The Verb Agrees in Gender

Level 2

In Arabic, if the subject is feminine, the verb must also be feminine. This is done by adding a تْ (tāʾ) to the end of past tense verbs or a تـ (tāʾ) to the beginning of present tense verbs.

How It Works

Arabic verbs change their form to match the gender of the subject. There are two main ways this happens:

Past Tense: We add a silent tāʾ al-taʾnīth (تْ) to the end of the verb. For example, ذهب (he went) becomes ذهبتْ (she went).
Present Tense: The prefix changes to تـ. For example, يذهب (he goes) becomes تذهب (she goes).

Mandatory vs. Optional Agreement:
Agreement is mandatory when the subject is a 'real' feminine (like a woman or a lioness) and follows the verb directly, or when the subject is a hidden pronoun referring back to a feminine noun. It is often optional (though feminine is preferred in MSA) if the subject is an inanimate object or if there are words separating the verb from the subject.

Non-Human Plurals:
A crucial rule in Arabic is that non-human plurals are treated as feminine singular. This means that if the subject is a plural of an object (like 'books' or 'cars'), the verb must be in the feminine singular form (e.g., وصلت السيارات).

Phonological Note:
If a past tense verb ending in تْ is followed by a word starting with the definite article الـ, the sukūn on the tāʾ changes to a kasra (تِ) to make pronunciation smoother (e.g., qālat al-bintu becomes قالتِ البنتُ).

Examples (4)

ذَهَبَتْ لَيْلَى إِلَى المَكْتَبَةِ.
Layla went to the library.
Word by Word: Went (fem.) Layla to the library.
The verb takes the suffix -at because the subject 'Layla' is feminine.
تَكْتُبُ الطَّالِبَةُ الدَّرْسَ.
The (female) student writes the lesson.
Word by Word: Writes (fem.) the student (fem.) the lesson.
In the present tense, the verb starts with 'ta-' to agree with the feminine subject.
الشَّمْسُ طَلَعَتْ اليَوْمَ.
The sun rose today.
Word by Word: The sun rose (fem.) today.
Even though 'sun' is inanimate, it is grammatically feminine in Arabic, so the verb must be feminine.
قَالَتِ المَرْأَةُ الحَقِيقَةَ.
The woman told the truth.
Word by Word: Said (fem.) the woman the truth.
Notice the kasra on the 't' (qālati) because it is followed by the definite article 'al-'.

Common Mistakes

Using the masculine verb form for feminine subjects.
يذهب فاطمة إلى البيت.
تذهب فاطمة إلى البيت.
In Modern Standard Arabic, you must use the feminine prefix 'ta-' for a feminine subject like Fatima.
Confusing the feminine verb marker with the noun marker (Tāʾ Marbūṭa).
ذهبة ليلى.
ذهبت ليلى.
Verbs never end in تاء التأنيث (ة). The feminine marker for past tense verbs is always the open Tāʾ (ت).
Using masculine plural verbs for non-human feminine plurals.
السيارات وصلوا.
السيارات وصلت.
Non-human plurals are treated as feminine singular. Therefore, the verb should be feminine singular, not masculine plural.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

The Verb Agrees in GenderLevel 2

Learn This First

To understand how a verb agrees with a feminine subject, a learner must first be able to identify the subject (doer) of a sentence, recognize feminine nouns, and understand the basic structure of a verbal sentence in Arabic.