Nouns: gender and number

Every noun is masculine or feminine

In Genesis 2:23 the man speaks of the woman.

And the man said: "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for out of man she was taken."

Genesis 2:23

Hebrew has no neuter. Every noun is masculine or feminine. People and animals follow their natural sex, but things such as a land or an eye belong to one class or the other too. אִשָּׁה, "ishah", "woman", is feminine singular. מֵאִישׁ, "from a man", is a preposition meaning "from" (here spelled מֵ; prepositions come two lessons later) plus the masculine singular noun אִישׁ, "ish". The two words occur about 320 and 1,050 times. You learn the gender word by word, but endings give a good clue.

Feminine nouns often end in -ָה or -ת. שָׁנָה, "shanah", "year", in Genesis 5:3 is a feminine noun that appears nearly 880 times. In Exodus 34:6 וֶאֱמֶת is "and faithfulness", and its noun אֱמֶת ends in -ת and is feminine singular. On the other hand, some feminine nouns have no ending at all. The אֶרֶץ in הָאָרֶץ, "the earth" (Genesis 1:1), is one, and so is עִיר, "ir", "city" (Genesis 4:17, about 1,090 times). Masculine nouns usually have no special ending, so a noun with no ending is probably masculine, with these feminine exceptions kept in mind. The panel always shows the gender, so you can check.

Singular, plural and dual

There are three numbers. Singular means one, plural means more than one, and dual means a pair, such as two eyes or two hands. Only a small group of nouns has a dual, so most nouns use the plural for two as well.

The basic plural endings are -ִים for masculine and -וֹת for feminine. In Exodus 20:2 עֲבָדִים, "avadim", "slaves", is masculine plural, and in Psalm 24:10 צְבָאוֹת, "tzevaot", "hosts", is feminine plural. The אֱלֹהִים you met in the last lesson has the -ִים shape as well.

Do not be surprised by exceptions. In Exodus 3:15 אֲבֹתֵיכֶם, "your fathers", is the plural of the masculine noun אָב, "father", yet it takes the -וֹת ending. In Genesis 4:19 נָשִׁים, "nashim", "wives", is the plural of the feminine noun אִשָּׁה, yet it ends in -ִים and has a quite different shape. The panel seems to label these two by their endings: it calls אֲבֹתֵיכֶם feminine and נָשִׁים masculine. That is the database's labelling, not the words' real gender, so remember such words separately. You learn them one at a time.

The dual ends in -ַיִם and is used for things that come in pairs, such as eyes and hands. In Psalm 19:1 יָדָיו, "his hands", is dual, and in Psalm 121:1 עֵינַי, "my eyes", is dual too. The noun עַיִן, "ayin", "eye", occurs about 470 times, and you see the same dual ending in לָעֵינַיִם in Genesis 3:6. By contrast הַשָּׁמַיִם, "the heavens", and הַמָּיִם, "the waters", end in -ַיִם and look dual, but the panel marks them plural. Think of them as plural words that happen to end that way.

The panel's noun labels

For a noun the panel starts with noun and then sorts it. A common noun is an ordinary word (man, year, city); a proper noun is a name. Names of lands and cities add location. In Exodus 20:2 מִצְרַיִם, "mitzrayim", "Egypt" (about 630 times), and in Psalm 121:4 יִשְׂרָאֵל, "Israel", are "proper, location". In Psalm 121:4 Israel is the people, but the database usually tags Israel as a location even then. A personal name has no location label, only a gender: in 2 Samuel 12:13 דָּוִד, "David" (about 1,000 times), is "proper, masculine". The ending of מִצְרַיִם looks like a dual, but it is a name, so it does not belong with the duals above.

The gender label can also be either gender, which on a noun usually means one that Hebrew treats both ways. In Genesis 3:8 הַגָּן, "the garden", has it. The הַ at its front is the article, which is the subject of the next lesson. The label "absolute" that ends most common-noun tags is explained in the lesson on the construct.

Summary

Every Hebrew noun is masculine or feminine, and singular, plural or dual. Feminine nouns often end in -ָה or -ת, though אֶרֶץ and עִיר have no ending. Plurals are usually -ִים (masculine) and -וֹת (feminine), with exceptions like אָבוֹת and נָשִׁים. The dual -ַיִם is for pairs. The panel gives noun, common or proper, location for places, gender (masculine, feminine, either gender) and number.

Words in this lesson

• אִישׁishman1,047 times in the OT
• אִשָּׁהishshahwoman324 times in the OT
• עַ֫יִןayineye467 times in the OT
• שָׁנָהshanehyear877 times in the OT
• עִירircity1,086 times in the OT
• מִצְרַ֫יִםmitsrayimEgypt630 times in the OT
• דָּוִדdavidDavid1,000 times in the OT

Practice