Modern Hebrew: An Essential Grammar

(a)(b)(c) ‘legible’ ( ‘read’), ‘permeable’ ( ‘washable’ ( ‘wash’), ‘credible’ ( ‘permeate’), ‘believe’) ‘passive’ ( ‘suffer’), ‘active’ ( ‘act’), ‘sensitive’ ( ‘feel’), ‘careful’ ( ‘take care’) ‘flexible’, ‘regular’, ‘healthy’, ‘efficient’Othermeaningfuladjectivepatterns5 The pattern PA’OL is used for most colors and a few other adjectives.NB: When there is a feminine or plural ending, the -o- vowel usuallychanges to -u-, and acquires a ‘hard’ final consonant: , (see 61): red green pink yellow dark blue black gray terrible sweet round and do not change their -o- to -u-. Colors that do not usethis pattern include ‘white’, ‘light blue’, ‘brown’.6 The pattern PE’AL’AL supplies several diminutives for adjectives (cf.English‘ish’), as it does for nouns – recall 68(8). It normally works byreduplicating a ‘base’ adjective. The vowels will always be -a-a-.Notice the ‘hard’ fourth letter in and . Examples:greenishwhitishplumpish pinkish flighty slightly sour 127