Please note that I have used mem soffit as a generic place holder meant to represent any letter. It looks strange, but I don't yet have another character that I can use for this purpose.
Nouns are either masculine or feminine. This applies to all Hebrew nouns.
The word סֵפֶר is masculine.
The word כִּפָּה is feminine.
Masculine nouns in singular form end in many ways:
| student | תַּלְמִיד |
| uncle | דוֹד |
| book | סֵפֶר |
| holiday | חַג |
| Joseph | יוֹסֵף |
The feminine singular noun frequently ends in םָה
| student | תַּלְמִידָה |
| aunt | דּוֹדָה |
| Torah | תּוֹרָה |
| year | שָׁנָה |
| Rebecca | רִבְקָה |
For some words, the feminine singular ending is ת.
| daughter | בַּת |
| prayer shawl | טַלִּית |
| door | דֶּלֶת |
| notebook | מַחְבֶּרֶת |
Nouns are either singular or plural. In Hebrew plural nouns have distinct endings for each gender.
| Ending | plural | singular | |
| masculine | םִים | תַּלְמִידִים | תַּלְמִיד |
Masculine nouns form the plural by adding םִים to the singular.
| Ending | plural | singular | |
| feminine | םוֹת | תַּלְמִידוֹת | תַּלְמִידָה |
| a book | סֵפֶר |
| the book | הַסֵּפֶר |
In English the indefinite article is "a". Hebrew does not have an indefinite article.
English has a definite article "the". It tells you we are speaking about a specific object. In Hebrew the definite article ה is attached to the beginning of the word to make it definite.
| David sits, is sitting, does sit | דָּוִד יוֹשֵׁב |
| a man says, is saying, does say | אִישׁ אוֹמֵר |
| a teacher stands, is standing, does stand | מוֹרֶה עוֹמֵד |
Each of these present tense verbs is a masculine singular form. Each verb follows a masculine singular noun.
Each verb has three consonants and a similar vowel pattern:
the vowel וֹ (חוֹלָם) between the first and second consonants
the vowel םֵ (צֵירֶה) under the second consonant.
We call the three consonants a root (שֹׁרֶשׁ).
The pattern for the masculine singular in the present tense is:
םוֹםֵם
Other examples of masculine singular verbs are:
| writes | כוֹתֵב |
| walks | הוֹלֵךְ |
| asks | שׁוֹאֵל |
| learns studies | לוֹמֵד |
In Hebrew, each present tense verb form has several potential English equivalents.
| writes, is writing, does write | כּוֹתֵב |
| asks, is asking, does ask | שׁוֹאֵל |
| Esther sits | אֶסְתֵּר יוֹשֶׁבֶת |
| the daughter walks | הַבַּת הוֹלֶכֶת |
| the teacher stands | הַמּוֹרָה עוֹמֶדֶת |
| a student studies | תּלְמִידָה לוֹמֶדֶת |
This is the feminine singular form of the present tense.
The שֹׁרֶשׁ and the וֹ (חוֹלָם) are similar to the masculine םוֹםם. A ת (the sign of the feminine) has been added at the end, and the vowel םֶ (סֶגּוֹל) is under the second and third consonants of the שֹׁרֶשׁ.
The vowel pattern is םוֹםֶםֶת.
Here are examples of feminine singular verbs.
| כּוֹתֶבֶת | אוֹמֶרֶת | שׁוֹאֶלֶת | לוֹמֶדֶת |
| the teachers stand | הַמּוֹרִים עוֹמְדִים |
| the students sit | הַתַּלְמִידִים יוֹשְׁבִים |
| the boys walk | הַיְלָדִים הוֹלְכִים |
| the teachers stand | הַמּוֹרוֹת עוֹמְדוֹת |
| the students sit | הַתַּלְמִידוֹת יוֹשְׁבוֹת |
| the girls walk | הַיְלָדוֹת הוֹלְכוֹת |
In the plural form of the verb, a plural ending has been added.
| masculine | םִים |
| feminine | םוֹת |
The basic vowel pattern is םוֹםְםִים םוֹםְםוֹת
Here are examples of plural verbs.
| Feminine | Masculine |
| לוֹמְדוֹת | לוֹמְדִים |
| כּוֹתְבוֹת | כּוֹתְבִים |
| אוֹמְרוֹת | אוֹמְרִים |
| עוֹמְדוֹת | עוֹמְדִים |
We can organize these four present tense forms in a table.
| Feminine | Masculine | |
| Singular | יוֹשֶׁבֶת | יוֹשֵׁב |
| Plural | יוֹשְׁבוֹת | יוֹשְׁבִים |
In Hebrew, as in English, a sentence is a string of words, arranged in acertain order to convey a complete thought. Each word in a sentence has a certain function.
Normally a sentence has two major parts: a subject s and a verb v.
| Ruth | says | אוֹמֶרֶת | רוּת |
| subject | verb | verb | subject |
| Dan | walks | הוֹלֵךְ | דָּן |
| subject | verb | verb | subject |
As in English, the subject and the verb must agree.
In gender, we match masculine with masculine, and feminine with feminine.
In number, we match singular with singular, and plural with plural.
| The student (m) sits. | הַתַּלְמִיד יוֹשֵׁב |
| The student (f) sits. | הַתַּלְמִידָה יוֹשֵׁבֵת |
| The students (m) sit. | הַתַּלְמִידִים יוֹשְׁבִים |
| The students (f) sit. | הַתַּלְמִידוֹת יוֹשְׁבוֹת |