Download Gender and Number in Hebrew

iel awri x"c ly xeriyl xfr xneg
xtqnde oind
zixara
Gender and Number
in Hebrew
iel awri x‰c ly xeriyl xfr xneg
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iel awri x"c ly xeriyl xfr xneg
The goal of this lesson is NOT to teach you about the parts of
speech in Hebrew (nouns, adjectives, etc.), but rather to let you
understand the concept of gender and number in Hebrew!
In English, we don't have to worry about the gender of our nouns.
However, many languages have genders.
In Hebrew, every noun has a gender. Hebrew has two genders masculine and feminine. Everything, even a chair or a wall, must
be either masculine or feminine. There is no neutral form (“it”).
In Hebrew, every noun also has a number. Each noun must be
either singular or plural.
*Some noun can have both genders (for the same noun)
The plural endings in Hebrew are the following:
mi ¦ - usually for masculine
zF - usually for feminine
mi¦i © - (dual) both for masculine and feminine
Most body parts have the dual ending mi¦i © in plural, even if there are
more than two!
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iel awri x"c ly xeriyl xfr xneg
Often, it is very hard to recognize the gender. It can be very
confusing!!!
Sometimes, and only sometimes, we can recognize the noun by its
form, or pattern, or suffix. You have to memorize the gender of each
word. True, there are some clues sometimes, for example, words
which end with d¨ are feminine, and words which end with oF are
masculine, but there are many forms where it can be hard to
recognize.
Some textbooks will tell you that in the plural form, words which
end with mi ¦ (as suffix) are masculine, and words which end with zF
are feminine. It is only partially true.
Even numbers have their own gender. There are numbers for
masculine nouns that is being counted, and there are different
numbers for feminine counted nouns. “Three male students” are
micinlz dyFly,
§ and “three female students” are zecinlz yelÿ.
Note that in Hebrew nouns for animals also indicate masculine
and feminine:
For example:
a¤lM¤ = male dog; dħlM© = female dog
lEzg̈ = male cat; d¨lEz£g = female cat
lFb§px§ z© = rooster; z¤lFb§px§ z© = hen
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iel awri x"c ly xeriyl xfr xneg
Try finding the male or female form for the following animals:
liR¦
qEq
a ¥̀ f§
dẍR̈
sFw
feëx©
§A
In English we use the same adjective for singular and plural nouns:
big dog, big dogs.
In Hebrew, if the noun is plural, we have to make the adjective plural
as well, and if the noun is feminine, we have to make the adjective
feminine:
aeh cinlz - daeh dcinlz
miaeh micinlz - zeaeh zecinlz
The adjective matches the noun it modifies in gender. That is, if
the noun is masculine, then it takes a masculine adjective; if the
noun is feminine, then the adjective must also be feminine.
Very important:
While the noun ending in plural is inconsistent regarding gender
(masculine can end with zF- and feminine can end with mi¦-, e.g.
zepgley from ogley, masculine, and mipy from dpy, feminine), the
adjective in plural has no exception. Masculine adjectives in
plural always end with mi¦-, even when the noun itself ends in zF-,
and the feminine adjectives always end with zF-, even when the
noun ends with mi¦-. It always goes by the noun in singular (so
with the dual forms m¦i-©). Thus:
milecb ze`qik, zeaeh mipy, mipal zexiw, zelecb mipa`
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iel awri x"c ly xeriyl xfr xneg
In Hebrew, there must be (only) one definite article d©
before the noun to make it a sentence. If there are two
consecutive definite articles ...d© ...d,
© you simply laugh at it
because it is not a sentence.
lecbd ziiad - “the big house” - is not a sentence! Laugh at it!
- Ha Ha...
lecb ziiad - “the house is big” is a sentence. Don’t laugh at
it!
So what you can do is a simple trick: Cover the English
“is” or “are” and look what comes before them and what
comes after them. If what comes before is a phrase (not a
sentence), then you translate each of them separately, and
laugh at it:
The chair is brown - The chair X brown
After covering “is” - “The chair” is not a sentence;
“brown” is not a sentence. Therefore one d (meg+`qikd =
meg `qikd). One d© makes it a sentence.
Compare:
“The brown chair.” This is not a sentence, therefore you
laugh at it (...d© ...d)
© - megd `qikd.
In Hebrew, each verb is conjugated by gender and number. In
English verbs are not conjugated by gender or number. For
example:
zFazFM
§ zecinlzd - mia¦ zFM
§ micinlzd - z¤azFM
¤ dcinlzd - azFM
¥ cinlzd
In English, in all these sentences we have the same verb, “write,”
though you add an “s” for the singular. In past and future tense, the
Hebrew has different forms (of conjugation) for different pronouns,
while English will have “wrote” in all of them.
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iel awri x"c ly xeriyl xfr xneg
A conjugated verb will match the gender of the subject.
For example:
ayï
© `ed - “He sat.”
däyï
§ `id - “She sat.”
mz¤ a§ yi
© mz`
¤ - “You (pl.m.) sat.”
oz¤ a§ yi
© oz`
¤ - “You (pl.f.) wrote.”
Hebrew pronouns also indicate gender and number (though not all
of them). While the first person (i¦p £̀ - “I,” and “Epgp`
§ - “we”) is
both for masculine and feminine, the other pronouns are either for
masculine (as “dz`” Vs z§ `© - “you” singular; “mz`”
¤
Vs. “oz`”
¤
“you” plural etc.)
So, too, the demonstrative pronouns (“this,” “these,” etc.): `qi
¥ M¦ d¤f
- “This is a chair”; dziM¦ z`Ÿf - “This is a classroom.”
As you may know, there is an agreement between a noun and an
adjective in gender and number, which is indicated through the
ending. But you can often see a noun in plural ending with zF while
its adjective end with mi ¦ , e.g. zeaeh mi¦pẄ “good years,” and zepglEy
mipa§l “white tables.”
In Hebrew, adjectives come after the nouns they modify. These
adjectives must agree with the noun not only in gender and number,
but also with the definite articles (Example: dcinlzd - aehd cinlzd
daehd).
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iel awri x"c ly xeriyl xfr xneg
Note: Adverbs, namely words which describe a verb, do not agree
in gender and number! Thus:
aeh c¥aer `ed is “He works well (“good”),” but also “He is a good
worker” (since a verb in present tense is also always a noun).
daeh zc¤
¤aer `id¦ , however, is “She is a good worker,” because the
adverb aFh does not change. Thus, when we say aFh zc¤
¤aer `id it
means only “She works well.”
Now try finding the meaning of these expressions:
dyw
¤ micaer
§ md¥ - “They...”
miyw micaer
§ md¥ - “They...”
zeti zecaer
§ od¥ - “They...”
d¤ti zecaer
§ od¥ - “They...”
Let us summarize:
Hebrew nouns, adjective, and verbs have a designated gender
(either female or male) and they have to match in number and
gender.
“Nouns” includes pronouns and numbers (though speakers of
Modern Hebrew often do not pay attention to the agreement in
numbers...).
Please do not forget this rule. Always match adjective, nouns, and
verbs in number and gender.
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iel awri x"c ly xeriyl xfr xneg
Also, note that some nouns can be singular in Hebrew and plural
in English, and vice versa.
For example:
mi¦in© (pl./dual) - “water” - Singular
mihi
¦ dẍ-hi
¦
dẍ
¦ (sing. pl.) - “furniture.”
Some nouns do not have a singular form (for example mixEr§p “youth), and others do not have plural form (for example xẅÄ “cattle”).
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