Hebrew Grammatical Tags

There are three major categories for Hebrew Grammatical tags: Gender, Number, and State. These details can be selected for searches using the Set Tag Details dialog boxes.

Note

There are Aramaic or Ugaritic terms which are listed in italics at the bottom of the pop-up menu, as well as Ugaritic Case tags (Nominative, Accusative, Genitive) which appear in certain parts of speech for the Ugaritic text.

Additional tags are being added to accommodate syntactical databases which are in preparation but not yet released.

GenderGender

Gender is a grammatical category used primarily to indicate agreement between substantives (nouns, pronouns, adjectives, etc.). In Hebrew there are two genders: masculine and feminine

In addition, some verbs and adjectives appear in what is known as the common gender, which can include persons or things of either gender.

Finally, there are some words which can appear in both genders, sometimes appearing as masculine and other times appearing as feminine. The gender of a word does not necessarily correspond to the sex of the person or object to which the word refers.

NumberNumber

Number is that aspect of a noun, pronoun, adjective, or verb which indicates whether it is singular (one person or thing), dual (two persons or things), or plural (two or more). 

Note that only some nouns and adjectives appear in the dual number. Pronouns, suffixes, and verbs only appear as singular or plural.

StateState

Hebrew nouns, adjectives, and verb participles can appear in one of two states.

A noun in the absolute state is either free standing or found at the end of a construct chain (a series of one or more nouns or adjectives which are in the construct state). The absolute state is the standard form of a Hebrew noun or adjective.

A noun or adjective in the construct state is bound to the nouns or adjectives which follow it in a genitival relationship. For example, in the Hebrew phrase 'av-hamon goyim ("father of a multitude of nations"), 'av and hamon are in the construct state and are "bound to" or "governed by" goyim, which is in the absolute state.

In addition to these two states, the Aramaic portions of the Hebrew Bible include a third state: determined, which indicates that the noun or adjective is definite or emphatic.