# I am sitting in a hospital which is called..



## ihsaan

Hi,
How would I say: "I am sitting in a hospital which is called..."? Also: is hospital feminine or masculine?

Can I say: 
أجلس في مستشفى التي تُسَمَّى


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## ayed

ihsaan said:


> Hi,
> How would I say: "I am sitting in a hospital which is called..."? Also: is hospital feminine or masculine?
> 
> Can I say:
> *أجلس في مستشفى اسمه*


 hospital is *masculine*


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## nanos

I know that Ihsaan probably was asking about Standard, but funny enough, hospital in Lebanese is feminine....


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## clevermizo

nanos said:


> I know that Ihsaan probably was asking about Standard, but funny enough, hospital in Lebanese is feminine....



It makes sense because the -a ending is over-generalized to the feminine gender. The same is true with معنى yes?


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## nanos

LOL! No!!! Not in Lebanese


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## ihsaan

ah, yes... hospital here is not definite, so I wouldn't need a relative word like "alladhi". I forgot. 

Thank you!


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## elroy

In Palestinian, it's the same as in Lebanese: مستشفى is feminine and معنى is masculine.  In fact, I probably would have mistakenly used مستشفى with a feminine adjective in MSA. 

Back to the original question: I would use أنا جالسة instead of أجلس.


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## ihsaan

I appologise for being a pest and always wondering "why", but I just have to ask: why choose the first over the latter, Elroy? (أنا جالسة instead of أجلس)


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## elroy

Because أنا جالسة clearly means "I *am sitting*."
أجلس can also mean "I *sit*," so it could be ambiguous.


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## londonmasri

What is it in EA? (m/f)
Thanks


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## cherine

In EA:
أنا قاعد(ة) في مستشفى كذا 
but this could be understood as (I'm a patient in the hospital).  So, if you're only there to visit, you omit the verb (and I think the same applies for MSA):
أنا في مستشفى كذا 
(replace كذا with the hospital's name).


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## londonmasri

Thanks, Cherine. Is _mustashfa_ male or female? (i.e. _il mustashfa da/di_?)

Thanks


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## cherine

You're welcome.

In Egyptian, mostashfa is fem.


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## londonmasri

Alf shokr. 

When we have this (long) _yaa _is it always female? (I am trying really hard to think of another word...)


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## clevermizo

londonmasri said:


> Alf shokr.
> 
> When we have this (long) _yaa _is it always female? (I am trying really hard to think of another word...)



No, because I mistakenly thought ma3na معنى might be generalized to feminine as well, but it turns out it is still masculine. There probably is not a rule, but some words ending in -a have apparently been generalized to feminine gender.

And the other word is "feminine" not female.


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## londonmasri

clevermizo said:


> And the other word is "feminine" not female.


 
Good point


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## Xence

The alif maqsuura (ى) in _mustashfaa_ is not a feminine mark as in ليلى or أفعى  but stems from the root ش-ف-ى
Here, we have the derivative form مُستفعَل (masculine). 
If the root were و-ص-ف we'd get مُستوصَف
With the root ش-ف-ى we simply have مُستشفَى

***

Same thing with معنى . The root is ع-ن-ى and the derivative form is مَفعَل
If the root were ل-ج-أ we'd get مَلجَأ


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## clevermizo

Xence said:


> The alif maqsuura (ى) in _mustashfaa_ is not a feminine mark as in ليلى or أفعى  but stems from the root ش-ف-ى



Of course. What I find curious is that in some dialects some of these words (e.g., مستشفى) have been moved to feminine gender, while others like معنى have not. Is مستشفى treated as masculine or feminine in Algeria?


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## Xence

clevermizo said:


> Is مستشفى treated as masculine or feminine in Algeria?


It's certainly masculine, even though most people here use another word سبيطار _sbiTaar_ which likely comes from the Latin _hospitalis_ (via French or Old Roman, since Romans have remained more than 6 centuries in the Maghreb)


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## cherine

Xence said:


> [...] most people here use another word سبيطار _sbiTaar_ which likely comes from the Latin _hospitalis_ (via French or Old Roman, since Romans have remained more than 6 centuries in the Maghreb)


Interesting! One of the words used in Egypt for "hospital" is esbetalya اسبتالية (and I think there's also esbetarya اسبتارية). We only hear it in movies and tv shows by characters coming from rural areas and the South. I think it's getting obsolete now, but I may be mistaken.

As for the origin, I think it's either French or Italian.


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## Xence

cherine said:


> As for the origin, I think it's either French or Italian.


The only problem, cherine, is that French don't pronounce the "s", they say as you know: _hôpital_.
In Italian it's _ospedale_.

 If اسبيتارية is really used in Egyptian, that' really interesting !


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## elroy

_SbiTaar _is used in Palestinian Arabic as well, but it's far less common than _mustashfa_.

I don't know if the fact that it's feminine has to do with the ending; that may just be a coincidence.  After all, _dukkaan_ is also feminine, even though _dukkaane_ is too.


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