Adjective agreement (gender/number/definiteness) & order
A1 התאם שם ותואר 7 / 69
In short
A Modern Hebrew adjective comes after the noun it describes, and it agrees with that noun. Where English says “a good boy”, Hebrew says ילד טוב (yeled tov) — literally “boy good”. The adjective then copies the noun’s gender and number, and adds one more ending to match: masculine or feminine, singular or plural. So “a good girl” is ילדה טובה (yalda tova) and “new books” is ספרים חדשים (sfarim chadashim).
There is one extra layer Hebrew adds that English does not: definiteness agreement. When the noun is definite (carries ה־), the adjective repeats that ה־ too — הבית הגדול (ha-bayit ha-gadol, “the big house”), with two ha-. Drop the second ha- and you no longer have a phrase; you have a whole sentence: הבית גדול (ha-bayit gadol, “the house is big”). Counting the ha- is how you tell “the big house” from “the house is big”.
The rule
The attributive adjective follows its noun. Put the noun first and the describing word second — the reverse of English. ילד טוב (yeled tov, “a good boy”), ספר חדש (sefer chadash, “a new book”), מכונית אדומה (mechonit aduma, “a red car”). Never front the adjective: טוב ילד is not Hebrew.
It agrees in gender and number. The adjective takes one of four forms to match the noun — masculine singular (no ending), feminine singular ־ה (-a), masculine plural ־ים (-im), feminine plural ־ות (-ot). These are exactly the four endings you already met on the present-tense verb (the binoni, lesson 6): if you can inflect כותב / כותבת / כותבים / כותבות, you can inflect any adjective. So ילד טוב, ילדה טובה (yalda tova), ילדים טובים (yeladim tovim), ילדות טובות (yeladot tovot).
Agree with grammatical gender, not with the ending you see. The adjective matches the noun’s real gender and number (lessons 3 and 4), which the noun’s own ending does not always reveal. עיר (ir, “city”) looks unmarked but is feminine, so it takes a feminine adjective: עיר גדולה (ir gdola). נשים (nashim, “women”) ends in ־ים but is feminine, so the adjective is ־ות: נשים יפות (nashim yafot), never נשים יפים. שולחנות (shulchanot, “tables”) ends in ־ות but is masculine, so the adjective is ־ים: שולחנות גדולים (shulchanot gdolim), never שולחנות גדולות. Match the word, not its tail.
A definite noun repeats ha- on the adjective. This is definiteness agreement, and Hebrew has no English parallel. If the noun carries the article ה־ (lesson 2), the adjective carries it too: הבית הגדול (ha-bayit ha-gadol, “the big house”), הילדה החדשה (ha-yalda ha-chadasha, “the new girl”), המכוניות האדומות (ha-mechoniyot ha-adumot, “the red cars”). The ha- on the adjective still fuses/behaves like any other ה־, so a preposition on the noun does not change it: בבית הגדול (ba-bayit ha-gadol, “in the big house”) — ב swallows the noun’s article (lesson 2), but the adjective keeps its own ha-.
Attributive vs. predicative: count the ha-. With a definite noun, two ha- make a noun phrase (a thing): הבית הגדול (ha-bayit ha-gadol) = “the big house”. One ha-, on the noun only, makes a sentence — the verbless nominal sentence of lesson 5, “the house is big”: הבית גדול (ha-bayit gadol). The predicative adjective is indefinite (no ha-) and simply agrees in gender and number. With an indefinite noun the two readings share one spelling — בית גדול (bayit gadol) is both “a big house” and “a house is big”; context decides.
Stack multiple adjectives after the noun. Each one follows, each one agrees, and each one repeats ha- when the noun is definite, usually joined by ו־ (ve-, “and”): הבית הגדול והיפה (ha-bayit ha-gadol ve-ha-yafe, “the big and beautiful house”).
Forms & patterns
The four agreeing forms of common adjectives:
| Adjective | m. sg | f. sg | m. pl | f. pl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| גדול ‘big’ | גדול (gadol) | גדולה (gdola) | גדולים (gdolim) | גדולות (gdolot) |
| טוב ‘good’ | טוב (tov) | טובה (tova) | טובים (tovim) | טובות (tovot) |
| חדש ‘new’ | חדש (chadash) | חדשה (chadasha) | חדשים (chadashim) | חדשות (chadashot) |
| אדום ‘red’ | אדום (adom) | אדומה (aduma) | אדומים (adumim) | אדומות (adumot) |
| יפה ‘beautiful’ | יפה (yafe) | יפה (yafa) | יפים (yafim) | יפות (yafot) |
The endings — the same four as the binoni (lesson 6):
| m. sg | f. sg | m. pl | f. pl | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ending | — (none) | ־ה (-a) | ־ים (-im) | ־ות (-ot) |
Two notes on the table. אדום shifts its vowel: the o of adom becomes u once an ending follows — aduma, adumim, adumot. יפה is a spelling trap: the masculine yafe and the feminine yafa are both written יפה (unvocalized), so only the noun beside it — or the pronunciation — tells you which.
The core contrast, driven by the ha- count:
| Hebrew | Translit | English | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| בית גדול | bayit gadol | a big house / a house is big | indefinite — both readings |
| הבית הגדול | ha-bayit ha-gadol | the big house | attributive phrase (2× ha-) |
| הבית גדול | ha-bayit gadol | the house is big | predicative sentence (1× ha-) |
Gender traps — the adjective follows the noun’s true gender, not its ending:
| Noun | Gender | Note | Noun + adjective |
|---|---|---|---|
| עיר (ir) | feminine | unmarked, still fem | עיר גדולה (ir gdola) |
| נשים (nashim) | feminine | ־ים ending, still fem | נשים יפות (nashim yafot) |
| שולחנות (shulchanot) | masculine | ־ות ending, still masc | שולחנות גדולים (shulchanot gdolim) |
Examples
| עברית | Transliteration | English |
|---|---|---|
| זאת מכונית אדומה. | zot mechonit aduma. | This is a red car. |
| אני גר בבית הגדול. | ani gar ba-bayit ha-gadol. | I live in the big house. |
| הילדה החדשה בכיתה. | ha-yalda ha-chadasha ba-kita. | The new girl is in the class. |
| הבית גדול ויפה. | ha-bayit gadol ve-yafe. | The house is big and beautiful. |
| הם קונים ספרים חדשים. | hem konim sfarim chadashim. | They are buying new books. |
| נשים יפות עובדות פה. | nashim yafot ovdot po. | Beautiful women work here. |
| יש שולחנות גדולים בחדר. | yesh shulchanot gdolim ba-cheder. | There are big tables in the room. |
| תל אביב עיר גדולה. | tel aviv ir gdola. | Tel Aviv is a big city. |
| הבית הגדול יפה. | ha-bayit ha-gadol yafe. | The big house is beautiful. |
| המכוניות האדומות מהירות. | ha-mechoniyot ha-adumot mehirot. | The red cars are fast. |
| הילד הטוב עוזר לאמא. | ha-yeled ha-tov ozer le-ima. | The good boy helps mom. |
| הדירה החדשה קטנה. | ha-dira ha-chadasha ktana. | The new apartment is small. |
| הילדים הטובים משחקים בחוץ. | ha-yeladim ha-tovim mesachakim ba-chutz. | The good children are playing outside. |
Common mistakes
- טוב ילד -> ילד טוב (yeled tov) - the adjective follows the noun; never front it English-style.
- ילדה טוב -> ילדה טובה (yalda tova) - the adjective must agree in gender; a feminine noun takes the ־ה form.
- ספרים חדשה -> ספרים חדשים (sfarim chadashim) - agree in number too; a plural noun takes a plural adjective.
- הבית גדול (for “the big house”) -> הבית הגדול (ha-bayit ha-gadol) - a definite noun repeats ha- on its adjective; without it, הבית גדול means “the house is big”.
- הבית הגדול (meaning “the house is big”) -> הבית גדול (ha-bayit gadol) - the predicative adjective is indefinite; the second ha- would turn the sentence into the phrase “the big house”.
- עיר גדול -> עיר גדולה (ir gdola) - agree with grammatical gender: עיר is feminine even without a feminine ending.
- נשים יפים -> נשים יפות (nashim yafot) - נשים is feminine despite the ־ים plural, so the adjective takes ־ות.
- שולחנות גדולות -> שולחנות גדולים (shulchanot gdolim) - שולחן is masculine despite the ־ות plural, so the adjective takes ־ים.
Tips
- Build the word-order reflex: noun first, adjective second. Think “boy good”, “house big” — then never front the adjective the way English does.
- Match three things on the adjective at once: gender, number, and — if the noun is definite — the article ha-.
- The four adjective endings are the same four you learned for the binoni (lesson 6): — / ־ה / ־ים / ־ות. Reuse that muscle memory.
- Agree with the noun’s real gender and number, not its ending. Recall the traps: עיר and נשים are feminine, שולחנות is masculine (lessons 3 and 4).
- The ha- test tells a phrase from a sentence: two ha- (הבית הגדול) = “the big house” (a thing); one ha- (הבית גדול) = “the house is big” (a statement).
- Since the text is unvocalized, remember יפה is both yafe (m) and yafa (f) — one spelling, two sounds; the noun beside it decides.
- Watch the transliteration for vowel shifts: גדול gadol but גדולה gdola; אדום adom but אדומה aduma. The ending is added and the vowels reshuffle.
- Stack adjectives freely, all after the noun and all agreeing — each also carrying ha- when the noun is definite: הבית הגדול והיפה (ha-bayit ha-gadol ve-ha-yafe).