The Hebrew Language verbs are inflected by gender, person and tense.
There are three persons in the Hebrew language, often enumerated by number (in the present tense, 2nd and 3rd persons are not distinguished). For each person, there are both singular and plural forms. Usually the person affects the suffix of the verb. Thus "lamadti" means "I have learnt", "lamadta" means "You (masculine singular) have learnt", "lamdu" means "they have learnt". The stem "lamd-" remains constant.
The inflection by gender is full, that is Hebrew distinguishes between "lamadt" (you have learnt, feminine) and "lamadta" (you have learnt, masculine). There are also three tenses, the Past ("a'var"), the Present ("hove") and the Future ("a'tid"). There is no perfect tense, but the meaning it usually conveys can be derived from the context. Additionally, there is an Imperative form ("tsivui"), which is formed from the Future, and Infinitive ("makor natui"), which is usually formed by prefixing the Imperative with the particle "le". Passive binyans (see below) have neither an Imperative, nor an Infinitive form.
As in other Semitic languages, verbs are derived from a three-letter root (which signifies a certain general concept, such as K-T-B for writing) into numerous patterns through the use of intermediate vowels and prefixes. The Hebrew grammar usually classifies the verbs into 7 basic groups (called the binyanim), each of which has a special inflectional trait, which is usually apparent in the binyan's name. Thus, the Nipha'l binyan specifies the presense of the syllable "ni" in the beginning of the verb (either directly or as a stress). The Paa'l binyan is sometimes called Qal (without vowels it could be confused with Pie'l).
There are 3 active binyans (Paa'l, Pie'l, Hifi'l) and 4 passive ones (Nipha'l, Pua'l, Hufa'l, Hitpae'l). Usually Pie'l verbs (i.e. "piteax", developed) become passive in Pua'l ("putax", was developed). Similarilly, Hifi'l turns into Hufa'l for passive. Nifa'l is often used as the passive of Paa'l (thus Paa'l "sagar", "closed", turns into Nifa'l "nisgar", got closed); however ancient use suggests that it was originally used as a reflexive structure. In modern Hebrew, hitpae'l carries the reflexive function.
The system of the binyan is relatively easy to understand and grasp; however it has numerous exceptions due to regular phonetical changes. For example, roots beginning with N, such as N-P-K (signifying the concept of making or refining), often lose this consonant, as in the verb "mapik" ("he makes, refines"), singlular masculine present of binyan Hifi'l, which should have been read *"manfik", with /n/ being assimilated into /f/, creating a compliamenting emphasis upon it and thus causing it to harden into /p/.
Hebrew nouns are inflected by gender, number (and sometimes by possession) but not by case. Nouns are generally correlated to verbs, however their forming is not as systematical, often due to loanings from foreign languages.
Hebrew distinguishes between masculine nouns (such as "yeled", "boy, child") and feminine (such as "yaldah", "girl"). Generally, almost all nouns which end in "ah" are feminine. Often, as in the example, a feminine form can be formed through adding a final "ah" to a masculine noun (written as the letter "he"). However few exceptions exist, most of them orignating in ancient Hebrew forms.
Generally, Hebrew distinguishes between singular and plural forms of a noun. Masculine plural forms always end with the suffix "-im"; feminine singular "-ah" turns into "-ot". Thus we get the forms "yeladim", "boys, children", and "yeladot", "girls". Hebrew also has a dual number. Thus, "yom", "day", becomes "yomaim", "two days". However for most nouns the dual form is discarded in favor of the plural. Thus, "dirah", "appartment", becomes "shtei dirot" ("two appartments"), rather than *"dirataim".
Often nouns are inflected by possession. They are added suffixes which signify the person to whom an object belongs. Thus, "dirah", "appartment", may change into "dirati" ("my appartment"), "diratkha" ("your appartment") and "diratam" ("their appartment"). Unlike Arabic, which has only this system of representing possession, Hebrew has an alternative system, based on the inflexion of the preposition "shel", "of". For words of three or more syllables (like "a'gvaniyah", tomato), it is often preferred to say "ha-a'gvaniyah shelkha", "your tomato", over "a'gvaniyatkha" (which is morphologically correct).
There are three ways of forming Hebrew nouns. The first way is similar to the system of the verb. A root is adopted into a pattern of vowels, prefixes and suffixes (called, in this case, the "weight", or "mishkal"). The root A-D-M, meaning "red", is adopted into the weight "qatelet" (it usually describes diseases), to create "ademet", "measles".
The second way is adding a suffix to an existing noun. Thus, "sefer", "book", turns into "sifriyah", "library" by the addition of the ending "yah", whuch signifies a collection of objects. The third way is the addition of two existing stems. For example, "qol", "sound" and "tnua'", "motion" create together "qolnoa'", "cinema".
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