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Questions & Answers about هل المريضة هناك؟
How do we know the patient is female, and how would I say "the male patient"?
The word المريضة (al-mareeDah) ends in a Taa' Marboota (ة), which is the standard marker for feminine nouns. To say "the male patient", you simply drop the ة, which gives you المريض (al-mareeD).
How should I pronounce the ة at the end of المريضة in this sentence? Does it make a "t" sound?
In standard spoken Arabic, you will usually pronounce this ending as a soft "a" or "ah" sound (al-mareeDah). You only need to pronounce the "t" sound of the Taa' Marboota if you are adding very formal grammatical vowel endings, or if the word is the first part of an "of" phrase (like "the patient of the doctor"), which is not happening here.
I remember seeing مريضة used to mean "sick". Can it also mean "patient"?
Yes! In Arabic, adjectives are very frequently used as nouns. While مريضة is the feminine adjective for "sick", adding the word for "the" (ال) to make it المريضة literally means "the sick female"—which translates perfectly into English as "the patient".
Where is the Arabic word for "is" in this sentence?
Arabic does not use a word for "to be" (am/is/are) in the present tense. By simply putting the subject المريضة (the patient) and the location هناك (there) next to each other, the "is" is automatically understood.