# How do Israelis recognise the gender of word?



## gitay

I also wonder how do Israelis recognise the gender of word?


[Moderator edit: thread split]


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## utopia

The regular way is when a word ends with הx - then it's a feminine. BUT there are too many words that don't end with הx that are still feminine: פעם, דרך,  רוח, תהום  and so on.


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## bazq

*Very* generally speaking, /ים-/ is the m.plural suffix, and /ות-/ is the f.plural suffix.
There are exceptions to this rule, words ending in /-im/ which are feminine, and words ending in /-ot/ which are masculine.
No way of knowing beforehand, you just have to learn them .

אב ['av] = "father", but אבות ['av*ot*] = "fathers".
מילה [mila] = "word" (feminine), but מילים [mil*im*] = "words".


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## gitay

bazq said:


> *Very* generally speaking, /ים-/ is the m.plural suffix, and /ות-/ is the f.plural suffix.
> There are exceptions to this rule, words ending in /-im/ which are feminine, and words ending in /-ot/ which are masculine.
> No way of knowing beforehand, you just have to learn them .
> 
> אב ['av] = "father", but אבות ['av*ot*] = "fathers".
> מילה [mila] = "word" (feminine), but מילים [mil*im*] = "words".



lol, thanks for explanation.. this really make me feel confused.
I am at beginning of Hebrew and building my vocab list,  so may have a lot of questions )


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## utopia

Concentrate on what you can easily grasp: words which end in הx (A sound) are feminine. Especially if they have a male counterpart:

ילד- ילדה
מלך-מלכה
איש-אישה
נער-נערה
and of course all the adjectives: גדול-גדולה, קטן-קטנה etc...

בהצלחה!


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## origumi

It always makes me smile hearing a Chinese person asking "how can you remember so much info". Hey, you remember 10,000 or 20,000 complex symbols, reading and writing (or drawing?), so why wouldn't we be able to hold in mind few 1000s word genders?


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## airelibre

origumi said:


> It always makes me smile hearing a Chinese person asking "how can you remember so much info". Hey, you remember 10,000 or 20,000 complex symbols, reading and writing (or drawing?), so why wouldn't we be able to hold in mind few 1000s word genders?


So true. I swear you have to have a photographic memory to be literate in Chinese.


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## MuttQuad

That's why the PRC has been circumventing the problem to a large extent by the use of the Latin-based Pin Yin script. Chinese who may not have learned to read or write a word in the traditional ideographic system can identify it by its sound through the Pin Yin orthography.


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## fdb

MuttQuad said:


> That's why the PRC has been circumventing the problem to a large extent by the use of the Latin-based Pin Yin script. Chinese who may not have learned to read or write a word in the traditional ideographic system can identify it by its sound through the Pin Yin orthography.



China has a literacy rate of over 95%. Japan has 100%.


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## MuttQuad

fdb said:


> China has a literacy rate of over 95%. Japan has 100%.



But at what level (number of characters)? Japanese students, by the time they complete secondary education, have learned about 2100 characters, including kanji and kana -- but there is essentially no numerical limit to the number of ideographic characters used in Chinese (although Xinhua lists about 3500, if I recall correctly. for everyday use.


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