B-Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Forum

According to Gesenius רוח is feminine and it is rarely masculine. (1Kings 19:11) I don't see any difference between the lexical form and that found at 1 Kings 19:11. What are the feminine and masculine suffixes of Hebrew nouns? What would the masculine suffix of רוח be?

My iPhone got the best of me on the subject heading...if a moderator wants to correct the spelling it would be welcome. Then my OCD will let up a bit.

Done.

Lostntym8 wrote:According to Gesenius רוח is feminine and it is rarely masculine. (1Kings 19:11) I don't see any difference between the lexical form and that found at 1 Kings 19:11. What are the feminine and masculine suffixes of Hebrew nouns? What would the masculine suffix of רוח be?

The meaning and spelling of the word don't change. It's simply רוח. Gesenius is most likely seeing that the participle מפרק in 1 Kgs 19.11 is masculine, and it is predicated of רוח. Strict adherence to agreement of gender doesn't always happen in Biblical Hebrew. It is quite common for feminine nouns to be qualified in some way by words in the masculine. Grammar is rather slippery in antiquity. But then again, we does similar things today.

Thank you George! I was wondering if it was due to a connected verb. Thank you for the confirmation. I see that it is the substantive's suffixes that help identify the gender as feminine. There seems to be no set masculine suffixes. My primer says that it is best to consult a lexicon to learn what it may be.

Thanks again!

Not all feminine nouns are specifically marked as feminine. Only some are, such as nouns that could legitimately have either a male or female instance (e.g. סוסה is a female horse, a mare), and others which simply carry a ה marker at the end. But many feminine nouns are not specifically marked by the addition of any suffix at all. The noun רוח is one such noun. Note the last consonant is ח (heth) not ה (he).