2424: Hebrew Definite Attributive Articles Aug 10, 2021

In Hebrew, the definite article ה־ (ha-) not only applies to nouns but to attributive adjectives leading to the difference in

"a small boy" ילד קטן (yeled katan) compared to "the small boy" הילד הקטן (hayeled hakatan).

Part of the benefit of this system is that it distinguishes these attributive adjectives from being understood as a predicate adjective (i.e. "the boy is small"). This would still be a function when there is no definite article marker, such as with proper nouns. This is one argument for the idea the ה־ prefix is a semantic and morphological feature, rather than per se a definite article in its own right, though this could be contested.