A Hebrew adjective is never a single word. It is a set of four — masculine singular, feminine singular, masculine plural, feminine plural — and you have to pick one every time you use it. English adjectives are invariable, so this is not a form to learn but a step to add: choose the noun, look up what gender it is, then shape the adjective around it.
The four forms
The base is the masculine singular. The other three are built by adding ־ָה, ־ִים or ־וֹת — the same three endings that make noun plurals, doing the same jobs.
| גדול "big" | חדש "new" | טוב "good" | |
|---|---|---|---|
| m. sg | גָּדוֹל gadól | חָדָשׁ khadásh | טוֹב tov |
| f. sg | גְּדוֹלָה gdolá | חֲדָשָׁה khadashá | טוֹבָה tová |
| m. pl | גְּדוֹלִים gdolím | חֲדָשִׁים khadashím | טוֹבִים tovím |
| f. pl | גְּדוֹלוֹת gdolót | חֲדָשׁוֹת khadashót | טוֹבוֹת tovót |
The endings are stressed, and the stem in front of them often shifts its vowels — gadól but gdolá, khadásh but khadashá. Those shifts are regular and they are set out on adjective stem changes; here, listen to the ending rather than the stem.
היה לי יום קשה, אני הולך לישון מוקדם.
hayá li yom kashé, aní holékh lishón mukdám
I've had a rough day, I'm going to bed early. (m. speaker)
היו לנו שנתיים קשות, אבל עכשיו זה מסתדר.
hayú lánu shnatáyim kashót, avál akhsháv ze mistadér
We had a couple of hard years, but things are sorting themselves out now.
The ־ֶה class, where two of the four look identical
A large group of adjectives ends in ־ֶה in the masculine singular. Pointed, the four forms are perfectly distinct; unpointed, the two singulars are the same string.
| Pointed | As written | Reads | |
|---|---|---|---|
| m. sg | יָפֶה | יפה | yafé |
| f. sg | יָפָה | יפה | yafá |
| m. pl | יָפִים | יפים | yafím |
| f. pl | יָפוֹת | יפות | yafót |
קָשֶׁה / קָשָׁה / קָשִׁים / קָשׁוֹת works the same way, and so do שווה, רזה, עבה and the rest of the class. This is not a problem to solve — it is a fact about reading Hebrew. The noun in front tells you which one it is, and if you can only see the adjective you cannot know.
יש לה קול יפה, כדאי לך לשמוע אותה.
yesh la kol yafé, kedái lekhá lishmóa otá
She's got a lovely voice — you should hear her. (to a man; קול is masculine, so this יפה is yafé)
צילמנו תמונות יפות בשקיעה.
tsilámnu tmunót yafót bashki'á
We took some lovely photos at sunset.
The ־ִי class takes ־ִית, never ־ָה
Adjectives ending in ־ִי — the type built off a noun or a place name, ישראלי from ישראל, איטלקי from איטליה — have their own feminine, and it is ־ִית.
| ישראלי | רציני | אמיתי | |
|---|---|---|---|
| m. sg | יִשְׂרְאֵלִי yisre'elí | רְצִינִי retsiní | אֲמִיתִּי amití |
| f. sg | יִשְׂרְאֵלִית yisre'elít | רְצִינִית retsinít | אֲמִיתִּית amitít |
| m. pl | יִשְׂרְאֵלִיִּים yisre'eliyím | רְצִינִיִּים retsiniyím | אֲמִיתִּיִּים amitiyím |
| f. pl | יִשְׂרְאֵלִיּוֹת yisre'eliyót | רְצִינִיּוֹת retsiniyót | אֲמִיתִּיּוֹת amitiyót |
One wrinkle worth knowing early, because you meet it on day one: when the same word is used as a noun for a person, the plural is normally the plain ־ִים — הישראלים "the Israelis", יהודים, חרדים. The Academy holds that both the one-yod and the two-yod plurals are available for these gentilics and that the shorter one is the commoner. The ־ִיִּים plural belongs to the adjective describing a thing: מוצרים ישראליים "Israeli products". The class as a whole is on the ־ִי adjectives.
היא ישראלית אבל גדלה בקנדה.
hi yisre'elít avál gadlá bekanáda
She's Israeli but she grew up in Canada.
אלה שאלות רציניות, בוא נדבר על זה מחר.
éle she'elót retsiniyót, bo nedabér al ze makhár
Those are serious questions — let's talk about it tomorrow. (to a man)
Participle adjectives take ־ֶת, and this is the one that hurts
A very large slice of everyday Hebrew adjectives are present-tense verb forms that have settled into adjectives — מעניין is literally "interesting" in the sense of "causing interest". They keep the verb's feminine, and for the pi'el and hitpa'el patterns that feminine is a segolate ־ֶת, not ־ָה. You have just learned that the feminine is ־ָה, and here is a whole class contradicting it.
| מעניין "interesting" | מרגש "moving" | מבלבל "confusing" | |
|---|---|---|---|
| m. sg | מְעַנְיֵין me'anyén | מְרַגֵּשׁ meragésh | מְבַלְבֵּל mevalbél |
| f. sg | מְעַנְיֶינֶת me'anyénet | מְרַגֶּשֶׁת meragéshet | מְבַלְבֶּלֶת mevalbélet |
| m. pl | מְעַנְיְינִים me'anyením | מְרַגְּשִׁים meragshím | מְבַלְבְּלִים mevalbelím |
| f. pl | מְעַנְיְינוֹת me'anyenót | מְרַגְּשׁוֹת meragshót | מְבַלְבְּלוֹת mevalbelót |
Do not generalise it to every participle: hif'il participles take a perfectly ordinary ־ָה — מדהים becomes מדהימה, מתאים becomes מתאימה. And a participle that has drifted far enough from its verb often keeps only the ־ָה form in ordinary use: נחמד is נחמדה for every Israeli saying "she's nice", and the participial נחמדת, though it exists, is not what you want here. Verify these one word at a time rather than by rule; the class is worked through on participle adjectives.
זו הייתה הרצאה מעניינת, לא ציפיתי.
zo haytá hartsa'á me'anyénet, lo tsipíti
That was an interesting lecture — I wasn't expecting it.
הישיבה הייתה ארוכה ומשעממת, יצאתי באמצע.
hayeshivá haytá aruká umesha'amémet, yatsáti ba'émtsa
The meeting was long and boring — I left halfway through. (משעממת belongs to the same class)
Agree with the gender, not with what you can see
Here is the point the whole page is built around. The adjective copies the noun's grammatical gender, and the noun's plural ending is not evidence of that gender. Most masculine nouns take ־ִים and most feminine ones take ־וֹת, but a substantial minority go the other way, and when they do the adjective ignores the ending completely.
| Noun | Gender | Phrase | What the eye wants |
|---|---|---|---|
| שולחנות | masculine | שולחנות גדולים | גדולות |
| חלונות | masculine | חלונות גדולים | גדולות |
| מקומות | masculine | מקומות יפים | יפות |
| שנים | feminine | שנים רבות | רבים |
| ערים | feminine | ערים גדולות | גדולים |
| מילים | feminine | מילים ארוכות | ארוכים |
החלונות הגדולים בסלון עושים את כל ההבדל.
hakhalonót hagdolím basalón osím et kol hahevdél
The big windows in the living room make all the difference.
גרנו שם שנים רבות לפני שעברנו לצפון.
gárnu sham shaním rabót lifnéi she'avárnu latsafón
We lived there for many years before we moved up north.
בערים הגדולות אין חנייה בכלל.
be'arím hagdolót ein khanayá bikhlál
In the big cities there's no parking at all.
Common Mistakes
1. Matching a ־וֹת noun with a ־וֹת adjective. The endings rhyme, the sentence sounds tidy, and it is wrong.
❌ שמנו שולחנות גדולות בחצר
Incorrect — שולחן is masculine, and its ־וֹת plural does not change that: שמנו שולחנות גדולים בחצר.
✅ שמנו שולחנות גדולים בחצר כי לא היה מקום בפנים.
sámnu shulkhanót gdolím bekhatsér ki lo hayá makóm bifním
We put big tables out in the yard because there was no room inside.
2. Matching a ־ִים noun with a ־ִים adjective. The mirror error, and שנים is where nearly everyone meets it first.
❌ עברו שנים רבים מאז
Incorrect — שנה is feminine, so the adjective is feminine plural whatever the noun's ending looks like: עברו שנים רבות מאז.
✅ עברו שנים רבות מאז שדיברנו.
avrú shaním rabót me'áz shedibárnu
It's been many years since we last spoke.
3. Putting ־ָה on a participle adjective. You have just learned that the feminine is ־ָה, so you apply it — and this class does not take it.
❌ ההרצאה הייתה מעניינה
Incorrect — participle adjectives of this type take a segolate feminine: ההרצאה הייתה מעניינת. Likewise משעממת, מרגשת, מבלבלת.
✅ הפגישה הייתה מעניינת הרבה יותר משציפיתי.
hapgishá haytá me'anyénet harbé yotér mishetsipíti
The meeting was a lot more interesting than I'd expected.
4. Putting ־ָה on a ־ִי adjective. Same instinct, different class: the ־ִי adjectives take ־ִית.
❌ היא ישראליה
Incorrect — the feminine of ישראלי is ישראלית, like רצינית and אמיתית. Reaching for ־ָה here is the ־ָה rule carried one class too far.
✅ הבעלים החדשים פתחו כאן מסעדה איטלקית.
habe'alím hakhadashím patkhú kan mis'adá italkít
The new owners have opened an Italian restaurant here.
Key Takeaways
- Every adjective has four forms, built with ־ָה, ־ִים and ־וֹת on the masculine singular: גדול · גדולה · גדולים · גדולות.
- In the ־ֶה class the two singulars are the same unpointed string — יפה is both yafé and yafá, and only the noun tells you which.
- The ־ִי class takes ־ִית in the feminine (ישראלית, רצינית, אמיתית) and ־ִיִּים / ־ִיּוֹת in the plural. Gentilics used as nouns for people usually take the plain ־ִים: הישראלים.
- Participle adjectives of the pi'el type take a segolate ־ֶת: מעניינת, משעממת, מרגשת. Hif'il participles do not — מדהימה, מתאימה — so check the word, not the class.
- The adjective agrees with the noun's grammatical gender, never with the plural ending you can see: שולחנות גדולים, חלונות גדולים, שנים רבות, ערים גדולות.
- That last point is where memorising noun gender stops being an abstraction: the adjective is the place an invisible property becomes visible.
Now practice Hebrew
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- Adjectives Agree in Gender, Number and DefinitenessA1 — A Hebrew adjective copies three facts from its noun at once — gender, number and definiteness — and there is no neutral form to fall back on. The third one is the dangerous one: get the definiteness wrong and you have not made a clumsy phrase, you have made a different sentence.
- Stem Changes: גדול → גדולה, יפה → יפיםA2 — Adding ־ָה, ־ִים or ־וֹת to an adjective does not leave the front of the word alone: גָּדוֹל becomes גְּדוֹלָה, אָרוֹךְ becomes אֲרוּכָּה, and יָפֶה loses its ending altogether. Most of it never shows up in unpointed writing — which is why יפה is two different words on the page and only the noun in front of it tells you which.
- Grammatical Gender: Every Hebrew Noun Has OneA1 — Every Hebrew noun is masculine or feminine — tables and questions included — and there is no neuter. Gender is not a label on the noun; it is a signal the noun sends to the adjective, the demonstrative and the verb, which is why it cannot be postponed.
- Adjectives Come After the NounA1 — Hebrew says בית גדול, not *גדול בית — the adjective follows the noun it describes, and after a construct chain it waits for the whole chain and agrees with the first word. That last point is also a reading tool: when a noun sits beside a noun, agreement is what tells you whether the second word is describing the first or being possessed by it.