# Do adjectives follow their nouns or vice versa?



## Scholiast

Greetings all

the question arises from a thread in another WR forum, but perhaps someone here can illuminate. In Hebrew - whether classical or contemporary - do adjectives usually follow their nouns or vice versa?

Please forgive my ignorance - but appreciate my intellectual curiosity.

Σ


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## tFighterPilot

In Hebrew adjectives always follow the noun, whether biblical or modern Hebrew.


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## origumi

אחלה שאלה.


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## tFighterPilot

origumi said:


> אחלה שאלה.


יוצא מן הכלל המעיד על הכלל (נראה לי שזאת המשמעות של הביטוי הזה)


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## origumi

tFighterPilot said:


> יוצא מן הכלל המעיד על הכלל (נראה לי שזאת המשמעות של הביטוי הזה)


בהחלט. לכן קיצרתי ולא תרגמתי לאנגלית, בעיקר כדי שלא לבלבל את פותח האשכול ואחרים. ואפשר גם לטעון שזו סמיכות, בדומה ל"מותק של שאלה".


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## amikama

origumi said:


> אחלה שאלה.


Hmmm... This is a problematic example, because אחלה is borrowed from Arabic, and it doesn't agree with the noun in number and gender like a "normal" adjective (you don't say אחלות שאלות etc.). Semantically it looks like an adjective... but is it really an adjective?

I still believe that there are no exceptions at all. Adjectives always follow nouns.

(I'm writing in English because OP asked in English and apparently he doesn't know Hebrew.)


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## origumi

Problematic indeed. אחלה has no declinations therefore somewhat similar to adverb. In certain contexts it behaves like an adjective, for example את אחלה ואת חמודה, and then again this can be compared to את מותק or את אייזן בטון, so not an adjective. I think that as a slang word it simply doesn't comply with the usual grammar rules, which make its usage more flexible and creative.

And yet in the bottom line and as you noted: אחלה שאלה (or אחלה יום and alike) makes אחלה take the adjective niche, even though not in adjectival form.


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## hadronic

That's the regular Arabic elative / comparative construct, if I'm not mistaken. It's invariable and formed as a smikhut.


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## MuttQuad

tFighterPilot said:


> In Hebrew adjectives always follow the noun, whether biblical or modern Hebrew.



Does that include the adjectival use of numbers, e.g "three years" or "seven dogs"?


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## hadronic

In that case, you also have the adjectival smikhut : כחול עיניים, כבד תנועה,...


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## amikama

MuttQuad said:


> Does that include the adjectival use of numbers, e.g "three years" or "seven dogs"?


Numbers? It's a different story. Are they considered as adjectives in the Hebrew grammar? I don't think so.



hadronic said:


> In that case, you also have the adjectival smikhut : כחול עיניים, כבד תנועה,...


And they are adjectives by themselves, much like "blue-eyed" in English. No exceptions here as well: they follow their nouns and agree with them in number and gender.


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## MuttQuad

Numbers are certainly used as adjectives in English, and inasmuch as I note they sometimes precede nouns in Hebrew, I thought I'd ask if the statement that adjectives _always_ follow nouns was as all-inclusive as it sounds.

Now, if Hebrew never considers numbers to be adjectives even when they modify a noun, then that is a difference between English and Hebrew grammatical concepts.

Just trying to learn more out of pure curiosity.


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## Drink

Even in English, numbers work a bit differently from other adjectives. In most languages, it is convenient to classify numbers as their own special category rather than as adjectives or nouns, and I think Hebrew is a prime example of why.


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