Greek to Hebrew: a noun’s plural ending does not always identify its gender
Target agreement follows the noun, not a guessed suffix category
Greek marks grammatical gender on nouns and agreement on their modifiers. Hebrew also requires gender agreement, but its plural noun endings do not divide neatly into masculine and feminine groups. A Greek translation can therefore lose agreement if it selects a Hebrew adjective by inspecting the noun’s ending instead of identifying that noun’s grammatical gender.
The Greek overview distinguishes masculine, feminine, and neuter, with adjectives agreeing in gender, number, and case. The Hebrew Academy describes a two-gender system. A Greek neuter noun cannot simply carry a third gender category into Hebrew. The target noun must be interpreted according to its own lexical gender while continuing to identify the same object.
The Academy also explains that numerous masculine Hebrew nouns form plurals in -ot, while some feminine nouns form plurals in -im. Its examples in the related suffix discussion include masculine table and feminine word. The familiar ending patterns of adjectives are therefore not an infallible guide to the gender of the noun they modify.
A plural noun and its adjective can have different-looking endings
The original short phrase שולחנות גדולים describes big tables, with a masculine plural adjective despite the noun’s -ot ending. Conversely, מילים טובות describes good words with a feminine plural adjective despite the noun’s -im ending. These examples show why making adjacent endings look alike is not the same as making the words agree.
Imagine a Greek room description listing several tables. The translation should retain both the number of tables and the property attributed to them. If it treats the Hebrew -ot noun ending as proof that the noun has become feminine, it can choose the wrong modifier while leaving the object and count otherwise recognizable. The error concerns target agreement, not a changed owner or a different set of furniture.
The Greek resource on stems provides another reminder that number formation and lexical identity need separate attention. Its examples include καφές and plural καφέδες, where the plural has a longer stem. A changed-looking source noun can still name the same kind of thing. The Hebrew noun selected for that meaning needs its own plural and agreement pattern, rather than a suffix mechanically modeled on the Greek shape.
This is especially useful when the source repeats one descriptive adjective across several nouns. The same Greek descriptive meaning does not guarantee that every Hebrew target noun will take the same gender form. Nor does a target noun’s plural suffix authorize changing the quality itself. Keep the lexical description stable while fitting each Hebrew modifier to the noun it actually describes.
For this direction, recover the Greek noun and its description as a complete phrase, then identify the Hebrew noun’s gender independently of its plural ending. The Academy’s noun-versus-adjective distinction prevents a visual shortcut from overriding agreement. The result can preserve a straightforward Greek list without importing its three-gender organization or treating every Hebrew -im and -ot noun as though the suffix alone settled the matter.
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