I am sorry I forgot to put the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K0k780-qU8

You can have a look to this video I made before. It's a tutoring about the Arabic word Categories. There, I explain about the masculine and the feminine nouns.

Actually, there is no problem in distinguishing between male and female for animate objects (humanbeings &animals). Ex: علي : a man's name (male). فاطمة : a woman's name (female). أسد : the male lion (male). لبؤة : the female lion (female). Remarks: 1-Some men's names end with "ة" (the feminene mark), but they are still treated as male, because they are men's names as well. Ex: حمزة ، حيدرة / أسامة / عكاشة 2-And some women's names doesen't end with the feminine mark "ة", but they are treated as female names. Ex: سعاد، أمل، إيمان، صفاء But for inanimate objects, i'm afraid that there is no rule, and you'll have to memorize. But if the word ends with ة ( like in طاولة =table ), then it is considered female. Ex: شمس : the sun (female). قمر : the moon (male). كرسي : chair (male). طاولة : table (female). Remark: Plants are mostly treated as female. Ex: نخلة : palm tree. شجرة : tree. وردة/زهرة : flower

Female usually ends in ة and male doesn't. Of course there are exceptions like in any language, so sometimes you will just have to memorize if the word is or isn't female.

I forgot to mention the feminine marks: 1- ة (at the end of nouns and adjectives) Ex: Noun: طبيب : doctor طبيبة : female doctor. Adjective: ماهر : skillful. ماهرة : skillful (femaile) 2- اء (only at the end of adjectives). Ex: أحمر : red (male). حمراء : red (female). أعمى : blind (male). عمياء : blind (female). 3- ى (the "most" female adjectives) Ex: كبرى : the biggest قصرى : the shortest Note: this doesn't work for all adjectives, like in english when you can't say "beautifullest". Now l'll annoy you with verbs. I'll use the verb يكتب =to write: Male past: كتب = he wrote. Female past: كتبت = she wrote. Male present: يكتب = he writes / is writing. Female present: تكتب = she writes / is writing. Male imperative: اكتب = write! Female imperative: اكتب (pronounced with a slight ي at the end) = write! (Asking a female to write). Female