Modern Hebrew: An Essential Grammar

Level OneWhen the vowel a becomes third vowel from the end (thanks to thepresence of an ending), many nouns omit it. Thus: thing (davar) Plural: dvarim (not davarim) almond (shaked) Plural: shkedim (not shakedim)Further examples: ~ onion ~ camel ~ neighborHowever, many nouns do not observe this rule, e.g. ~ ‘sage’, ~ ‘cloud’, ~ ‘righteous man’, ~ ‘sculptor’, ~ ‘director’. There are two main reasons:1 Either they begin with one of the four letters , , , (so-called‘guttural’ letters), which for ancient phonetic reasons require theacoustic ‘support’ of a full vowel;2 or the a has the vowel point rather than (which again for historicalreasons could not drop). Among these are the many nouns of the kind ~ ‘crisis’, ~ ‘button’ – here, naturally,the a does not drop as this would create a hard-to-pronounce run ofthree consonants in a row (imagine kftorim).To know if a noun has or is a matter of recognizing characteristicpatterns – or consulting a dictionary.c The plural of nouns of the type (segolate nouns)Most nouns are stressed on the last syllable, e.g. ‘place’. But manynouns, with (termed the ‘segol’ vowel) as their last vowel, are stressed onthe next-to-last syllable. These are called segolate nouns. Here are someexamples (we have marked the stress by ):10 film book form