how to say “vineyard” in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/כרם-#.m4a” /]כֶּרֶם

Here’s another beautiful Hebrew name: כרם[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/כרם-#.m4a” /]. But departing from the trend, this one’s for girls (at least usually).

Grammatically, though,  כרם (meaning vineyard) – is masculine. That’s why the following sentence uses היה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/כרם-#.m4a” /] (a masculine conjugation) and not הייתה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/כרם-#.m4a” /] (a feminine conjugation) for was:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/כרם-#.m4a” /]לשלמה היה כרם בו הוא גידל כמה סוגי גפנים.

Shlomo had (for Shlomo there was) a vineyard in which he grew several kinds of grapevines.

(This Modern-Hebrew sentence is based on the Biblical verse in Song of Songs 8:11.)

Gender confusion in Hebrew names is not limited to כרם alone: the name אריאל[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/כרם-#.m4a” /], typically for males, is actually feminine in gender. Go figure.