Learn more about grammatical gender in Hebrew
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Intro |
|---|
| Michael: Do adjectives have a gender in Hebrew? |
| Lenny: And does noun gender influence adjectives? |
| Michael: At HebrewPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Mark and Karen Lee are walking past a car salon. Mark says, |
| "I want a new car." |
| Mark Lee: .אני רוצה מכונית חדשה (Ani rotse mekhonit khadasha.) |
| Dialogue |
| Mark Lee: .אני רוצה מכונית חדשה (Ani rotse mekhonit khadasha.) |
| Karen Lee:.ואני רוצה אופנוע חדש (Ve’ani rotsa ofno-ah khadash.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Mark Lee: .אני רוצה מכונית חדשה (Ani rotse mekhonit khadasha.) |
| Michael: "I want a new car." |
| Karen Lee:.ואני רוצה אופנוע חדש (Ve’ani rotsa ofno-ah khadash.) |
| Michael: "And I want a new motorcycle." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Adjectives qualify nouns. In Hebrew, all nouns have grammatical gender and are either singular or plural, a fact that determines the form of other words in the sentence, including the adjectives. In this lesson, you’ll learn how descriptive adjectives change according to the gender of the nouns they refer to. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Mark says "I want a new car?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Lenny as Mark Lee: .אני רוצה מכונית חדשה (Ani rotse mekhonit khadasha.) |
| Michael: In this case, the adjective “new,” or in Hebrew: |
| Lenny: חדשה (khadasha) |
| Michael: agrees with the noun “car,” or |
| Lenny: מכונית (me’kho’nit) |
| Michael: which is singular and feminine. When, like in this case, nouns end in: |
| Lenny: ית (it) |
| Michael: they’re usually feminine; therefore, the adjective will also be in the feminine form. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Karen says "And I want a new motorcycle?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Lenny as Karen Lee:.ואני רוצה אופנוע חדש (Ve’ani rotsa ofno-ah khadash.) |
| Michael: Here, the adjective “new” is |
| Lenny: חדש (khadash) |
| Michael: which agrees with the noun “motorcycle” or |
| Lenny: אופנוע (ofno-ah) |
| Michael: which is singular and masculine; therefore, the adjective will also be in the masculine form. As you might have noticed, the adjective is the same except that here it dropped the suffix |
| Lenny: ה-ָ (-ah) |
| Michael: That’s because, in order to turn the adjective to a feminine or plural form, suffixes are added to the masculine form of the adjective. To recap, the adjective “new” in its singular masculine form is |
| Lenny: חדש (khadash) |
| Michael: and in its feminine singular form sounds like |
| Lenny: חדשה (khadasha) |
| Michael: For feminine singular forms, there are two more suffixes, |
| Lenny: ת-ֶ (-et) and ית-ִ (-it). |
| Michael: For each, let’s give a masculine adjective and its feminine counterpart. First is the adjective meaning “deaf” |
| Lenny: חרש (kheresh), חרשת (khereshet) |
| Michael: Here, we added the suffix |
| Lenny: ת-ֶ (-et) |
| Michael: Next is the adjective meaning “warmhearted” |
| Lenny: לבבי (le'vavi), לבבית (le'vavit) |
| Michael: Here, we added the suffix |
| Lenny: ית-ִ (-it). |
| Michael: The singular-feminine suffix depends on the sound pattern of the basic words, which you’ll find indicated in the lesson notes. |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned that, in Hebrew, adjectives are inflected depending on the noun’s gender they refer to. You also learned that three more common feminine suffixes are |
| Lenny: ה-ָ (-ah), ת-ֶ (-et) and ית-ִ (-it) |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Adjectives change also depending on the number of the noun they modify. For plurals, the conjugation rules are more regular, so it’s worth mentioning those. Also, in this case, you have to attach the suffix to the masculine form. The masculine plural suffix is always |
| Lenny: ים-ִ (-im) |
| Michael: For example, the plural masculine for “new” is |
| Lenny: חדשים (khadashim) |
| Michael: The feminine plural suffix is always |
| Lenny: וֹת- (-ot) |
| Michael: For example, the plural feminine for “new” is |
| Lenny: חדשות (khadashot) |
| Review |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after the native speaker, focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how to say "I want a new car?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Lenny as Mark Lee: .אני רוצה מכונית חדשה (Ani rotse mekhonit khadasha.) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Lenny as Mark Lee: .אני רוצה מכונית חדשה (Ani rotse mekhonit khadasha.) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Lenny as Mark Lee: .אני רוצה מכונית חדשה (Ani rotse mekhonit khadasha.) |
| Michael: And do you remember how to say "And I want a new motorcycle?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Lenny as Karen Lee: . ואני רוצה אופנוע חדש (ve’ani rotsa ofno-ah khadash.) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Lenny as Karen Lee: ואני רוצה אופנוע חדש (ve’ani rotsa ofno-ah khadash.) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Lenny as Karen Lee: ואני רוצה אופנוע חדש (ve’ani rotsa ofno-ah khadash.) |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Lenny: !להתראות (lehitra’ot!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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