Adjectives and Demonstratives

Five times in the first chapter of Genesis the same short refrain closes a day's work: וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים כִּי־טוֹב, "and God saw that it was good" (Genesis 1:10, 12, 18, 21, 25; compare 1:4). On the sixth day it grows: וְהִנֵּה־טוֹב מְאֹד, "and look, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31). There is no "it" and no "was" in the Hebrew. One adjective, טוֹב [TOV], makes the whole statement.

This lesson shows how Hebrew adjectives work: how they change form, where they stand, how they make statements without a verb, and how they compare. Then it turns to the pointing words "this," "these," "that" and "those."

The four forms of an adjective

A Hebrew adjective has four forms, one for each combination of gender and number. The endings are the same as the noun endings you learned in lesson 6: nothing for masculine singular, ָה- for feminine singular, ִים- for masculine plural, וֹת- for feminine plural. Adjectives have no dual; a dual noun takes a plural adjective.

Say them: [TOV, to-VA, to-VIM, to-VOT]; [ga-DOL, ge-do-LA, ge-do-LIM, ge-do-LOT]; [ka-TON, ke-ta-NA, ke-ta-NIM, ke-ta-NOT]; [RA, ra-A, ra-IM, ra-OT]; [a-KHER, a-KHE-ret, a-khe-RIM, a-khe-ROT]; [kha-KHAM, kha-kha-MIM].

Look at the bottom right corner of the grid: אֶבֶן "stone" is feminine, and its plural אֲבָנִים ends in -im, yet the adjective is feminine plural גְּדֹלוֹת. (In הַתַּנִּינִם the plural ending is written without its yod, a short spelling common in the WLC.) Adjectives follow the noun's gender, not its ending. And עִיר "city" is feminine with no ending, so its adjective is הַגְּדֹלָה.

Three things to notice:

1. Vowel reduction works just as in nouns (lesson 6). When the ending pulls the stress forward, the qamets of גָּדוֹל and חָכָם shrinks: גְּדֹלָה, חֲכָמִים (with hateph patah, because ח is a guttural). טוֹב keeps its o, because a vowel written with a vowel letter does not reduce.
2. Spelling varies. The o of גָּדוֹל is written both with and without waw: גְּדוֹלָה (Deuteronomy 25:13) and גְּדֹלָה (Genesis 27:33) are the same word. The feminine plural of טוֹב likewise appears both as טֹבֹת (Genesis 6:2) and as טֹבוֹת (וְטֹבוֹת, Genesis 41:5).
3. Hidden doubling. קָטֹן "small" has a doubled n that shows up only when an ending is added: קְטַנָּה, קְטַנִּים. Many short adjectives do this, such as רַב "many, much," plural רַבִּים (Genesis 21:34), and חַי "living," feminine חַיָּה (Genesis 1:20). Lesson 16 explains the "doubled" roots behind words like רַב (root רבב); in קָטֹן the doubling belongs to the word's pattern.

Attributive adjectives: "the good man"

An attributive adjective describes a noun within a phrase. In Hebrew it always comes after its noun, the opposite of English, and it agrees with the noun in three things (Gesenius, section 132):

1. Gender: masculine with masculine, feminine with feminine.
2. Number: singular with singular, plural with plural (and with a dual noun, plural).
3. Definiteness: if the noun is definite, the adjective takes the article too.

וַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים אֶת־שְׁנֵי הַמְּאֹרֹת הַגְּדֹלִים אֶת־הַמָּאוֹר הַגָּדֹל לְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת הַיּוֹם וְאֶת־הַמָּאוֹר הַקָּטֹן לְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת הַלַּיְלָה וְאֵת הַכּוֹכָבִים׃

Genesis 1:16, Westminster Leningrad Codex

"And God made the two great lights: the great light to rule the day, and the small light to rule the night, and the stars." Look at the three noun phrases:

The third phrase teaches the most. מָאוֹר is masculine but has a plural in ֹת- (lesson 6). The adjective follows the noun's real gender, so it is הַגְּדֹלִים, not הַגְּדֹלוֹת. Agreement is about grammar, not about rhyming endings. (The Greek course has the same lesson: Intro to Classical Greek, lesson 10.)

Notice also שְׁנֵי הַמְּאֹרֹת הַגְּדֹלִים: the adjective comes after the whole construct chain "the two of the lights" and agrees with מְאֹרֹת. Nothing can come between a construct noun and the noun after it (lesson 6), so an adjective always waits until the chain is over.

More examples

שֶׁבַע־שָׁנִים אֲחֵרוֹת is the mirror image of הַמְּאֹרֹת הַגְּדֹלִים: a feminine noun that takes a masculine-looking plural, with a feminine plural adjective. Jacob served Laban עוֹד שֶׁבַע־שָׁנִים אֲחֵרוֹת, "another seven years" (Genesis 29:30).

Predicate adjectives: "the man is good"

Hebrew normally has no verb "is" in the present. A sentence like "the tree is good" is made by placing an adjective without the article beside a subject. This is the predicate use (Gesenius, section 141, the noun clause). The adjective still agrees in gender and number, but it does not copy the article. It usually comes first, though it can follow the subject.

וַתֵּרֶא הָאִשָּׁה כִּי טוֹב הָעֵץ לְמַאֲכָל

Genesis 3:6 (first part), Westminster Leningrad Codex

"And the woman saw that the tree was good for food." הָעֵץ has the article; טוֹב does not and stands first. That combination can only be a statement. Compare הָעֵץ הַטּוֹב, "the good tree," which is just a phrase waiting for a verb.

Predicate examples

Look at וְעֵינֵי לֵאָה רַכּוֹת: "eyes" is a feminine dual, and the adjective is feminine plural, because adjectives have no dual. And at וְאַנְשֵׁי סְדֹם רָעִים: the adjective agrees with אַנְשֵׁי, the first noun of the chain, because the men are wicked, not Sodom. Sense decides which noun in a chain an adjective goes with, and gender and number usually confirm it.

Time and the predicate adjective

A sentence with no verb has no tense. טוֹב הָעֵץ can be "the tree is good" or "the tree was good"; the surrounding story decides. In Genesis 3:6 the story is in the past, so "was." When Hebrew needs to fix the time, or for emphasis, it uses the verb הָיָה "to be": וְהַנָּחָשׁ הָיָה עָרוּם, "now the serpent was cunning" (Genesis 3:1). Lesson 11 covers that verb.

A definite predicate

Sometimes the predicate itself is definite, and then it does take the article. Pharaoh, after the plague of hail, says יְהוָה הַצַּדִּיק וַאֲנִי וְעַמִּי הָרְשָׁעִים, "the LORD is the righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked ones" (Exodus 9:27). Here הַצַּדִּיק is not "the righteous LORD." The balance with the second half, "I and my people are the wicked ones," shows that both halves are statements: each says who is in the right and who is in the wrong. You will not meet many of these at first; just know that the rule of thumb has exceptions, and sense is the final judge.

Adjectives used as nouns

Like English "the rich" or "the young," a Hebrew adjective, especially with the article, can stand alone as a noun. The gender and number tell you what kind of person or thing is meant.

וּלְלָבָן שְׁתֵּי בָנוֹת שֵׁם הַגְּדֹלָה לֵאָה וְשֵׁם הַקְּטַנָּה רָחֵל׃

Genesis 29:16, Westminster Leningrad Codex

"And Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel." הַגְּדֹלָה [ha-ge-do-LA] is "the big one (fem.)," here "the older"; הַקְּטַנָּה [ha-ke-ta-NA] is "the small one (fem.)," "the younger." The feminine form tells you that daughters are meant. Notice also the construct: שֵׁם הַגְּדֹלָה, "the name of the older one," with the adjective-noun as the second member of a chain.

More examples:

• הַצְּעִירָה and הַבְּכִירָה, "the younger" and "the firstborn (daughter)," in Laban's excuse: לֹא־יֵעָשֶׂה כֵן בִּמְקוֹמֵנוּ לָתֵת הַצְּעִירָה לִפְנֵי הַבְּכִירָה, "it is not done so in our place, to give the younger before the firstborn" (Genesis 29:26).
• הֶחָכָם "the wise man" (Ecclesiastes 2:14).
• אֶת־הַחַיִּים וְאֶת־הַמֵּתִים, "the living and the dead" (Ruth 2:20).
• טוֹב וָרָע, "good and evil," as abstract nouns, in עֵץ הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע, "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 2:9).
• הַקָּטָן "the youngest" and הַגְּדֹלִים "the oldest (ones)": וְדָוִד הוּא הַקָּטָן וּשְׁלֹשָׁה הַגְּדֹלִים הָלְכוּ אַחֲרֵי שָׁאוּל, "and David was the youngest, and the three oldest went after Saul" (1 Samuel 17:14).

The same idea gives the construct of quality from lesson 6: Rachel is יְפַת־תֹּאַר וִיפַת מַרְאֶה, "beautiful of form and beautiful of appearance" (Genesis 29:17), and Joseph is יְפֵה־תֹאַר וִיפֵה מַרְאֶה (Genesis 39:6), the masculine of the same phrase. Here the adjective יָפֶה "beautiful" is itself in the construct state: יְפֵה (masc.), יְפַת (fem.).

Common adjectives to learn now

These adjectives are frequent in the readings of this course. Each is shown in one real phrase, so you learn it with a partner word. Masculine singular is the dictionary form.

Three of these show a pattern worth knowing. קָרוֹב לָנוּ הָאִישׁ (Ruth 2:20) is a predicate adjective, first and bare: Naomi is telling Ruth something new, "the man is close to us," a kinsman. אֵם כָּל־חָי (Genesis 3:20) uses the adjective חַי as a noun, "the living," inside a construct chain, in its pause form חָי. And גָּבֹהַּ ends in a he with a dot (mappiq, lesson 2): the he is a real consonant, followed by a furtive patah, [ga-VO-ah].

The number "one" acts like an adjective

Most numbers come before their noun (lesson 17), but אֶחָד [e-KHAD] "one" usually follows it and agrees, like an adjective: יוֹם אֶחָד "one day" (Genesis 1:5), אֶל־מָקוֹם אֶחָד "to one place" (Genesis 1:9). Its feminine is אַחַת [a-KHAT]: in Ruth 1:4 שֵׁם הָאַחַת עָרְפָּה, "the name of the one was Orpah," it stands alone as a noun with the article.

Comparison: "better than," "too great to"

Hebrew has no comparative ending like English -er and no superlative like -est. It compares with the preposition מִן (lesson 7), whose basic sense "from" becomes "more than" or "beyond" (Gesenius, section 133).

כִּי כַלָּתֵךְ אֲשֶׁר־אֲהֵבַתֶךְ יְלָדַתּוּ אֲשֶׁר־הִיא טוֹבָה לָךְ מִשִּׁבְעָה בָּנִים׃

Ruth 4:15 (second part), Westminster Leningrad Codex

The women of Bethlehem tell Naomi about Ruth's son: "for your daughter-in-law who loves you has borne him, she who is better to you than seven sons." טוֹבָה ... מִשִּׁבְעָה בָּנִים, "good ... from seven sons," means "better than seven sons." The adjective is feminine because Ruth is the one compared.

Laban's sentence in Genesis 29:19 compares two actions: "my giving her to you" is better than "my giving her to another man." Samuel's line in 1 Samuel 15:22 puts the adjective at the end: הִנֵּה שְׁמֹעַ מִזֶּבַח טוֹב, "look, obeying, more than sacrifice, is good," that is, "obeying is better than sacrifice."

Cain's cry in Genesis 4:13 shows a second use: adjective + מִן + an action means "too ... to." "My punishment (or guilt) is great beyond bearing": too great to bear. (The word עֲוֺנִי is printed in the WLC with a special form of the holem mark on the waw; it is the ordinary o vowel, [a-vo-NI].)

The preposition also works with verbs: וַיֶּאֱהַב גַּם־אֶת־רָחֵל מִלֵּאָה, "and he loved Rachel more than Leah" (Genesis 29:30), and Boaz to Ruth, הֵיטַבְתְּ חַסְדֵּךְ הָאַחֲרוֹן מִן־הָרִאשׁוֹן, "you have made your latest kindness better than the first" (Ruth 3:10).

"Very" and "most"

• Very: add מְאֹד [me-OD] after the adjective: טוֹב מְאֹד (Genesis 1:31). For extra force it is doubled: the waters rose מְאֹד מְאֹד, "very, very much" (Genesis 7:19).
• Most: the article with an adjective picks out the one that has the quality most, inside a group: הַקָּטֹן "the youngest" of the brothers (Genesis 42:13), הַגְּדֹלָה "the older" of two daughters (Genesis 29:16). With two people English says "-er"; with more, "-est"; Hebrew uses the same form.
• The highest degree can also be a construct of a noun with its own plural: עֶבֶד עֲבָדִים, "a servant of servants," the lowest of slaves (Genesis 9:25), and the famous קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים "the holy of holies," the most holy place (Exodus 26:33).

Demonstratives: this, these, that, those

The near demonstratives are (Gesenius, section 34):

For "that" and "those," Hebrew uses the third-person pronouns, which you will meet as "he, she, they" in lesson 9:

Two uses: "this is" and "this (noun)"

Demonstratives behave like adjectives, with the same two positions.

Attributive: "this man." The demonstrative comes after its noun, and like an attributive adjective it takes the article when the noun has it: הַנַּעֲרָה הַזֹּאת "this young woman," הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה "these things," הָהָר הַזֶּה "this mountain" (Exodus 3:12), הָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת "this land" (Genesis 15:18), הַחֲלוֹם הַזֶּה "this dream" (Genesis 37:6), הָרָעָה הַזֹּאת "this disaster" (Jonah 1:8). Notice the article on הָאֵלֶּה takes qamets, because א cannot be doubled (lesson 7).

Predicate: "this is." The demonstrative stands first, without the article, and says "this is ...":

זֶה סֵפֶר תּוֹלְדֹת אָדָם

Genesis 5:1 (first part), Westminster Leningrad Codex

"This is the book of the generations of Adam." Likewise אֵלֶּה תוֹלְדוֹת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְהָאָרֶץ, "these are the generations of the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 2:4), and אֵלֶּה תּוֹלְדֹת נֹחַ, "these are the generations of Noah" (Genesis 6:9). God tells Moses וְזֶה־לְּךָ הָאוֹת, "and this shall be the sign for you" (Exodus 3:12).

Put side by side:

The last line is the opening of the book of Deuteronomy, אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים, "These are the words" (Deuteronomy 1:1), which gave the book its Hebrew name, דְּבָרִים.

Noun, adjective, demonstrative

When a noun has both an adjective and a demonstrative, the order is noun, adjective, demonstrative, and all three take the article:

• הָהָר הַטּוֹב הַזֶּה [ha-HAR ha-TOV ha-ZE], "this good mountain (country)," Moses' longing look at the hill country beyond the Jordan (Deuteronomy 3:25).
• הַגּוֹי הַגָּדוֹל הַזֶּה [ha-GOI ha-ga-DOL ha-ZE], "this great nation" (Deuteronomy 4:6).

The second verse also has a predicate right before it: רַק עַם־חָכָם וְנָבוֹן הַגּוֹי הַגָּדוֹל הַזֶּה, "surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." The subject is the definite phrase with adjective and demonstrative; the predicate, first and without the article, is "a wise and understanding people."

Other uses of זֶה and זֹאת

• In questions, זֶה and זֹאת add force, like English "what on earth": מַה־זֹּאת עָשִׂית, "what is this you have done?" (Genesis 3:13); לָמָּה זֶּה תִּשְׁאַל לִשְׁמִי, "why is it that you ask my name?" (Genesis 32:30).
• מִי־אֵלֶּה לָּךְ, "who are these (to you)?", Esau's question about Jacob's family (Genesis 33:5).
• With a time phrase, זֶה means "now, already": כִּי־זֶה שְׁנָתַיִם הָרָעָב, "for the famine has been these two years" (Genesis 45:6).
• A rarer longer form, הַלָּזֶה, appears in Rebekah's question מִי־הָאִישׁ הַלָּזֶה, "who is that man?" (Genesis 24:65).
• The man in Eden says of the woman, זֹאת הַפַּעַם עֶצֶם מֵעֲצָמַי, "this one, at last, is bone of my bones" (Genesis 2:23). זֹאת stands alone as "this one (fem.)."

Putting it together

Updated October 28, 2026.