Detailed analysis of verbs and nouns

Detailed analysis of verbs and nouns

Nouns in Biblical Hebrew

  • Singular, Dual, and Plural forms: Hebrew nouns have singular, dual, and plural forms. The dual form being used for naturally occurring pairs or for things that commonly come in twos.
  • Gender: Nouns can be either masculine or feminine in Hebrew. There’s no neuter gender.
  • Noun States: Hebrew nouns function in three states: absolute, construct, and pronoun. The absolute state is the base form of the noun. The construct state links the noun with the following word, indicating possession. The pronominal state uses pronominal suffixes to indicate the possessor; these suffixes are added to the noun in its absolute form.
  • Definiteness: A noun can act as definite or indefinite. The definite article ‘ha’ is prefixed to noun to make it definite.

Verbs in Biblical Hebrew

  • Person, Number, and Gender: As with nouns, verbs are modified based on person (first, second, third), number (singular, plural), and gender (masculine, feminine).
  • Verb Forms: There are seven major forms (binyanim) for Hebrew verbs: Qal, Niphal, Piel, Pual, Hiphil, Hophal, and Hithpael. Each form has its own set of conjugations and can carry different nuances of meaning depending on the verb root.
  • Verb Stems: There are two forms of the verb stem: the perfect stem indicates a completed action, while the imperfect stem indicates an incomplete action, or a future action.
  • Waw Consecutive: The ‘waw consecutive’ construction changes the tense of the verb from perfect to imperfect or vice versa. It is typically used to narrate a sequence of events.
  • Vocalization: The precise meaning of a verb can often depend on its specific vocalization, which is indicated in the text by a system of dots and dashes (nikkudot) written above, below, or inside the letters.
  • Weak Verbs: These are verbs whose root includes one or more of the ‘weak’ letters (aleph, he, yod, and waw), which can cause the verb to be conjugated irregularly.