Hebrew Parts of Speech

These Hebrew parts of speech can be selected for searches in the Set Tag Details dialog boxes:

An adjective is a word used to modify a noun. In Hebrew, an adjective must agree with the word it modifies in gender and number. Adjectives can also appear in different states. The class tag identifies ordinal or cardinal numbers.

Adjective Class

Sentence Function
Ordinal

Expresses the numbers "first," "second," "third," etc.
Cardinal

Describes the numbers "one," "two," "three," etc.
Gentilic Adjectives ending with a a yod added to them to identify a person from a specific (non-Hebrew) tribe or group. In English, it is similar to the "ian" added to identify nationality, for example "Egyptian" a person from Egypt.

A noun is a word which designates a person, thing, or quality. Hebrew nouns are distinguished by class, gender, number, and state.

Class: In grammatically tagged Hebrew texts, nouns fall into three distinct classes:

  • Common: Nouns with no special characteristics.
  • Proper Name: Nouns used to identify unique individuals, things, events, or places.
  • Gentilic: Nouns which are names with a yod added to them to identify a person from a specific tribe or group. In English, it is similar to the "ian" added to identify nationality, for example "Egyptian" a person from Egypt.
  • Transliteration: A word from another language already in the code table.
  • New Tags for future databases

Related Topics Link IconRelated Topics

In grammatically tagged Hebrew texts, the Paragraph tag indicates the letters nun, peh, or samech which appear as paragraph markers at the end of many verses.

Particles are words which serve a variety of functions and which do not belong to any of the other parts of speech. In Hebrew, the article is used to make definite or draw attention to nouns and other substantives. The article is either prefixed or suffixed to the word it modifies.

Particles can fall into any of the following classes:

Particle Class

Function
Article  
Conjunction Connects words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. A Hebrew conjunction may be free standing or prefixed to the word which follows it.
Adverb

A word used to modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.

Subclasses have been added for future use: anaphoric, conjunctive, and focus.
Interrogative Introduces a question such as "who?", "what?", or "where?".
Interjection Expresses strong feeling, emotion, or surprise. They are often capable of standing on their own.
Negative Negates some element within a sentence, such as "not."
Object In Hebrew, the direct object is often preceded by the direct object marker, "et". This word is generally left untranslated, since it serves merely to signify which word is acting as the direct object.
Preposition Indicates the relationship of a substantive (known as the object of the preposition) to a verb, an adjective, or another substantive. Prepositions can be free-standing or prefixed to other words. When prefixed to a word with a definite article, it forms a compound preposition article.
Relative Introduces a relative clause. A relative clause serves as an adjective modifying the antecedent of the relative particle. In the sentence "Moses was the man who led the Israelites out of Egypt," the relative particle "who" introduces the relative clause "who led the Israelites out of Egypt," which acts as an adjective modifying the noun "man."
Compound Preposition Article Formed when a preposition is prefixed to a word with a definite article. In such cases, the article drops out and the preposition assumes the vowel pointing of the article.
Existence New tag for future use

Pronouns are words that stand in the place of nouns in order to avoid unnecessary repetition.

Hebrew pronouns fall into the following classes:

  • Independent: One that stands by itself and which represents a specific person or object. As such, independent pronouns possess person, gender, and number.
  • Interrogative: One that introduces a question, such as "who," "what," or "where."
  • Demonstrative: One that points something out, draws attention to the object, such as "this," "these," or "those."

The person a Hebrew pronoun takes indicates whether it represents the person or persons speaking (first person), the person or persons spoken to (second person), or the person, persons, or things being spoken about (third person).

For the most part, Hebrew suffixes are pronominal—that is, they function as pronouns. When attached to nouns or adjectives, pronominal suffixes generally indicate possession or stand at the end of a construct chain (a series of one or more nouns or adjectives which are in the construct state). When attached to verbs or prepositions, they usually function as the object of the verb or preposition. Because they act as pronouns, pronominal suffixes possess person, gender, and number.

The Class popup menu offers pronominal (which finds all the persons of the pronoun) in addition to three other suffixes: the directional Heh, the paragogic Heh, and the paragogic Nun.

  • Paragogic Heh: Comprises a long form of the imperative.
  • Directional Heh: Indicates motion toward the word to which it is attached. For example, when the directional Heh is suffixed to the word mitzrayim (Egypt), it forms mitzrayma, which means "toward Egypt."
  • Paragogic Nun: Comprises a long form of the imperfect which may indicate contrast or duration.

The Other popup menu offers the rare energic Nun tag, as well as new tags for future databases.

A verb is a word that expresses action or a state of being. In Hebrew, verbs can be distinguished according to their stem and aspect. Depending on its aspect, a Hebrew verb can also possess person, gender, number, and state, as well as being jussive (or apocopated) or cohortative.

For more details, see Hebrew and Aramaic Verbs.