Читать книгу Hebrew For Dummies - Jill Suzanne Jacobs - Страница 55

In Hebrew, all nouns, adjectives and verbs have gender; they’re classified as either masculine or feminine. Like many world languages, Hebrew has begun to grapple with nonbinary gender identities, and the Hebrew Nonbinary Project has created a third, nonbinary gender category. In addition, all nouns, adjectives, and verbs have number; they’re classified as either singular or plural.

Nouns are classified as either masculine or feminine. Their classification as “masculine” or “feminine” doesn’t have anything to do with the masculine or feminine nature of the objects. The classification is somewhat random. Usually, you can spot a feminine noun by its ending. A feminine noun often has an ending of ה (ah) or ית (eet). But you can find exceptions to this rule. A good Hebrew–English dictionary classifies masculine nouns with a Hebrew letter ז (zah-yeen) for זָכָר (zah-ḥahr; masculine) and with a Hebrew letter נ (noon) for נְקֵבָה (nuh-keh-vah; feminine). Both the masculine and the feminine forms of the nouns have plural forms.

In Hebrew, adjectives come in four forms: masculine singular, feminine singular, masculine plural, and feminine plural. Look back to the section “Applying adjectives,” where I discuss adjectives in greater detail.

Nouns and adjectives must match in terms of both gender and number. But when you have a group of people or things that are both masculine and feminine, you use the adjective’s masculine plural form to describe the group. Thus, the masculine plural is for male-only groups and for male-female groups. The feminine plural is for female-only groups — only.

FUN&GAMES

Turn the following statements into questions:

1.	Statement:	הוּא רוֹצֶה אֶת הַמְּכוֹנִית
		He wants the car.
	Question:	_________________________________________
		Does he want the car?
2.	Statement:	יֵשׁ מַגֶּבֶת
		There is a towel.
	Question:	_________________________________________
		Is there a towel?

You can find the answers in Appendix C.