In short

Lesson 7 taught you how an adjective agrees — how גדול (gadol) becomes גדולה (gdola), גדולים (gdolim), גדולות (gdolot) to match its noun. This lesson is a step earlier: where do the adjectives themselves come from? Modern Hebrew builds them productively from nouns and roots, and once you know the moulds you can coin new ones on demand — from כלכלה (kalkala, “economy”) you get כלכלי (kalkali, “economic”), and it then inflects exactly as lesson 7 describes.

Three tools cover almost everything. The workhorse is the nisba suffix ־י (a plain glued yod) that turns “X” into “relating to X”: ישראל → ישראלי, חברה → חברתי. Two adjective patterns (mishkalim) supply character words — CaCCan for habitual traits (עצלן, atzlan, “lazy”) and CaCiC for properties and “-able” qualities (יעיל, ya’il, “efficient”). And a small set of prefixes — בין־, דו־, רב־ — stack onto an existing adjective to give “inter-”, “bi-”, “multi-”.

The rule

• The nisba suffix ־י makes a relational adjective — “of / relating to X”. Take a noun, drop a final ־ה if there is one, and glue on ־י: ישראל (Yisra’el) → ישראלי (yisra’eli, “Israeli”); כלכלה (kalkala, “economy”) → כלכלי (kalkali, “economic”); טבע (teva, “nature”) → טבעי (tiv’i, “natural”). This is the single most productive way to build a new adjective in Modern Hebrew, and it works on almost any noun — including borrowings (טכנולוגיה → טכנולוגי, “technological”).

• The derived stem then inflects for gender and number like any adjective. You are only building the stem here; agreement is still lesson 7. The four forms of a nisba adjective are: masculine ־י, feminine ־ית, masculine plural ־יים, feminine plural ־יות — ישראלי / ישראלית / ישראליים / ישראליות (yisra’eli / yisra’elit / yisra’eliyim / yisra’eliyot). Note that the feminine is ־ית, not a plain ־ה: “an Israeli woman” is ישראלית, never ישראלה.

• Feminine ־ה bases behave in two ways — learn each as a fact. Some restore a hidden ־ת־ (the same ת you saw in smichut, lesson 23): חברה (chevra, “society”) → חברתי (chevrati, “social”); שנה (shana, “year”) → שנתי (shnati, “annual”). Others simply drop the ה: כלכלה → כלכלי (kalkali), not כלכלתי. A base already ending in ־ות keeps it: אמנות (omanut, “art”) → אמנותי (omanuti, “artistic”).

• Pattern CaCCan = a habitual trait, often a mild vice. Slotting a root into the mould CaCCan gives a character adjective meaning “one who tends to X”: עצלן (atzlan, “lazy”), ביישן (bayshan, “shy”), קמצן (kamtzan, “stingy”), and more (פחדן, pachdan, “cowardly”; רגזן, ragzan, “irritable”). Its feminine is ־ית and its masculine plural ־ים: עצלן → עצלנית → עצלנים (atzlan / atzlanit / atzlanim).

• Pattern CaCiC = a property or an “-able / -ible” quality. The mould CaCiC gives adjectives of measurable property or potential: יעיל (ya’il, “efficient”), שביר (shavir, “breakable / fragile”), מהיר (mahir, “fast”), הפיך (hafich, “reversible”). Feminine and plural are ordinary: יעיל → יעילה → יעילים (ya’il / ye’ila / ye’ilim).

• The prefixes בין־ / דו־ / רב־ stack onto an adjective. They attach to an already-built adjective (usually a nisba one): לאומי (le’umi, “national”) → בינלאומי (beynle’umi, “international”); לשוני (leshoni, “lingual”) → דו-לשוני (du-leshoni, “bilingual”) and רב-לשוני (rav-leshoni, “multilingual”); תרבותי (tarbuti, “cultural”) → רב-תרבותי (rav-tarbuti, “multicultural”). בין־ is normally written solid (בינלאומי); דו־ and רב־ take a hyphen.

• Do not confuse adjectival ־י with the profession-noun suffix ־אי. The suffix ־אי (spelled with an alef, pronounced -ai) builds an agent/profession noun, not an adjective: עיתון (iton, “newspaper”) → עיתונאי (itona’i, “journalist”); חשמל (chashmal, “electricity”) → חשמלאי (chashmalai, “electrician”). Compare the adjective חשמלי (chashmali, “electric”): same root, but ־י describes a thing while ־אי names a person.

Forms & patterns

The nisba paradigm (build the stem, then inflect it):

Base noun → relational adjective:

Two adjective patterns (mishkalim):

Productive prefixes (added to an existing adjective):

Examples

Common mistakes

• הוא ישראלית -> הוא ישראלי (hu yisra’eli) - the derived stem still agrees in gender (lesson 7); ־ית is the feminine ending and is wrong for a man.
• ישראלה (fem.) -> ישראלית (yisra’elit) - the feminine of a nisba adjective is ־ית, never a plain ־ה.
• חברי (‘social’) -> חברתי (chevrati) - the feminine ־ה base restores its hidden ־ת־ before the ־י suffix.
• כלכלתי -> כלכלי (kalkali) - not every ־ה noun restores a ת; כלכלה just drops the ה and adds ־י.
• עצלנה -> עצלנית (atzlanit) - the CaCCan trait pattern forms its feminine with ־ית, never a plain ־ה.
• עיתוני (‘journalist’) -> עיתונאי (itona’i) - a profession noun takes ־אי, pronounced -ai; ־י alone only builds an adjective (עיתונאי the person vs חשמלי the property).
• בין לאומי -> בינלאומי (beynle’umi) - the prefix בין־ joins the base with no space, as one word.

Tips

• The nisba ־י is your default engine for “relating to X” adjectives — you can coin them freely from nearly any noun (פוליטי “political”, היסטורי “historical”, טכנולוגי “technological”, דיגיטלי “digital”).
• Keep the two jobs apart: first build the stem (ישראלי), then inflect it for agreement (ישראלית, ישראליים) by lesson 7. The ־ית you add is the feminine of the adjective, not a separate word.
• The feminine ־ה bases split into two habits — some restore a ת (חברה → חברתי, שנה → שנתי), others don’t (כלכלה → כלכלי). Learn each base as its own small fact rather than guessing.
• Reach for CaCCan when you want a habitual trait or mild vice (עצלן, ביישן, קמצן, פחדן, רגזן); reach for CaCiC for a measurable property or an “-able” quality (יעיל, שביר, מהיר, הפיך).
• Watch the ־אי trap: ־י builds an adjective (חשמלי “electric”), but ־אי with an alef builds a person (חשמלאי “electrician”, עיתונאי “journalist”). If you can hear an a before the final i (-ai), it’s a noun.
• Stack the prefixes onto a ready-made adjective: לאומי → בינלאומי, לשוני → דו-לשוני / רב-לשוני, תרבותי → רב-תרבותי. Write בין־ solid and דו־ / רב־ with a hyphen.
• Once built, these adjectives are fully ordinary — they take ה־, follow their noun, and agree in everything: המצב הכלכלי, בעיה חברתית, כישורים חברתיים.