Gender in Arabic Translation: Job Ads, Forms and Apps

• "You" and commands. أنتَ / أنتِ; اضغط (to a man) / اضغطي (to a woman). Every button and instruction in an app is affected.
• Job titles. مهندس / مهندسة (engineer), مدير / مديرة (manager), موظف / موظفة (employee).
• Adjectives and verbs. "You are eligible" is مؤهَّل or مؤهَّلة; "the candidate submitted" changes with the candidate.
• Plurals. The masculine plural is traditionally used for mixed groups (الموظفون for all staff), while the feminine plural refers to women only.
• Variables in software. "{name} sent you a message" needs a different verb form for a male or female sender, and again for a male or female reader.

Job advertisements

If a role is open to everyone, the Arabic should not read as if it is only for men. Use both forms in the title and the key lines (مطلوب محاسب/محاسبة), and neutral wording elsewhere. Keep the English and Arabic versions saying the same thing.

Contracts, HR policies and handbooks

Arabic legal drafting commonly uses the masculine throughout with a definitions clause stating that words in the masculine include the feminine. That keeps long documents readable. Neutral party labels such as الطرف الأول (the first party) also avoid the issue. See HR policy and handbook translation.

Forms and user interfaces

Neutral constructions work best: verbal nouns and passive forms (يُرجى الضغط، تم الإرسال بنجاح) instead of commands addressed to "you". They also avoid the variable problem.

Apps and personalised messages

If the app stores the user's gender or salutation, separate masculine and feminine strings read most naturally. Developers must expose gender as a variable to the translator; without it, no translation of "{name} liked your post" can be correct for everyone.

Marketing and campaigns

Choose the audience. A product aimed at women should address women (feminine forms), and a general campaign may use neutral wording or plural address. Mixing forms within one campaign looks careless. See localisation services.

Signage

Short neutral forms, such as verbal nouns (ممنوع التدخين, "no smoking"), are standard and avoid addressing anyone directly.

1. Who the reader is: men, women, a mixed audience, or a known individual.
2. Your chosen approach for each document type, written into your style guide.
3. For software: screenshots, string IDs, character limits, and which strings contain name or user variables, with the gender of each variable where it is known.
4. A glossary of job titles in both masculine and feminine form.
5. For job ads: confirmation of who the role is open to, so the Arabic says the same as the English.

For layout once the text is ready, see Arabic typesetting and DTP.

• Defaulting to the masculine in direct address. A female user told اضغط هنا by every button notices.
• Mixing approaches in one document. Half the form uses both forms and the other half uses the masculine.
• Slash forms everywhere. مهندس/ة in every sentence makes text hard to read; use them only where they matter.
• Translating without context. A string list with no screenshots forces the translator to guess who is speaking to whom.
• Trusting machine translation. Automatic tools usually choose the masculine, and they change choice from sentence to sentence.

Because Arabic marks gender in "you", verbs, adjectives and most job titles. English text that is neutral must be given a gender, or rewritten in neutral form, in Arabic.

In formal and legal Arabic, the masculine is traditionally used as the generic form, often with a clause saying it includes the feminine. In direct address, such as ads and apps, neutral wording or both forms usually read better.

If the role is open to everyone, use both forms in the job title and key lines and neutral wording elsewhere, and keep the English and Arabic saying the same thing.

Either with neutral wording (verbal nouns and passive forms) or with separate masculine and feminine strings selected from the user's profile. The translator needs to know which strings contain variables.

A definitions clause stating that words in the masculine include the feminine (and often that the singular includes the plural), so the document can use one form throughout.

Both-form and neutral wording can be longer than the masculine alone. Allow space in your layout and character limits.

Not reliably. It tends to default to the masculine and to be inconsistent across a document. A human translator with context sets one approach and keeps it.

Arabic⇄English legal translation is AED 60 per 200-word page (excl. VAT), with same-day delivery available. App strings and marketing copy are quoted on request.

We translate job ads, contracts, HR policies, forms, app strings and marketing between Arabic and English, apply one agreed approach to gender across the whole project, and lay out the Arabic for print and screen. See localisation and translation review.

This article is general guidance on the language side of business and official communication in the UAE. It is not legal advice. Working hours, holidays, protocol and authority requirements change; confirm current arrangements with the authority, court or organisation concerned.

Send us your text, tell us who will read it, and we will propose the right approach to gender. Smart World Legal Translation – Sole Proprietorship L.L.C. (SWLT) is a UAE Ministry of Justice-licensed legal translation company in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, led by Dr. Hani Elimam. Our federal accreditation is accepted across the UAE, including by Dubai Courts, and we hold exclusive interpretation contracts with the UAE Federal Courts and the Federal Public Prosecution. Arabic⇄English legal translation is AED 60 per 200-word page (excl. VAT), with same-day delivery available. Send us the details on WhatsApp (+971 50 864 8439), email info@swlt.ae, or use our contact page.