Modern Hebrew: An Essential Grammar

With singular nounsWe first illustrate the suffixes with singular nouns. Notice that they areidentical to the light suffixes used with the preposition ‘for’(35(d)) and that there is no difference in spelling between ‘your’ (masc.sing.) and ‘your’ (fem. sing.) except for the nikkud.Theconstruct asa possessiveNotice too that the feminine noun has the ending associated with theconstruct form (recall 17(d)); it is advisable, in fact, to regard noun +possessive suffix as a kind of construct phrase, amounting to: dod + o‘uncle-of-him’, dodat + o ‘aunt-of-him’. uncle our uncle your (masc. pl.) uncle your (fem. pl.) uncle their (masc. pl.) uncle their (fem. pl.) uncle my uncle his uncle her uncleyour (masc. sing.) uncleyour (fem. sing.) uncle aunt our aunt your (masc. pl.) aunt your (fem. pl.) aunt their (masc. pl.) aunt their (fem. pl.) aunt my aunt his aunt her auntyour (masc. sing.) auntyour (fem. sing.) auntc With plural nounsPlural nouns take a slightly different set of suffixes, identical to the heavysuffixes used with the preposition ‘on’ (recall 35(e)). The importantpoint is that the extra letter yod in all these suffixes can be explained as aplural ending of the noun – the construct ending (17(d)). Thus, really amounts to a construct phrase: dodey + o ‘uncles-of-him’.131