xtqnde oind zixara Gender and Number in Hebrew

Transcription

1 xtqnde oind zixara Gender and Number in Hebrew iel awri x c ly xeriyl xfr xneg - 1 -

2 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! - 2 -

3 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 dyfl y, and three female students are zecinlz yelÿ. Note that in Hebrew nouns for animals also indicate masculine and feminine: For example: a l M = male dog; dä l M = female dog lez g = male cat; d lez g = female cat lfb p x z = rooster; z lfb p x z = hen - 3 -

4 Try finding the male or female form for the following animals: li R a ` f qeq dẍ R sfw feë x 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` - 4 -

5 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: zfa zfm zecinlzd - mi a zfm micinlzd - z a zfm dcinlzd - a zfm 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

6 A conjugated verb will match the gender of the subject. For example: a yï `ed - He sat. dä yï `id - She sat. m z a yi m z` - You (pl.m.) sat. o z a yi o z` - You (pl.f.) wrote. Hebrew pronouns also indicate gender and number (though not all of them). While the first person (i p ` - I, and Ep gp` - we ) is both for masculine and feminine, the other pronouns are either for masculine (as dz` Vs z ` - you singular; m z` Vs. o z` - you plural etc.) So, too, the demonstrative pronouns ( this, these, etc.): ` qi M d f - This is a chair ; dzi M 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 d aehd)

7 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 z c aer `i d, however, is She is a good worker, because the adverb afh does not change. Thus, when we say afh z c aer `id it means only She works well. Now try finding the meaning of these expressions: d yw mic aer m d - They... miyw mic aer m d - They... zeti zec aer o d - They... d ti zec aer o d - 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

8 Also, note that some nouns can be singular in Hebrew and plural in English, and vice versa. For example: mi i n (pl./dual) - water - Singular mi hi 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 )