Gender of Nouns

In the Urdu language, there are two genders: masculine and feminine. Every Urdu noun belongs to one of those genders.

Very often, one can determine the gender of a noun from its ending. The most common ending for feminine nouns is ی ii, and the most common ending for masculine nouns is ا aa. For example, تارا taaraa 'a star' and سونا sonaa 'gold' are both masculine, while کاٹھی kaaThii 'a saddle' and رسی rassii 'a rope' are both feminine. There are, however, some exceptions, such as the fact that پانی paanii 'water' is masculine, while دعا duaa 'prayer' is feminine.

There are also a lot of nouns that do not end in vowels. Some of those words are masculine, while others are feminine. For example, دانت daaNt 'tooth' and سر sir 'head' are masculine, while جیبھ jiibh 'tongue' and رات raat 'night' are feminine. The gender of such words must be memorized.

The gender of nouns denoting animate beings is determined by the biological gender of the being. Many masculine animate nouns have regularly formed feminine counterparts. For example, if a masculine noun ends in ا aa, the corresponding feminine noun always ends in ی ii, as in the following examples: کتا kuttaa 'a male dog' - کتی kuttii 'a female dog'; گھوڑا ghoRaa 'a horse' - گھوڑی ghoRii 'a mare'; بکرا bakraa 'a male goat' - بکری bakrii 'a female goat'.

Some masculine nouns (many of which are the names of professions) have feminine counterparts with the suffix ن in. For example, دھوبی dhobii 'a washerman' - دھوبن dhobin 'a washerman's wife', درزی darzii 'a tailor' - درزن darzin 'a tailor's wife'. Others use the suffix نی nii, as in فقیر fakiir 'a dervish, a beggar, a poor man' - فقیرنی fakiirnii 'the wife of such man', ہاتھی haathii 'a male elephant' - ہاتھنی haathnii 'a female elephant'. Still other nouns use انی aanii in their feminine forms, as in نوکر naukar 'a servant' - نوکرانی naukraanii 'a female servant'.