Nouns: Gender, Number and the Construct State

English nouns are simple: add -s for the plural, and say "of" when one noun belongs to another. Hebrew nouns carry more information in their shape. Every noun is masculine or feminine. It can be singular, plural or dual. And it has two "states": the ordinary form, and a bound form used before another noun to mean "of." That bound form, the construct state, is the single most important idea in this lesson. You will meet it in nearly every verse you read.

The good news: Hebrew nouns have no case endings. Unlike Greek or Latin, a Hebrew noun looks the same whether it is the subject, the object or after a preposition. (If you took Intro to Classical Greek, you can forget about five cases for a while.) What changes is the ending for number and the vowels when the noun is bound to another.

Gender: masculine and feminine

Hebrew has two genders (Gesenius, section 122). Masculine is the default: a noun with no special ending is usually masculine. Feminine nouns usually end in one of two ways (Gesenius, section 80):

• ָה- (qamets + he), stressed: תּוֹרָה [to-RA] instruction, law; שָׁנָה [sha-NA] year; אֲדָמָה [a-da-MA] ground; נַעֲרָה [na-a-RA] young woman.
• ת-, often in an unstressed syllable: בַּת [BAT] daughter; בְּרִית [be-RIT] covenant; דֶּלֶת [DE-let] door.

Where the meaning has a natural sex, the gender follows it, and often the feminine is a different word or the masculine plus an ending:

The man naming the woman in Genesis 2:23 plays on אִישׁ and אִשָּׁה: לְזֹאת יִקָּרֵא אִשָּׁה כִּי מֵאִישׁ לֻקֳחָה־זֹּאת, "this one shall be called Woman, for from Man this one was taken." The two words sound related, and the verse uses that.

Feminine nouns with no ending

Some feminine nouns show nothing on the outside. You learn their gender from the words that agree with them (adjectives and verbs, lessons 8 and 11). The most common groups:

• Lands, cities and places: אֶרֶץ [E-rets] land, earth; עִיר [IR] city. In Genesis 1:2, וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ, the verb הָיְתָה "was" is feminine because אֶרֶץ is.
• Paired parts of the body: יָד [YAD] hand; עַיִן [A-yin] eye; רֶגֶל [RE-gel] foot; אֹזֶן [O-zen] ear.
• Some others: אֶבֶן [E-ven] stone; נֶפֶשׁ [NE-fesh] life, soul, self (mostly feminine); רוּחַ [RU-ach] wind, spirit (mostly feminine). In Genesis 1:2 וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת, the participle "hovering" is feminine to match רוּחַ.

Dictionaries tell you the gender. BDB marks each noun "n.m." or "n.f."; some nouns are marked both, because the texts use them both ways.

Number: singular, plural and dual

The two plural endings

The usual masculine plural ending is ִים- [-IM], stressed. The usual feminine plural ending is וֹת- [-OT], also stressed, and it replaces the feminine ָה- (Gesenius, section 87):

Two spelling notes. First, וֹת- is often written without the waw, as ֹת-, with the same sound: תּוֹרֹת above, or תּוֹלְדֹת and תּוֹלְדוֹת "generations" (Genesis 5:1, 2:4). This "defective" spelling is common in the WLC. Second, ִים- can also be written defectively, as in הַתַּנִּינִם "the sea monsters" (Genesis 1:21).

Vowel reduction in the plural

Look again at דָּבָר [da-VAR] and דְּבָרִים [de-va-RIM]. The ending pulls the stress one syllable to the right (in Hebrew writing, to the left). The qamets two syllables before the new stress, no longer near the stress, shrinks to a shewa. This is vowel reduction, and it is the reason Hebrew nouns change their vowels when you add endings. The rule of thumb: a qamets or tsere in an open syllable two places before the stress reduces; a long vowel written with a vowel letter (וֹ, וּ, ִי, ֵי) does not. That is why סוּס keeps its u in סוּסִים and תּוֹרָה keeps its o in תּוֹרֹת.

Plurals that do not match the gender

The ending does not decide the gender. Some masculine nouns take וֹת- and some feminine nouns take ִים-, and they keep their own gender in the plural:

Genesis 1:16 shows why this matters. מָאוֹר "light, lamp" is masculine but makes its plural in ֹת-, so "the great lights" is הַמְּאֹרֹת הַגְּדֹלִים: a noun ending in -ot followed by an adjective ending in -im. The adjective follows the gender, not the look of the ending (lesson 8).

The dual: things that come in pairs

Hebrew has a third number, the dual, with the ending ַיִם- [-A-yim], stressed on the patah (Gesenius, section 88). It is used for:

• Paired body parts: יָדַיִם [ya-DA-yim] hands, עֵינַיִם [ei-NA-yim] eyes, רַגְלַיִם [rag-LA-yim] feet, אָזְנַיִם [oz-NA-yim] ears (the qamets here is qamets hatuf, said o), כְּנָפַיִם [ke-na-FA-yim] wings.
• Two of a unit of time or measure: יוֹמַיִם [yo-MA-yim] two days (Exodus 21:21: אִם־יוֹם אוֹ יוֹמַיִם, "if a day or two days"); שְׁנָתַיִם [she-na-TA-yim] two years (Genesis 45:6).
• Pairs of things: דְּלָתַיִם [de-la-TA-yim] double doors (Deuteronomy 3:5).

Notice that a feminine noun in ָה- brings back its old t before the dual: שָׁנָה, שְׁנָתַיִם. The same t returns in the construct, as you will see below.

Three warnings about the dual:

1. For body parts, the dual is the ordinary plural. "Hands" is יָדַיִם even if many people's hands are meant. The plural forms of some of these words exist but mean something else: יָדוֹת means "portions, shares" (חָמֵשׁ יָדוֹת, "five portions," Genesis 43:34), and רְגָלִים means "times, occasions" (שָׁלֹשׁ רְגָלִים, "three times," Exodus 23:14).
2. Only nouns have a dual. Adjectives and verbs that go with a dual noun are plural.
3. מַיִם [MA-yim] water and שָׁמַיִם [sha-MA-yim] sky, heavens look dual but are plurals of a special kind (Gesenius, section 88). They are always treated as plural: "the waters," "the heavens."

Plurals that mean one thing

Some Hebrew nouns are plural in form but singular in sense. פָּנִים [pa-NIM] face is always plural. חַיִּים [kha-YIM] life is plural: עֵץ הַחַיִּים "the tree of life" (Genesis 2:9). And אֱלֹהִים [e-lo-HIM], when it means the God of Israel, is plural in form but takes a singular verb: בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים, "God created" (Genesis 1:1), with בָּרָא singular. Gesenius calls this the plural of majesty, or of rank (Gesenius, section 124). The same word can mean "gods" with plural agreement when other gods are meant.

Collective nouns

Some singular nouns name a group: צֹאן [TSON] sheep and goats, a flock; עוֹף [OF] birds, flying creatures; בְּהֵמָה [be-he-MA] cattle, animals. Genesis 1:20 says וְעוֹף יְעוֹפֵף עַל־הָאָרֶץ, "and let birds fly above the earth," with a singular noun and a singular verb.

Irregular nouns

A small group of very common nouns forms its plural or construct in unexpected ways (Gesenius, section 96). They are worth learning as a list, because they turn up everywhere. All forms below are in the WLC; the verse given is one place to find each.

Say them: אָב, אֲבִי, אָבוֹת, אֲבוֹת [AV, a-VI, a-VOT, a-VOT]; אָח, אֲחִי, אַחִים, אֲחֵי [AKH, a-KHI, a-KHIM, a-KHEI]; אִישׁ, אֲנָשִׁים, אַנְשֵׁי [ISH, a-na-SHIM, an-SHEI]; אִשָּׁה, אֵשֶׁת, נָשִׁים, נְשֵׁי [i-SHA, E-shet, na-SHIM, ne-SHEI]; בַּיִת, בֵּית, בָּתִּים, בָּתֵּי [BA-yit, BEIT, ba-TIM, ba-TEI]; בֵּן, בֶּן, בָּנִים, בְּנֵי [BEN, ben, ba-NIM, be-NEI]; בַּת, בָּנוֹת, בְּנוֹת [BAT, ba-NOT, be-NOT]; יוֹם, יָמִים, יְמֵי [YOM, ya-MIM, ye-MEI]; עִיר, עָרִים, עָרֵי [IR, a-RIM, a-REI].

Some notes:

• אִישׁ and אִשָּׁה form their plurals from other bases. נָשִׁים has a masculine-looking ending but is feminine.
• בֶּן in the construct is usually joined by maqaf: בֶּן־נָחוֹר "son of Nahor" (Genesis 29:5).
• The qamets in בָּתִּים is unusual: a long vowel before a doubled consonant, which the normal rules do not predict. Grammars treat בַּיִת as its own case (Gesenius, section 96). Say [ba-TIM].
• אָב and אָח add ִי- in the construct: אֲבִי־מִלְכָּה "the father of Milcah" (Genesis 11:29). This i is an old ending that survived in these short words.

Segolate nouns

Many of the commonest Hebrew nouns are stressed on the first syllable and have a segol (sometimes a patah) in the second: מֶלֶךְ [ME-lekh] king, סֵפֶר [SE-fer] book, document, עֶבֶד [E-ved] servant, אֶרֶץ [E-rets] land, נַעַר [NA-ar] young man, אֹהֶל [O-hel] tent, בֹּקֶר [BO-ker] morning. They are called segolates. Lesson 4 noted that they break the usual rule of final stress.

The reason is history. These words go back to bases with one vowel and two consonants at the end: something like malk, sipr, qudš. Hebrew does not like a word to end in two consonants, so a helping vowel slipped in between them, usually a segol, and the original vowel changed to fit: malk became מֶלֶךְ, sipr became סֵפֶר, qudš became קֹדֶשׁ (Gesenius, section 93). When a guttural is involved, the helping vowel is patah: נַעַר.

Why this matters: when the noun takes endings, the old base can reappear. The plural is regular in its own way, following the pattern קְטָלִים, but the plural construct and the forms with pronoun endings go back to the old one-vowel base.

Say them: [ME-lekh, me-la-KHIM, mal-KHEI, mal-KI]; [E-ved, a-va-DIM, av-DEI]; [NA-ar, ne-a-RIM, na-a-REI]; [SE-fer, se-fa-RIM]; [O-hel, o-ha-LIM, o-ho-LEI]; [E-ven, a-va-NIM, av-NEI]; [NE-fesh, ne-fa-SHOT, naf-SHOT]. In אָהֳלֵי the first vowel is a qamets hatuf, said o.

Segolates also have pause forms with qamets or tsere in the first syllable: אָרֶץ beside אֶרֶץ, נָפֶשׁ beside נֶפֶשׁ, עָבֶד beside עֶבֶד. The meaning does not change. אֶרֶץ also takes qamets after the article, wherever it stands: הָאָרֶץ in Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 alike (Gesenius, section 35). Without the article, at a pause, it is אָרֶץ, as at the end of Exodus 15:12.

The construct state (smikhut)

English says "the word of the LORD." Hebrew says דְּבַר יְהוָה [de-VAR a-do-NAI]: two nouns side by side, with no word for "of." The relationship is shown by changing the first noun into its construct form. The second noun stays in its ordinary absolute form (Gesenius, section 89). Modern grammar calls the pair a סְמִיכוּת [smi-KHUT], "a leaning": the first noun leans on the second.

אַחַר הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה הָיָה דְבַר־יְהוָה אֶל־אַבְרָם

Genesis 15:1 (first part), Westminster Leningrad Codex

"After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram." The construct דְבַר is joined to יְהוָה by a maqaf. (The beginning letter ד has no dagesh here because the word before ends in a vowel; lesson 2 covered this.)

The construct noun and the following noun are said as one unit, with the main stress on the second noun. Because the construct noun loses its own main stress, its vowels can reduce. That is the source of all the changes below.

How the construct changes the first noun

Say the pairs: [da-VAR, de-VAR]; [ma-KOM, me-KOM]; [to-RA, to-RAT]; [sha-NA, she-NAT]; [kha-YA, kha-YAT]; [de-va-RIM, div-REI]; [ba-NIM, be-NEI]; [ei-NA-yim, ei-NEI]; [ya-DA-yim, ye-DEI]; [ba-NOT, be-NOT]; [BA-yit, BEIT]; [A-yin, EIN]; [sa-DE, se-DE].

Look at דִּבְרֵי. From דְּבָרִים, the ending changes to ֵי-, and the stress moves even further from the qamets, so it too reduces. Two shewas cannot stand together at the start of a word, so the first becomes hireq: דִּבְרֵי [div-REI]. Segolate plurals do the same and show their old base: מַלְכֵי, עַבְדֵי.

Many construct nouns are joined to the next word with a maqaf, especially short ones: בֶּן־, בַּת־, בֵּית־, אֵשֶׁת־. But the maqaf is optional, and plenty of construct nouns stand without it, as in בֵּית פַּרְעֹה.

A verse full of construct forms

Genesis 11:29 names the wives of Abram and his brother Nahor. Count the construct forms:

וַיִּקַּח אַבְרָם וְנָחוֹר לָהֶם נָשִׁים שֵׁם אֵשֶׁת־אַבְרָם שָׂרָי וְשֵׁם אֵשֶׁת־נָחוֹר מִלְכָּה בַּת־הָרָן אֲבִי־מִלְכָּה וַאֲבִי יִסְכָּה׃

Genesis 11:29, Westminster Leningrad Codex

"And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah."

• נָשִׁים: absolute plural, "wives."
• שֵׁם אֵשֶׁת־אַבְרָם: a chain of three, "the name of the wife of Abram." שֵׁם and אֵשֶׁת are construct; אַבְרָם is the absolute.
• בַּת־הָרָן: "daughter of Haran."
• אֲבִי־מִלְכָּה וַאֲבִי יִסְכָּה: "father of Milcah and father of Iscah." Each construct noun gets its own following noun. Hebrew repeats the construct rather than saying "the father of Milcah and Iscah."

Construct chains

A chain can be longer than two. Every noun except the last is in the construct state. Pharaoh's polite question to Jacob in Genesis 47:8 has a chain of three, and Jacob's answer has one of four:

וַיֹּאמֶר פַּרְעֹה אֶל־יַעֲקֹב כַּמָּה יְמֵי שְׁנֵי חַיֶּיךָ׃

Genesis 47:8, Westminster Leningrad Codex

"And Pharaoh said to Jacob, 'How many are the days of the years of your life?'" Jacob answers in the next verse, and near its end says that his years have not reached יְמֵי שְׁנֵי חַיֵּי אֲבֹתַי, "the days of the years of the life of my fathers."

Read the chain from right to left: יְמֵי "the days of," שְׁנֵי "the years of," חַיֵּי "the life of," אֲבֹתַי "my fathers." Each of the first three is a masculine plural construct in ֵי-: יָמִים, יְמֵי; שָׁנִים, שְׁנֵי; חַיִּים, חַיֵּי. (שְׁנֵי here is "years of," the construct of שָׁנִים. Do not confuse it with שְׁנֵי "two of," which looks the same; context decides. Some electronic tagging of this verse mixes the two up.) The last word, אֲבֹתַי, is אָבוֹת "fathers" with the ending "my" (lesson 9).

A three-noun chain with a person at the end appears in Genesis 14:12, where Lot is בֶּן־אֲחִי אַבְרָם, "the son of the brother of Abram," that is, Abram's nephew.

What the construct can mean

"Of" in English covers many relationships, and so does the construct (Gesenius, section 128). A few common ones:

The construct of quality is very common where English would use an adjective. אִישׁ מִלְחָמָה is "a warrior"; Rachel in Genesis 29:17 is יְפַת־תֹּאַר וִיפַת מַרְאֶה, "beautiful of form and beautiful of appearance," with the adjective יָפָה itself in the construct.

Definiteness in a chain

This is the rule that surprises English speakers most (Gesenius, section 127):

1. A construct noun never takes the article. You will never see הַ on the first noun of a chain.
2. The whole chain is definite if the last noun is definite, and indefinite if the last noun is indefinite. The last noun is definite if it has the article, is a proper name, or has a pronoun ending.

So "the tree of the garden" and "the garden's tree" are both עֵץ הַגָּן. If you want "a tree of the garden," indefinite first noun with a definite second noun, Hebrew uses a different construction with the preposition לְ (lesson 7).

Genesis 3:8 uses עֵץ in the singular as a collective: בְּתוֹךְ עֵץ הַגָּן, "among the trees of the garden." Context, not form, says "trees."

Where does the adjective go?

Nothing comes between the construct noun and the noun after it. An adjective that describes the first noun has to wait until after the whole chain, and it agrees with the noun it describes. Genesis 43:27 has אֲבִיכֶם הַזָּקֵן, "your father, the old one," with the adjective after the noun-plus-suffix. Lesson 8 shows how to tell which noun an adjective after a chain belongs to.

A page of the Leningrad Codex

This page holds the story of Abram rescuing Lot and meeting Melchizedek, and it is thick with construct forms. On it you can find בֶּן־אֲחִי אַבְרָם "the son of Abram's brother" (14:12), מֶלֶךְ־סְדֹם "the king of Sodom" and עֵמֶק הַמֶּלֶךְ "the King's Valley" (14:17), מֶלֶךְ שָׁלֵם "the king of Salem" (14:18), and at the top of chapter 15, דְבַר־יְהוָה. The scribe also wrote the small vowel points and accent marks you have been learning, plus tiny notes in the margins (the Masorah) that count and check unusual spellings.

Putting it together

Updated October 28, 2026.