how to say “beautiful places” in Hebrew
מְקוֹמוֹת יָפִים
If you’ve got a bit of Hebrew under your belt, you likely know the word for place – מָקוֹם– whose root is ק.ו.מ (k.w.m) meaning getting up (a place is situated somewhere, as if it were made to stand in that location).
– whose root is ק.ו.מ (k.w.m) meaning getting up (a place is situated somewhere, as if it were made to stand in that location).מקום is a masculine word, so that a nice place or a beautiful place is מָקוֹם יָפֶה
But in the plural, מקום doesn’t take on the expected form of מְקוֹמִים. Rather, it appears feminine: places are מְקוֹמוֹת
. Rather, it appears feminine: places are מְקוֹמוֹתEven so, when talking about nice or beautiful places, the form is:
מְקוֹמוֹת יָפִים
In this example, the word מקומות looks feminine, but the word describing it, יָפִים, looks masculine.
, looks masculine.Here’s the rule: in Hebrew the noun’s singular form determines its gender, so that even if it appears with the opposite-gender form in the plural, adjectives describing it will appear in the original gender.
A couple of other examples:
קָרְבָּן– a sacrifice or victim – is masculine, so that even though it appears feminine in the plural, its adjectives will be masculine.
– a sacrifice or victim – is masculine, so that even though it appears feminine in the plural, its adjectives will be masculine. For example:
הַסְּעָרָה פָּקְדָה קָרְבָּנוֹת רַבִּים.
The storm claimed many victims.
עִיר– city – is a feminine word (even though it doesn’t appear to be one), so its adjectives will be feminine.
– city – is a feminine word (even though it doesn’t appear to be one), so its adjectives will be feminine.For example:
.שִׁיקָגוֹ וְשַׁנְחַאי הֵן עָרִים גְּדוֹלוֹת
Chicago and Shanghai are big cities.
Perhaps the most counter-intuitive of all is לַיְלָה which appears feminine with the ה-ending but is actually masculine.
which appears feminine with the ה-ending but is actually masculine.For example in the plural:
הַלֵּילוֹת חַמִּים בַּקַּיִץ הַיִּשְׂרָאֵלִי.
The nights are warm in the Israeli summer.