Number Singular

Summary

The singular form of a term refers to a single item, or a collection of items all of the same kind.

Article

In Biblical Aramaic, a word in its singular form usually refers to a single item, or to a collection of items all of the same kind. For nouns and adjectives, the singular form is the standard form found in a dictionary or lexicon.

Form

Nouns and adjectives

Masculine singular nouns have no special endings.

Feminine singular nouns usually end in either ־ָה or ־ַת.

Singular Forms of Nouns/Adjectives

Parsing	Aramaic	Transliteration	Gloss
masculine singular absolute	טָב	tobh	good
masculine singular construct	טָב	tobh	good of
masculine singular determined	טָבָא	tobha’	the good
feminine singular absolute	טָבָה	tobhah	good
feminine singular construct	טָבַת	tobhath	good of
feminine singular determined	טָבְתָּא	tobhta’	the good

Other terms

Besides nouns, a singular term can be recognized by a variety of changes to the form. These changes differ greatly from each other and are hard to sum up in a simple, helpful way. This paradigm shows a sample of the kinds of changes that signal a singular form for verbs, independent personal pronouns, and pronominal suffixes.

Examples

Proper names are always singular, but can be either common singular or collective singular.

Sometimes a singular noun can refer to an entire kind of item rather than an individual entity. For example, the noun עַם “(people”) is singular and refers to an entire group of people as a single unit.

With some nouns, the singular form can be used as either a common singular or a collective singular. For example, the noun עוֹף֙ can mean “bird” or “birds”.