Hebrew · Lesson 9

Adjectivesהַמֶּלֶךְ הַטּוֹב — "the good king"

Hebrew adjectives agree with their noun in gender, number, and definiteness. They follow the noun (unlike English) and inflect across four forms. This lesson covers the three uses of adjectives (attributive, predicative, substantive), the all-important rule that the predicate adjective stays indefinite, the vowel reductions that occur when an adjective inflects, the comparative built with the preposition מִן ("than"), the superlative formed with the article or a construct chain, and a vocabulary of ten common biblical adjectives — including the word God himself uses seven times on the first page of Genesis.

Self-check before reading on

In English we say "the good king." Hebrew flips the order: noun first, adjective second — הַמֶּלֶךְ הַטּוֹב. Look at the two words. Each begins with the same little prefix. What is that prefix, and why does the adjective also have it?

Reveal answer

Both words begin with ha- (הַ) — the definite article "the." In Hebrew, an attributive adjective must agree with its noun in definiteness. If the noun has the article, the adjective takes the article too. So the phrase reads literally "the-king the-good" — and means "the good king." This lesson teaches you to read every such pattern fluently.

Watch · 22-Slide Overview

Adjectives — The Visual Tour

What an adjective is and how it agrees; the three uses (attributive, predicative, substantive); the noun-first word order; definiteness agreement; the indefinite predicate adjective; the four inflected forms; vowel reduction when the adjective inflects; ten common biblical adjectives; the comparative with מִן; the superlative options; reading practice from Genesis 1:4 (כִּי־טוֹב); common beginner mistakes; and a drill plan.

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LESSON 9 · Unit II — Nouns and Modifiers · ~50 minutes + drilling

By the End of This Lesson

State the rule of adjective agreement (gender, number, definiteness)
Distinguish the three uses of an adjective: attributive, predicative, substantive
Read noun-adjective phrases correctly given the noun-first word order of Hebrew
Recognize the four inflected forms of a typical adjective: masc sg, fem sg, masc pl, fem pl
Predict the vowel reduction when an adjective like גָּדוֹל inflects to גְּדוֹלָה / גְּדוֹלִים / גְּדוֹלוֹת
Form a comparative using the preposition מִן ("than")
Form a superlative with the definite article, or recognize the construct-chain superlative ("song of songs")
Read and translate the famous formula כִּי־טוֹב from Genesis 1
Memorize ten common biblical adjectives

What an Adjective Is — And What It Must Do

An adjective is a word that describes a noun: good, great, small, holy, wise. Every language has them; every language has its own rules for joining them to nouns. In English, the adjective normally stands before the noun ("a good king") and is indeclinable: a single form serves every context.

Hebrew handles adjectives very differently. Three rules govern every adjective in the Hebrew Bible:

Agreement. The adjective must match its noun in gender (masculine/feminine), number (singular/plural), and — for attributive adjectives — definiteness (whether the noun has the article).
Word order. An adjective modifying a noun follows the noun. Hebrew says "the-king the-good," not "the-good the-king."
Inflection. Every adjective has four basic forms — masc sg, fem sg, masc pl, fem pl — and the form must match the noun being described.

These three rules will feel mechanical once you have drilled them. They are also the reason that simply learning the masculine-singular dictionary form of an adjective is not enough — you must know how that form changes when the noun it modifies is feminine, or plural, or definite.

The Three Uses of an Adjective

A single adjective like טוֹב ("good") can play three different syntactic roles. Reading Hebrew means recognizing which role is active in any given phrase.

Use	What it does	Example	Translation
Attributive	modifies a noun directly	הַמֶּלֶךְ הַטּוֹב	"the good king"
Predicative	predicates something of a noun (= "is")	הַמֶּלֶךְ טוֹב	"the king is good"
Substantive	functions as a noun itself	הַטּוֹב	"the good one" / "the good thing"

💡 Tip — the test for which use The attributive adjective agrees in definiteness with the noun. The predicative adjective is always indefinite, even when the subject noun is definite. The substantive adjective stands alone without a noun. Learn this three-way contrast and most adjective-related confusion vanishes.

The Word Order — Noun First, Adjective Second

English speakers must consciously override the instinct to put the adjective first. In Hebrew, the attributive adjective always follows its noun.

מֶלֶךְ טוֹב

— melech tov —

"a good king." Reading right-to-left: melech ("king") + tov ("good"). The Hebrew word order is literally "king good." Both words are indefinite (no article), so the phrase as a whole is indefinite: "a good king."

הַמֶּלֶךְ הַטּוֹב

— ha-melech ha-tov —

"the good king." Both words now carry the definite article ha-. Literally "the-king the-good." The adjective agrees with the noun in definiteness — when the noun is definite, the attributive adjective is also definite.

Definiteness Agreement — The Visible Marker

The definite article on the adjective is a visible signal that the adjective is attributive, not predicative. Watch for it as you read.

Phrase	Article on noun?	Article on adjective?	Use
מֶלֶךְ טוֹב	no	no	attributive — "a good king"
הַמֶּלֶךְ הַטּוֹב	yes	yes	attributive — "the good king"
הַמֶּלֶךְ טוֹב	yes	no	predicative — "the king is good"
טוֹב הַמֶּלֶךְ	yes	no	predicative — "the king is good"

Memory hook

Matching ha-s = attributive. Mismatched ha-s = predicative. If both words have the article, the adjective is modifying ("the good king"). If only the noun has the article and the adjective stands alone, the adjective is predicating ("the king is good"). The single visible feature — whether the article appears on the adjective — tells you everything about the syntax.

The Predicate Adjective Stays Indefinite

This is the rule English speakers most often miss. In a Hebrew sentence like "the king is good," there is no verb "to be" — Hebrew omits "is" in the present tense. The sentence consists only of the noun and the adjective. To distinguish "the good king" (a phrase) from "the king is good" (a sentence), Hebrew uses the definite article: the attributive adjective takes the article; the predicate adjective does not.

The predicate adjective can stand either before or after the noun — both word orders are common and grammatical. The defining feature of the predicate is the absence of the article on the adjective, not the position.

טוֹב הַמֶּלֶךְ

— tov ha-melech —

"the king is good." Adjective first, then the noun. The adjective is indefinite (no article); the noun is definite. This mismatch is the signal: this is a predicate, not an attributive phrase. (The same words in reverse order — הַמֶּלֶךְ טוֹב — mean the same thing.)

The Substantive Adjective — Standing Alone

An adjective can drop the noun and stand by itself, functioning as the noun. English does this too ("the good," "the wise," "the wicked") but Hebrew does it more freely. A substantive adjective normally carries the definite article.

הַצַּדִּיק

— ha-tzaddiq —

"the righteous one." The adjective tzaddiq ("righteous") with the article, standing alone. The implied noun is "man" or "person." This is the same word that gives us "tzaddik" in Jewish tradition — the righteous person.

הָרָשָׁע

— ha-rasha —

"the wicked one." The adjective rasha ("wicked") with the article, standing alone. Psalm 1 contrasts ha-tzaddiq and ha-rasha — the righteous and the wicked — without ever supplying the noun "person." The adjective carries the meaning by itself.

The Four Inflected Forms

Every Hebrew adjective has four basic forms — one for each combination of gender and number. The dictionary entry is the masculine singular; you must learn how it changes for the other three slots.

Form	Suffix	Example (גָּדוֹל "great")	Transliteration
masc sg	— (no suffix)	גָּדוֹל	gadol
fem sg	ָה (-ah)	גְּדוֹלָה	gedolah
masc pl	ִים (-im)	גְּדוֹלִים	gedolim
fem pl	וֹת (-ot)	גְּדוֹלוֹת	gedolot

💡 Tip — same suffixes as nouns The four adjective suffixes are exactly the same suffixes you learned in Lesson 6 for nouns: feminine -ah, masculine plural -im, feminine plural -ot. Once you know the gender/number suffixes for nouns, the adjective suffixes come for free.

Vowel Reduction in Inflection

When an adjective takes a suffix, the stress shifts toward the end of the word. This shift pulls the vowels of the stem inward — long vowels in pretonic open syllables often reduce to a vocal shewa. Watch what happens to גָּדוֹל as it inflects:

Form	Hebrew	Vowel under first letter	What happened
masc sg	גָּדוֹל	qamatz (long "a")	stem form, stressed on final syllable
fem sg	גְּדוֹלָה	shewa (reduced)	suffix -ah added; stress moved; first qamatz reduces to shewa
masc pl	גְּדוֹלִים	shewa (reduced)	suffix -im added; same reduction
fem pl	גְּדוֹלוֹת	shewa (reduced)	suffix -ot added; same reduction

Common error — failing to read the reduced vowel

גְּדוֹלָה read as "ga-do-lah" (forgetting that the first qamatz has reduced)

גְּדוֹלָה read as "ge-do-LAH" (vocal shewa + holem + qamatz + silent he)

The little two-dot mark under the gimel is no longer a qamatz — it has reduced to a vocal shewa because the stress moved to the new final syllable. You learned this pattern in Lesson 2 with דָּבָר → דְּבָרִים. Adjectives behave the same way.

Common Adjective Vocabulary

Ten high-frequency adjectives from the Hebrew Bible. Drill the masculine-singular form first, then the full paradigm of one or two of them (start with גָּדוֹל and טוֹב).

Hebrew (m.s.)	Translit.	Meaning	Notes
גָּדוֹל	gadol	great, big	the model adjective; reduces in inflection
קָטָן	qatan	small, young	"the small one" = the youngest son
טוֹב	tov	good	used 7× on the first page of Genesis
רַע	ra	evil, bad	the opposite of טוֹב; "tree of knowledge of טוֹב and רָע"
צַדִּיק	tzaddiq	righteous	stable vowels; doesn't reduce much
רָשָׁע	rasha	wicked	the opposite of צַדִּיק (cf. Psalm 1)
חָכָם	chacham	wise	the central virtue in Proverbs
קָדוֹשׁ	qadosh	holy	"holy, holy, holy" — Isa 6:3
זָקֵן	zaqen	old	also "an elder" as a substantive
חַי	chai	alive, living	also "life"; "the living God" = אֵל חַי

The Comparative — "than" with מִן

Hebrew has no word for "more". To compare two things, Hebrew simply uses the preposition מִן ("from, than") attached to the second item. Literally the construction says "good X from Y" and means "X is better than Y."

טוֹב לֵב מִכֶּסֶף

— tov lev mi-kesef —

"the heart is better than silver." Literally "good heart from-silver." There is no word for "is" (predicate clause), and no word for "more" (the preposition מִן carries the comparative force). The first noun is the subject; the noun introduced by מִן is the standard of comparison.

💡 Tip — translate "than" mechanically Whenever you see מִן (or its prefixed forms מִ־ / מֵ־) attached after a predicate adjective, translate it "than." The adjective stays in its plain form — Hebrew never modifies the adjective itself for the comparative.

The Superlative — Two Options

Hebrew has no word for "most" either. To say "the best," Hebrew uses one of two strategies.

Strategy	Example	Translation
Definite adjective alone	הַטּוֹב	"the best" (also "the good one")
Construct chain ("of")	שִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים	"song of songs" = "the best song"
Adjective + the noun in plural	קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים	"holy of holies" = "the most holy place"

Memory hook

Hebrew has no morphology for comparative or superlative. Where English changes good → better → best, Hebrew leaves the adjective alone and lets prepositions or word order do the work. Tov means "good," "better," and "best" — context plus the surrounding particles (מִן, the article, or a construct chain) tells you which.

Reading Practice — כִּי־טוֹב from Genesis 1:4

The single most famous Hebrew adjective phrase in the Bible. God uses it seven times on the first page of Genesis to evaluate his own creation.

וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים כִּי־טוֹב

— va-yar elohim ki-tov —

"and God saw that it was good" (Gen 1:4). Reading right-to-left: va-yar ("and he saw" — verb you haven't formally learned yet) + elohim ("God") + ki ("that") + tov ("good"). The adjective tov is functioning as a predicate ("it [is] good"). There is no verb "is," no pronoun "it" — both are supplied by English translation. The adjective is indefinite and stands alone. The phrase appears (with minor variations) at Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, and — climactically — Gen 1:31 ("very good, tov me'od").

Reading Practice — Another Adjective Phrase

אֱלֹהֵי מֶלֶךְ גָּדוֹל

— elohei melech gadol —

"the God [of] a great king." Three words. Elohei is the construct form of elohim (Lesson 10 will teach you the construct chain). Melech is "king" — indefinite, no article. Gadol is the attributive adjective "great" — it follows the noun, and like the noun it is indefinite. Phrase: "God of a great king."

הָאִישׁ הַחָכָם

— ha-ish ha-chacham —

"the wise man." Both noun and adjective carry the article. Literally "the-man the-wise." A definite attributive phrase. Compare this with the predicate version — הָאִישׁ חָכָם "the man is wise" — where the adjective drops the article.

Common Mistakes

A short catalogue of the errors that beginners reliably make with Hebrew adjectives. Each one is mechanical to fix once you've seen it named.

Reading word order English-first

הַמֶּלֶךְ הַטּוֹב read as "the good king" with the order of the words taken to mean "good-king"

הַמֶּלֶךְ הַטּוֹב read as "king (the) good" → "the good king" — accept that Hebrew puts the adjective after

There's no way around this. Hebrew word order is the opposite of English; you must train yourself to read noun first, then adjective.

Missing the predicate/attributive distinction

הַמֶּלֶךְ טוֹב read as "the good king"

הַמֶּלֶךְ טוֹב read as "the king is good"

No article on the adjective = predicate. Always check whether the adjective carries the ha-.

Forgetting gender agreement

אִשָּׁה טוֹב — "a good woman" (with masculine adjective)

אִשָּׁה טוֹבָה — "a good woman" (with feminine adjective)

The noun ishah ("woman") is feminine, so the adjective must take the feminine form tovah. Hebrew never lets a masculine adjective modify a feminine noun.

Daily Drill Plan

Day	Focus	Goal
1	Read this lesson; write the four-form paradigm of גָּדוֹל and טוֹב	Inflection automatic
2	Drill the 10 vocabulary adjectives (m.s. form) until instant — 10 minutes	Recognition
3	Build 8 attributive phrases (e.g., "the wise man," "a great king") in Hebrew	Definiteness agreement
4	Build 8 predicate sentences (e.g., "the king is good") in Hebrew	Predicate construction
5	Read aloud the כִּי־טוֹב verses (Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31)	Bible-reading

Theological Note · Seven Times Good

כִּי־טוֹב

ki-tov — "that [it was] good"

Seven times in Genesis 1, God looks at what he has made and declares it tov. On the sixth day he uses a superlative-like intensifier — tov me'od, "very good." Christian doctrine sometimes speaks of fallen creation as if matter itself were evil; the Hebrew adjective on the first page of the Bible forbids that. Creation is, in its very being, good — and the same word the Hebrew uses to evaluate the world is the word it uses to evaluate the human heart, the deeds of the righteous, and God himself ("the LORD is good," Ps 100:5). To read tov in Hebrew is to read the first divine theological judgment in Scripture, in the language in which it was first uttered.

Next up Lesson 10 covers the construct chain — the Hebrew way of saying "X of Y" (as in melech ha-aretz "the king of the land," or shir ha-shirim "the song of songs"). You've already met it in passing as the superlative pattern; in Lesson 10 you'll learn its full machinery and read it confidently across the Hebrew Bible.