Modern Hebrew: An Essential Grammar

Before adding , the masculine noun first drops any or ending it has.And before adding , the feminine noun first drops the singular feminineending or . Thus:Thefeminineand plural ofnounsMasc. tank tanks bag bags teacher teachers deed deeds Jew Jews journalist journalistsFem. drawer drawers castle castles handle handles napkin napkinsThere are some exceptions, e.g. the masculine noun ‘table’ has theplural . Conversely, feminine ‘year’ has the plural . Formore about these exceptions, see 60(d).The form that a noun happens to take in the plural has no effect on itsintrinsic gender. Thus ‘tables’ is as masculine as ‘table’,and hence the agreement ‘gorgeous tables’.b The plural of nouns of the type To make the plural of a noun is often more than just a matter of addingan ending: the internal vowels may have to be changed, depending on theform of the word. Obviously, this generally affects pronunciation ratherthan spelling, as Hebrew is mostly written without vowels. We begin withthe ‘third-from-the-end rule’:9