffix يّ, we get جغرافي (geographical):
| Indeed, the geographical location of the city is excellent. | إن الموقع الجغرافي للمدينة ممتاز.inna al-mawqi'a al-jughrâfiyya lil-madînati mumtâzun |
More Academic Disciplines
This pattern applies to other fields of study. As always, the resulting adjective must agree in gender, definiteness, and case with the noun it modifies.
For فلسفة (philosophy), drop the ة to form فلسفي (philosophical):
| She is reading a book about philosophy. | تقرأ كتابا عن الفلسفة.taqra'u kitâban 'anil-falsafah |
| This is a difficult philosophical question. | هذا سؤال فلسفي صعب.hâdhâ su'âlun falsafiyyun sa'bun |
For زراعة (agriculture), drop the ة to form زراعي (agricultural):
| Agriculture is important for the economy of the country. | الزراعة مهمة لاقتصاد البلد.az-ziraa'atu muhimmatun liqtisaadi al-balad |
| The agricultural production increased this year. | ازداد الإنتاج الزراعي هذا العام.izdâda al'intâju azzirâ'iyyu hâdhâ al'âma |