Nouns and Adjectives [Archive] - Tzaddikim Discussion Forums

hyssop

02-05-2002, 09:17 PM

NOUNS

All Hebrew nouns are "genderized." That is, they are either masculine or feminine.
For example, the Hebrew word for the noun "work, labour, toil, occupation" is h'dAb][
The h'X ending usually indicates a noun in the feminine gender. In the plural form, the h'X ending usually changes to an tAX ending.
For example, h'dAb][ becomes tAdAb][.
Another common final letter for a noun in the feminine form is the tav.
For example, the Hebrew word for the noun "sabbath," t'B;v, is feminine. The plural form of t'B;v is tAt'B;v.
The majority of the nouns that do not end in h'X or t are masculine. They are usually made plural by adding the ~yiX ending. For example, the noun for "song" changes from the masculine singular form, ryiv, to ~yiryiv in its plural form.

ADJECTIVES

Adjectives usually follow the noun and match it in number and gender. Therefore, adjectives appear in one of four forms, depending upon the noun they describe.

For example, the adjective "good" has four forms:
<TABLE CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH="45%"><TR><TD WIDTH="60%" VALIGN="MIDDLE">masculine singular
(m.s.)</td><TD WIDTH="40%" VALIGN="MIDDLE">bAj</td></tr><TR><TD WIDTH="60%" VALIGN="MIDDLE">feminine singular
(f.s.)</td><TD WIDTH="40%" VALIGN="MIDDLE">h'bAj</td></tr><TR><TD WIDTH="60%" VALIGN="MIDDLE">masculine plural
(m.pl.)</td><TD WIDTH="40%" VALIGN="MIDDLE">~yibAj</td></tr><TR><TD WIDTH="60%" VALIGN="MIDDLE">feminine plural
(f.pl.)</td><TD WIDTH="40%" VALIGN="MIDDLE">tAbAj</td></tr></table>
Therefore, "a good song" would be: bAj ryiv,
and "good songs" would be: ~yibAj ~yiryiv.

Back to <A HREF="/forums/showthread.php?threadid=2">Table of Contents</a>