Hebrew Nouns — Gender, Number, Dualאִישׁ · אִשָּׁה · יָמִים · מַיִם — masculine, feminine, plural, dual
Every Hebrew noun is either masculine or feminine — there is no neuter. Feminine nouns often end in qamatz-he (ָה) or tav (ת), but many do not — and must simply be memorized. Plurals are marked by ִים (-im) for masculines and וֹת (-ot) for feminines, with irregulars in both directions. Hebrew also has a special dual form ending in ַיִם (-ayim), used for paired things like eyes, hands, days, water, and heavens. This lesson teaches the system and gives you sixteen core nouns to memorize.
Reveal answer
- State the rule: every Hebrew noun is either masculine or feminine — there is no neuter
- Recognize the two common feminine endings: qamatz-he (ָה) and tav (ת)
- Identify the most important feminine nouns with no feminine ending (אֶרֶץ, אֵם, עִיר, יְרוּשָׁלִַם)
- Form regular masculine plurals (ים-) and feminine plurals (ות-)
- Recognize the dual ending (ַיִם-) and know when it is used (paired body parts, days, water, heavens)
- Predict vowel reduction in the plural: long vowels in pre-stress positions reduce when stress shifts
- Distinguish segolate nouns (מֶלֶךְ) from regular nouns by their two-segol pattern
- Know 16 core Hebrew nouns by sight, with their gender, singular, and plural forms
A Gendered Cosmos
Hebrew is a Semitic language, and like all Semitic languages it carries grammatical gender. Every noun — every thing, person, idea, abstraction — is either masculine or feminine. There is no third option. Hebrew has no neuter at all.
This is unlike English, where most things are "it" (a stone, a road, a country); a little like Spanish, French, or German, where most nouns also carry gender; and very like Greek, which has three genders rather than two. In Hebrew, the rock is masculine, the city is feminine, the day is masculine, the night is feminine, the spirit is feminine, the people is masculine. The language treats the world as gendered all the way down.
Some of these gender assignments are natural and obvious — a man is masculine, a woman feminine, a son masculine, a daughter feminine. Others are conventional and must simply be learned — why לֶחֶם (bread) is masculine but חֶרֶב (sword) is feminine is not a question the language answers. You memorize, and you read enough that the patterns become familiar.
Why does this matter? Because adjectives, pronouns, and verbs all agree with the gender of the noun. To form a correct phrase like "the good king" or "she said," you have to know whether your noun is masculine or feminine. Gender is the first thing you must know about every Hebrew noun — before its meaning, before how to translate it, you must know its gender.
How to Tell Gender from Endings
Most feminine nouns are marked by one of two endings. Most masculine nouns have no marker — masculine is the unmarked default.
| Ending | Gender it marks | Examples | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ָה | feminine | תּוֹרָה · אִשָּׁה · שָׁנָה | qamatz + he. Most common feminine ending. (Note: the he is silent — a vowel-letter.) |
| ת | feminine | בַּת · אֱמֶת · בְּרִית | final tav. Common, especially with segolate-type feminines. |
| — | masculine (default) | מֶלֶךְ · בֵּן · יוֹם · דָּבָר | No special ending. Most nouns without a feminine ending are masculine. |
Feminines Without a Feminine Ending
A small but extremely common group of nouns is feminine without bearing any of the usual feminine endings. These must simply be memorized — and they appear constantly in the biblical text.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Meaning | Why memorize |
|---|---|---|---|
| אֶרֶץ | erets | land, earth | Appears 2,500+ times in the OT. Feminine despite no -ה or -ת ending. |
| אֵם | em | mother | Natural feminine — but no feminine ending. Compare אָב "father" (masculine). |
| עִיר | ir | city | Cities are feminine in Hebrew. Plural is irregular: עָרִים. |
| יְרוּשָׁלִַם | yerushalayim | Jerusalem | A city — therefore feminine. Note the -ayim ending (looks dual but isn't quite). |
| יָד | yad | hand | Body part — feminine. Paired body parts almost always feminine. |
| רוּחַ | ruach | spirit, wind, breath | Feminine. So "the Spirit of God" in Genesis 1:2 governs feminine verb forms. |
The Two Plural Endings
Hebrew marks plurals by an ending, much like English "-s" — but with two endings, one for each gender.
| Ending | Plural of | Singular → Plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| ִים | masculine | סוּס → סוּסִים | horse → horses |
| ִים | masculine | דָּבָר → דְּבָרִים | word → words (with vowel reduction) |
| וֹת | feminine | תּוֹרָה → תּוֹרוֹת | law → laws (the -ה drops before the ending) |
| וֹת | feminine | בַּת → בָּנוֹת | daughter → daughters (irregular stem) |
Irregular Plurals — When Endings Lie
A small group of high-frequency nouns swap their expected ending. These must be memorized.
| Singular | Gender | Plural | Why irregular |
|---|---|---|---|
| אָב | masculine | אָבוֹת | "father" takes feminine plural ending (-ot) but stays masculine |
| אִשָּׁה | feminine | נָשִׁים | "woman" takes masculine ending (-im) and a different stem |
| עִיר | feminine | עָרִים | "city" — feminine noun with masculine-looking plural ending |
| יוֹם | masculine | יָמִים | "day" — masculine, regular -im, but stem shifts (וֹ → ָ) |
| בַּת | feminine | בָּנוֹת | "daughter" — different stem in plural (the t belongs to the singular only) |
The Dual — For Paired Things
Beyond singular and plural, Hebrew has a third number — the dual. The dual marks pairs: two of something, especially natural pairs.
The dual ending is ַיִם- (patach + yod + hireq + final mem). Pronounced -ayim. The dual is most often used for parts of the body that naturally come in pairs (eyes, ears, hands, feet, lips), for certain set numbers (200, 2000), and for a handful of fossilized words where the dual form replaced the plural.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| עֵינַיִם | enayim | eyes (two of them) | From עַיִן "eye" |
| יָדַיִם | yadayim | hands (a pair) | From יָד "hand" |
| אָזְנַיִם | oznayim | ears (a pair) | From אֹזֶן "ear" |
| רַגְלַיִם | raglayim | feet (a pair) | From רֶגֶל "foot" |
| יוֹמַיִם | yomayim | two days | From יוֹם "day" — used for "two days," distinct from יָמִים "days" |
| מַיִם | mayim | water | Always dual in form — never singular. The "two-ness" is lexicalized. |
| שָׁמַיִם | shamayim | heavens, sky | Always dual. There is no singular "heaven" in Hebrew. |
Vowel Reduction in the Plural
When a noun goes from singular to plural, the stress moves toward the new ending — and the now-unstressed vowels often reduce. This is one of the most predictable patterns in Hebrew.
| Singular | Plural | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| דָּבָר | דְּבָרִים | stress moves to the -im ending; the first qamatz reduces to vocal shewa |
| זָקֵן | זְקֵנִים | "old man / elder" → stress shifts, qamatz reduces to shewa, tsere stays (long vowel) |
| נָבִיא | נְבִיאִים | "prophet" → stress shifts, qamatz reduces, hireq-yod (long) stays |
| לֵב | לְבָבוֹת | "heart" → completely irregular plural, but shows the reduction pattern |
Two Declension Classes — Regular and Segolate
Hebrew nouns fall into two large families based on how they handle stress and inflection: regular nouns (most nouns) and segolate nouns (a smaller but very common class).
Regular Nouns
Regular nouns have their stress on the final syllable. When inflected (plural, suffixes), the stress shifts further toward the ending, and pre-stress long vowels reduce. דָּבָר (davar) and סוּס (sus, "horse") are typical regulars.
Segolate Nouns
Segolate nouns have a distinctive two-segol pattern in the singular: CéCeC (with the stress on the first syllable). The name "segolate" comes from segol (ֶ), the short "e" that usually appears in both syllables. Classic examples: מֶלֶךְ (mélech, "king"), סֵפֶר (séfer, "book"), לֶחֶם (léchem, "bread"), בֹּקֶר (bóqer, "morning").
In the plural, segolate nouns reveal their underlying stem and follow a very regular pattern: CəCāCîm (vocal shewa + qamatz + -im). So מֶלֶךְ ("king") becomes מְלָכִים ("kings"), סֵפֶר ("book") becomes סְפָרִים ("books"). Once you spot the pattern, segolate plurals are completely predictable.
| Singular | Plural | Pattern | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| מֶלֶךְ | מְלָכִים | segolate → CəCāCîm | king → kings |
| סֵפֶר | סְפָרִים | segolate (tsere-segol variant) | book → books |
| לֶחֶם | לְחָמִים | segolate (rare in plural) | bread → loaves |
| דֶּרֶךְ | דְּרָכִים | segolate | way → ways |
Sixteen Core Nouns to Memorize
These are among the most frequent nouns in the Hebrew Bible. Memorize the Hebrew, the meaning, the gender, and the plural. Sixteen words will unlock thousands of verses.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Meaning | Gender | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אִישׁ | ish | man, husband | m | אֲנָשִׁים |
| אִשָּׁה | ishah | woman, wife | f | נָשִׁים |
| בֵּן | ben | son | m | בָּנִים |
| בַּת | bat | daughter | f | בָּנוֹת |
| אָב | av | father | m | אָבוֹת |
| אֵם | em | mother | f | אִמּוֹת |
| אֶרֶץ | erets | land, earth | f | אֲרָצוֹת |
| יוֹם | yom | day | m | יָמִים |
| לַיְלָה | laylah | night | m* | לֵילוֹת |
| מֶלֶךְ | melech | king | m | מְלָכִים |
| עִיר | ir | city | f | עָרִים |
| עַם | am | people, nation | m | עַמִּים |
| דָּבָר | davar | word, thing | m | דְּבָרִים |
| עֵץ | ets | tree, wood | m | עֵצִים |
| מַיִם | mayim | water | m (dual!) | — |
| שָׁמַיִם | shamayim | heavens, sky | m (dual!) | — |
* לַיְלָה ("night") looks feminine because of its final he, but it is grammatically masculine — a famous irregularity.
Daily Drill Plan
| Day | Focus | Goal |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Read this lesson. Copy each of the 16 vocabulary nouns three times in singular and plural. | Recognition |
| 2 | Drill gender: cover the gender column and predict m/f from each noun. Confirm. | Gender automatic |
| 3 | Drill plurals: cover the plural column and produce each plural from the singular. | Plurals automatic |
| 4 | Drill the duals: write מַיִם, שָׁמַיִם, יָדַיִם, עֵינַיִם, רַגְלַיִם, אָזְנַיִם, יוֹמַיִם — name the singular each comes from. | Duals automatic |
| 5 | Open Genesis 1. Find every noun in the first three verses. Identify gender and number of each. | Reading practice |
Find These in Genesis 1
All sixteen vocabulary nouns appear in Genesis 1. Open your Hebrew Bible and read the chapter through, naming the gender and number of each noun as you go.