Skip to content

Nouns

Grammatical categories of nouns in Biblical Hebrew:

  • Gender: Masculine, Feminine
  • Number: Singular, Dual, Plural
  • State: Absolute, Construct

Gender & Pluralization

Masculine nouns often do not take any special ending in the singular. The feminine singular is often noted with the ה or ת ending.

Let the noun be n. and take סוּס (horse) as an example, the declension of the noun is:

Singular (= 1) Dual (= 2) Plural (≥ 3)
♂ n. (סוּס, a male horse) n.ayim (סוּסַיִם, two horses) n.im (סוּסִים, male horses)
♀ n.ah (סוּסָה, a female horse) n.ot (סוּסוֹת or סוּסֹת, female horses) ⁠
Exceptions
  1. Feminine nouns without the feminine ending: אֶרֶץ (land), עִיר (city), אֶבֶו (stone)
  2. Some plural nouns have the ending of the other gender: אָב (father) → אָבוֹת (fathers)
  3. Some nouns semantically singular only have dual or plural forms: מַיִם (water), שָׁמַיִם (heaven), מִצְרַיִמ (Egypt), אֱלֹהִים (God)
  4. Some nouns have irregular plurals: יוֹם (day) → יָמִים (days), בֵּו (son) → בָּנִים (sons), אִישׁ (man) → אֲנָשִׁים (men), אִשָּׁה (woman) → נָשִׁים (women)

Sound change rules:

  • Propretonic Reduction: When heavy endings (endings typically accented, like plural endings) are added to the end of a noun, the vowel in the second syllable before the accented syllable (the "propretonic" syllable) often reduces.
  • If the propretonic vowel is a Qamets (ָ ) or a Tsere (ֵ ), it will typically reduce to a simple sheva (ְ ). e.g. דָּבָר (davar, word) → דְּבָרִים (devarim, words)
  • If the propretonic syllable contains a guttural letter (א, ה, ח, ע, ר), the sheva will often change to a Hatef Patah (ֲ ). e.g. עָנָן (anan, cloud) → עֲנָנִים (ananim, clouds)
  • Segholate Nouns: These are two-syllable nouns accented on the first syllable. They often have two Seghols (ֶ ) (e.g., מֶ֫לֶךְ, melekh, king; אֶ֫רֶץ, eretz, land), though not always. When pluralized, the first consonant's vowel often lightens to a sheva (ְ ), and the Seghol (ֶ ) or Patah (ַ ) in the original form changes to a Qamets (ָ ). e.g. מֶלֶךְ (melekh) → מְלָכִים (melakhim, kings), נַעַר (naar, lad) → נְעָרִים (nearim, lads).
  • Geminate Nouns: These are nouns that appear to have only two consonants, but originally had a doubled (geminated) final consonant. When pluralized, the -im (ים) ending causes the hidden doubled final consonant to be clearly doubled with a Dagesh Forte. e.g. עַם (am, people) → עַמִּים (ammim, peoples)

Construct Chain

The construct chain is a chain of nouns in a possessive relationship. The possessor is said to be in the absolute state (base form) and the possession should be changed into the construct state.

The word in the construct state is unstressed. So its vowels are reduced and it needs a maqaf (־) to connect with the following word. Sometimes the maqaf is omitted.

Morphological rules when changing nouns to construct state:

  • Masculine Singular Nouns mostly show no change in their form. There are exceptions.
  • Feminine Singular Nouns often ending in ה (Qamets-He) typically change this ending to ת (Patah-Tav). e.g. סוּסָה (susah, female horse) → סוּסַת (susat, mare of somebody)
  • Dual Nouns typically ending in ַיִם (-ayim) change to י (-ei or Tsere-Yod). e.g., סוּסַיִם (susayim, two horses) → סוּסֵי (susei, two horses of)
  • Masculine Plural Nouns typically ending in ים (-im) change to י (-ei or Tsere-Yod). e.g., סוּסִים (susim, male horses) → סוּסֵי (susei, male horses of)
  • Feminine Plural Nouns often ending in וֹת (-ot or Cholem Vav-Tav) mostly show no change in their form. The ending is considered a long, unchangeable vowel.