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مريم جندية في الجيش.

مريم جندية في الجيش.maryamu jundiyyatun fil jaysh
Maryam is a soldier in the army.
From Lesson 272:Military & Defense·Arabic (Modern Standard)

Questions & Answers about مريم جندية في الجيش.

How is the word for 'soldier' made feminine in this sentence?
The base masculine word for a soldier is جندي. To make it feminine to match the subject Maryam, the feminine ending 'taa marbuta' is added, resulting in جندية. Notice that the letter 'yaa' keeps its shadda (double consonant sound) right before the ending.
Why is there no Arabic word for 'is' in this sentence?
This is a classic nominal sentence, which consists of a subject and a predicate without a verb. In Modern Standard Arabic, you do not use a present-tense verb for 'to be'. The 'is' is automatically understood by placing the indefinite noun جندية immediately after the subject مريم.
If I were to pronounce the case endings, would مريم take a tanween (an '-un' sound)?
No, it would just take a single 'damma' sound (Maryamu). Feminine proper nouns like مريم are 'diptotes', meaning they belong to a special group of words that never take a tanween at the end, even when they are the subject of a sentence.
Is the word جندية an adjective or a noun here?
It acts as a noun here. While the ending is identical to the 'nisba' suffix used to make adjectives (like turning a country name into a nationality), words like جندي and جندية function as standalone nouns to mean 'a soldier'.

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