dsjanta wrote:
NOUNS
How can one recognize the gender of the Hebrew nouns?!
That's been the million-dollar question in many threads. Usually, the answer is the following: Well, usually, feminine nouns end in ה or ת and the others are masculine. But, as one moves down the tree, one can see there are many exceptions, which can be extremely confusing, especially for a person whose native language doesn't have the concept of gendered nouns.
I have made a selection of both masculine and feminine nouns that occur in this course (they are actually listed according to the skills they are taught in), and some additional words I've come across, that are exceptions to the rule. I have made two lists, that you can access when clicking on the links below - one is for feminine nouns NOT ending in ה or ת and the other one is for masculine nouns that do end in those letters.
Here are the links:
feminine nouns
masculine nouns
What I have not included here are the following three groups of nouns:
1) Names of cities and countries, which are ALWAYS feminine:
examples (countries): ספרד - Spain; מצרים - Egypt; צרפת - France or רוסיה - Russia - they are all feminine.
examples (cities): ירושלים - Jerusalem; פריז – Paris; אילת - Eilat or חיפה - Haifa - they are all feminine.
2) Names of languages, which are ALWAYS feminine:
Most end in ית, but not all. For example, יידיש (Yiddish) or אספרנטו (Esperanto) that also appear in this course are feminine, just like עברית (Hebrew) or אנגלית (English) that do end in ית. Some other examples of non-ית languages: אפריקאנס (Afrikaans), אורדו (Urdu) or סווהילי (Swahili), and so on.
3) words in construct state,
The gender of the word in construct state is determined by the first word of the construction. So, if you have the word בית ספר (school), even though the word בית ends in ת, it is a masculine noun, therefore בית ספר is also masculine. Similarly, the word כלי עבודה (work tool) is masculine, even though it ends with ה because כלי is masculine. Or for example the word שדה תעופה (airport) where both words end in ה, this is also a masculine word, because the word שדה (field) is masculine; or the word כף יד (palm of the hand) is feminine, even though neither words end typically feminine, because כף is a feminine noun. And so on.
I included both the singular and the plural forms of the nouns, with their pronunciations. Hopefully, there are no mistakes, but if you spot any, do tell me and I will correct it promptly. Also, I would like to update the list when I come across additional words, so stay tuned.
Another thing that is often a source of confusion is the plural endings of those nouns. The rule states: masculine nouns in the plural end in ים and feminine in ות. But just like with singular some people struggle when they realize that there are quite a few exceptions to this rule. However, since there is a list of those words available online already, I will not add anything to it, but simply share the links:
Masculine plural nouns ending in ות
Feminine plural nouns ending in ים
In addition to the nouns listed here, numbers, adjectives, and verbs can also be confusing, so let me share some tips about those as well:
NUMBERS
Yes, numbers can also be either masculine or feminine. The gender of the number is determined by the gender of the noun it is attached to. Example:
five books – חמישה ספרים
five shirts – חמש חולצות
The confusion comes from ה which appears both in feminine and masculine numbers, which is counter-intuitive. I’ve made a chart with a lot of numbers, and how they are written in masculine and feminine gender. Marked red are numbers that are the same for both genders.
Here is the list:
ADJECTIVES
Adjectives are actually quite regular in their formation. In order to get feminine singular form of the adjective, you add either ה or ת. For masculine plural, add ים and for feminine plural add ות to the basis. The problem arises in certain adjectives that have the same written from of both the masculine and feminine singular form, such as יפה (beautiful, pretty). However, even though you can say both ספר יפה and חולצה יפה, they are pronounced differently: “yafe” for the masculine and “yafa” for the feminine form of the adjective.
I am sharing some other examples in the following link – firstly the adjectives that appear in the course itself, listed according to which skill they are taught in, and then I added some more adjectives I’ve found along my studying Hebrew. I included all four forms of each adjective, along with their pronunciation.
Here is the list:
VERBS
Here, we are talking about the Present tense. Verbs are also quite regular in their formation. Just like adjectives, you add either ת (in pi’el, pu’al, huf’al, hitpa’el, nif’al and most pa’al verbs) or ה (in hif’il and some pa’al verbs) if you wish to form the singular feminine verb form. However, as we learn more verbs, we realize there are exceptions, that cause confusion. They are irregular verbs that go by several names, but basically their third radical of the root is a ה and therefore they conjugate differently in some binyanim. One of the first examples we learn is the verb “to drink” שותה which stands for both masculine and feminine singular forms. However, just like with adjectives, they are pronounced differently – “shote” for masculine and “shota” for feminine singular form. The same rule applies to the verb רוצה (rotze (m) vs. rotza (f)) or עושה (ose (m) vs. osa (f)). And so on. The same thing occurs in pi’el and hif’il, so you have the following examples: מנסה (menase (m) vs. menasa (f)) in pi’el and the verb מרשה (marshe (m) vs. marsha (f)) in hif’il. And so on.
They have another special feature. Usually, when you want to form an infinitive, you add ל in front and put ו between the second and third radical of the root, such are in this example: אוכל becomes לאכול. However, this group of verbs changes the last ה into a ת, so you get: שותה becomes לשתות, or רוצה becomes לרצות. And so on. I have included all four forms of the Present tense verbs, along with the infinitive form and their pronunciations, for each of the verbs.
Here is a list of those verbs:
Sorry for the lengthy post. I have found many people confused on this issue, so hopefuly I will help at least someone with this post.
בהצלחה!
Daniel
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