This lesson introduces you to two major language elements: the gender (masculine-feminine) and the number (singular-plural).
In Hebrew, all nouns have a gender. They are either masculine or feminine. This is very important because when building sentences other words (such as verbs) in the sentence change according to the gender of the noun to which they refer. This is called gender agreement. For example, when we say הילד אוכל ha-yeled ohel, the boy is eating, אוכל ohel is the masculine form of the verb. If a girl is eating then היא אוכלת hi (hee) ohelet and not ohel.
In a sentence includes both a masculine and a feminine noun, other language elements (such as the verb) agree with the masculine. For example, two boys אוכלים ohlim (they eat) and two girls אוכלות ohlot. But a girl and a boy אוכלים ohlim.