جنس

             Each noun in arabic has a gender, it would either be Masculin (مذكر) or Feminine (مؤنث), or it can be a generic noun (اسم جنس .(اسم جنس  is understood as both مذكر and مؤنث depending on the context it is being used in. All nouns whether animate (عاقل) or inanimate (غير عاقل) will have a gender. 

            *In arabic there are no signs in the word structure of the nouns which would tell us if it a مذكر, but these are signs to tell if it is a مؤنث. Hence the ruling comes in that "What ever is not مذكر would be مؤنث" therefore we must know the types of Feminine nouns: 

          (a) The Real Feminine (مؤنت حقيقى)
                  - these are nouns which are obviously Feminine such as : 
                          + nouns that have a Masculine opposite (or a masculine pair)
                                          e.g. اخت , بنت , نساء
                          + nouns that are names of a girl
                                          e.g. مريم , زينب

          (b) The Formal Feminine (مؤنث قيا سى)
                  - these are nouns that are considered to be feminine because of their word structure. There are three word structures : 
                         + the feminine taa (تا مربوطة)
                                          e.g. رقبة , ءاخرة , جنة
                                          exceptions : طلحة (name) علامة (intensified form اسم مبالغة)
                         + the dagger alif (الف مقصورة)
                                          e.g. حسنى , بشرى , تقوى
                                          exceptions : موسى , عيسى
                         + the lengthened alif (الف ممدودة)
                                          e.g.  السماء , بيضاء , صفراء , نساء

          (c) The Heard Feminine (مؤنت سماعى)
                  - these are such nouns that have been used in the language as feminine, they do not necessarily have any sign or a masculin pair, but just have been heard as feminine. 
                         + names of countries cities and tribes (mostly) e.g. قريش , مصر , مكة
                         + human organs that are in pairs (some) e.g. عين , رجل , يد
                         + names of winds (all) e.g. ريح , صرصر
                         + names of wine (all) (80+ in arabic!) e.g. خمر
                         + broken plurals (all) e.g. رسل , ايام , ازواج
                         + various nouns {natural / man made thing} (various) e.g. شمس , دار , فلك