HebrewGrade 4ages 9–10
👤 Masculine and feminine
Hebrew words for people, verbs, and descriptions all shift between masculine and feminine forms, and a child learning the pattern often picks the ending that “sounds right” rather than the one that matches — for example, giving a boy the feminine גדולה because the longer word feels more grown-up.
Try this lesson freeNo card needed. The first lesson is free.
Download on the App StoreWhat your child learns
- In Hebrew, words come masculine or feminine.
- ילד גדול. ילדה גדולה.
- הוא goes with masculine. היא goes with feminine.
- The verb and the describing word match the gender.
The mistake most kids make here
Sticking גדולה on a boy because the word sounds fancy.
Try one question
הילדה ___ a book.
הילדה ___
- קוראת
- קורא
- קוראים
Answer
קוראת — That's it. ילדה is feminine singular: קוראת. קורא is masculine. קוראים is plural.
How Maya teaches it
Your child tells Maya what they did in class. She teaches this topic at her desk, asks questions with tappable answers, and when the answer is wrong she explains why that answer was tempting instead of saying “try again”. She remembers what did not land and comes back to it.
Your child has it when they can: הילדה ___ — קוראת, not קורא.
How to help at home
This isn't a random slip — a longer, more elaborate-sounding word often feels more “correct” to a child's ear than the plainer masculine form, even when the plain form is the right match for the noun.
Tonight, pick a masculine noun and a feminine noun your child knows — say, ילד (boy) and ילדה (girl) — and ask her to say a describing word or a verb with each one. Point out the matching pair: ילד גדול, ילדה גדולה. The rule is agreement, not which word sounds fancier.
When she mismatches a pair, ask her to say the noun again first, slowly, and notice its ending — then match the verb or description to that ending, not to how the whole sentence sounds.
A good sign she has it: she can take a sentence about a boy and rewrite it about a girl — or the reverse — changing every verb and description to match, not just the noun itself.
Questions parents ask
- Why does my child put a feminine ending on a word describing a boy?
- It's usually not confusion about who the sentence is about — it's that the feminine form can sound more complete or formal to a child's ear. Practicing matched pairs side by side (boy/girl, this word/that word) builds the habit of checking the noun first.
- Is Hebrew gender agreement harder for English-speaking kids to learn?
- It's a new concept for English speakers, since English verbs and adjectives don't change for gender. Expect it to take deliberate practice rather than picking it up by ear alone, especially if Hebrew is a second language at home.
- What age should a child have masculine and feminine agreement down in Hebrew?
- Children growing up with Hebrew as a home language usually settle this by grade 3–4; for children learning Hebrew as a second language, it depends heavily on how much spoken Hebrew they hear day to day.
- How does Maya teach this differently from a Hebrew workbook?
- Maya asks the child to name the noun's gender first and then build the matching verb or description from it, rather than marking a filled-in blank right or wrong after the fact.
No card needed. The first lesson is free.
Download on the App StoreMore Hebrew lessons
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- A close wordGrade 3
- A comma in a listGrade 3
Sources: Israeli Ministry of Education – Hebrew language curriculum, elementary (in Hebrew)