Questions & Answers about هي مصرية.
Why is there no word for "is" in this sentence?
In Arabic, you do not need a verb for "is" or "are" in simple present tense sentences. You just put the pronoun هي (she) next to the adjective مصرية (Egyptian), and the "is" is naturally understood.
How does the word مصرية show that it describes a female?
It ends with the letter ة (taa marbuta), which is the standard feminine marker in Arabic. If we were talking about a man, we would drop the ة and say هو مصري (He is Egyptian).
How is the word for "Egyptian" built from the word for "Egypt"?
The Arabic word for Egypt is مصر. To say someone is from a place, Arabic adds a special ending. For a male, it adds ي to make مصري (Egyptian man). For a female, it adds ية to make مصرية (Egyptian woman).
Does هي always mean "she"?
It usually means "she" when talking about people, but it can also mean "it" when referring to grammatically feminine objects or places in Arabic. Here, because it pairs with مصرية (an Egyptian person), it clearly means "she".
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