# Dictionary: Finding out if a word is female / male



## Salvi93

Hey guys,

I know that the Hebrew language has many nouns that indicate a male and female world very clear.
For example שׁוֹטֵר and שׁוֹטֵרת. Here it's clear that shoter is male and shoteret is female for policeman/woman and you can build the plural with the suffix 'im (m.) or 'ot (fem.)

Moreover there are nouns that are always male or female. For example מְכוֹנִית for car is a female word or לֶחֶם for bread is a male word. I know the rule for indicating a male or female noun like this by looking at the suffix where female words mostly have 'it/at/et (ending with a tav) like mechonit (car) or 'ah Beitsah (egg) as a suffix and male nouns have no special suffix.

That's clear, but there are some exceptions like the word שֶׁמֶשׁ for sun. It looks like a male noun and I thought so but now I found out that it is a female word, even if there is not the suffix for indicating a female noun. I'm pretty sure I'll finde more exceptions like this while studying Hebrew and therefore I'd like to use a dictionary for checking the gender.

At the moment I use morfix to check Hebrew nouns and I'm not sure how to check if it's male or female and if it's possible?
So is there a chance indicating female and male nouns with a dictionary like morfix and if yes, how?

Thanks in advance!


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## Drink

Salvi93 said:


> At the moment I use morfix to check Hebrew nouns and I'm not sure how to check if it's male or female and if it's possible?
> So is there a chance indicating female and male nouns with a dictionary like morfix and if yes, how?



If you notice, when you look up "שמש" in Morfix, it says in small letters after the word "שֵם נ'" and if you look up "לילה", it says "שֵם ז'". Here "שם" means "noun", the "ז'" is an abbreviation of the word "זכר" which means "male", and "נ'" is an abbreviation of the word "נקבה" which means "female". Sometimes you'll see "שֵם ז"ר" or "שֵם נ"ר", where the ר means "רבים" or "רבות" which mean "plural". For "פנים", it says "שֵם זנ"ר", which means "male plural or female plural". If you look up the word "שוטר" it will just say "שֵם" without giving a gender, which usually means that this is a male word but also has a female form by adding the appropriate suffix.


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## aavichai

DRINK answear the question

But for the word שמש - it is male & female
I dont know about morfix. But if it define it as female only than thats a mistake.


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## Salvi93

Drink said:


> If you notice, when you look up "שמש" in Morfix, it says in small letters after the word "שֵם נ'" and if you look up "לילה", it says "שֵם ז'". Here "שם" means "noun", the "ז'" is an abbreviation of the word "זכר" which means "male", and "נ'" is an abbreviation of the word "נקבה" which means "female". Sometimes you'll see "שֵם ז"ר" or "שֵם נ"ר", where the ר means "רבים" or "רבות" which mean "plural". For "פנים", it says "שֵם זנ"ר", which means "male plural or female plural". If you look up the word "שוטר" it will just say "שֵם" without giving a gender, which usually means that this is a male word but also has a female form by adding the appropriate suffix.



I'm sorry for my late response. Thanks a lot for this great explanation. This makes it clear for me how the Hebrew dictionary works and how I can figure out if it's a male / female noun in singular / plural. Now I will train looking up some words in a dictionary to get familiar with. Thanks again for your great help, Drink!



aavichai said:


> DRINK answear the question
> 
> But for the word שמש - it is male & female
> I dont know about morfix. But if it define it as female only than thats a mistake.



Thanks you, too for your help. If I look up the world "שמש" in Morfix it says the following:

"'שֵם נ" for the word called "shemesh" which means sun and 'שֵם ז for the word called "shamash" for a beadle (Jewish ritual). Do you mean this distinction?
Can you recommend another dictionary instead of Morfix?

Thanks again for your help guys and best regards!


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## aavichai

Hi
SHEMESH (sun) is both m & f
The reason they wrote only f is because this is the common way to talk today.
Most people will use it as f.

So it depend what you looking for.
Just to talk the common talk or to study more deeply.
If it is to study more deeply then this dictionary not so good for you imo.

If just to know the common then its fine.

Shamash is another word and it is m.


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## Drink

Salvi93 said:


> Can you recommend another dictionary instead of Morfix?



I think Morfix is the best Hebrew-English dictionary both on- and offline. The only thing better would be comprehensive Hebrew-Hebrew dictionaries such as Even-Shoshan.


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## aavichai

Theres also rav millim
It is better
But this cost money
I think 30 seqels per month

It is not perfect
But way better imo than morfix
And it is also give you ?synnonim? נרדפות
For hebrew words and rhymes and phrases
And also the grammar of that word
Root and example of how it is tent
Verbs ands nouns
And its with nikud for hebrew


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## Salvi93

Thank you @aavichai for this explanation. I didn't know this fact before, that's very interesting. I'll try to take a look at both so that I get confident with daily Hebrew as well as with grammatically more correct Hebrew. The Rav Millim Dictionary sounds interesting, I'll take a closer look ti it. Thanks for your recommendation! 

Thank you, too @Drink! I haven't heard of the Even-Shoshan before, it seems to be a great Hebrew-Hebrew dictionary. At the moment I'm considering if it's worth ordering a good Hebrew-Hebrew dictionary like the Even-Shoshan but I think it is maybe a little bit too early and therefore overwhelming. After gaining more experience in the Hebrew language and Hebrew words it will be definitely worth ordering it. So thanks again for your tip!


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## sawyeric1

Don't שם ז and שם נ on Morfix stand for זכרי and נקבי since they are adjectives instead of זכר and נקבה since they are nouns?


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## Drink

sawyeric1 said:


> Don't שם ז and שם נ on Morfix stand for זכרי and נקבי since they are adjectives instead of זכר and נקבה since they are nouns?



I think "שם זכר" is interpreted as "noun, masculine gender". Likewise for the feminine.


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## sawyeric1

Then it seems like it would need to be "שם, זכר" and would seem clumsier ...


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## Drink

sawyeric1 said:


> Then it seems like it would need to be "שם, זכר" and would seem clumsier ...



It's a dictionary abbreviation, don't overanalyze it. We do similar things in English like "n. m." ("noun mascluline") instead of "masculine noun", and other things like that, like headline grammar "man hit by car" instead of "*a* man *was* hit by *a* car".


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