Modern Hebrew has always drawn on linguistic forms from multiple historical strata of the Hebrew language; into this linguistic mélange have also come, more recently, forms that evolved in the living language. We see our primary role in the field of grammar as adjudicating in cases of conflict – e.g., among forms inherited from different periods of Hebrew or between a new form that has arisen in the living language and those extant in earlier Hebrew strata.

The Academy’s approach in matters of grammar is to seek the middle road between blanket adoption of current usage and rigid adherence to the language of the historical sources. The decision-making process begins with the Grammar Committee, which discusses the issues in depth and makes recommendations. The recommendations are then submitted to the plenum for approval by vote. Under Israeli law, the plenum’s decisions about the Hebrew language are binding upon Israeli government bodies and educational institutions.

The basis for all Hebrew grammar – and especially morphology – is the Bible and its vocalization; but in some cases the Bible offers only a few anomalous forms or provides no testimony at all. The Academy considers the evidence from post-Biblical Hebrew as well, including oral traditions, and on some grammatical points has ruled against the way of the Bible. Over time the Academy has given increasing weight to the language of contemporary speakers, recognizing the natural evolution of Hebrew as a living language.

The Academy strives to make the grammatical system both orderly and simple, sometimes rejecting Biblical or other classical attested forms in the interest of simplicity and consistency. With regard to compensatory lengthening, for instance, the Academy rejected all of the exceptional Biblical forms – such as נֵהַלְתָּ (nehalta, ‘you led,’ Exod. 15:13) and אֵחַר (eẖar, ‘he delayed,’ Gen. 34:19), both of which display compensatory lengthening (e in lieu of i) contrary to the rule – as well as the form מִאוּס (mi'us, ‘revulsion’), widely used by contemporary speakers, which exhibits the opposite violation (here the rule calls for מֵאוּס, me'us, with compensatory lengthening). The Academy’s commitment to consistency underlies other decisions as well, such as the ruling that a consonant followed by shva be pointed with dagesh forte where the word-pattern demands it (as in כִּסְּאוֹת, ‘chairs,’ and יִקְּחוּ, ‘they will take’), even if the Biblical vocalization omits the dagesh (כִּסְאוֹת and יִקְחוּ), and the ruling accepting the construct forms חֲלַב־ (ẖalav-, ‘milk of-’) and קֵן־ (ken-, ‘nest of-’), in keeping with the usual construct forms in their respective noun-patterns – albeit without rejecting the Biblical forms חֲלֵב־ (ẖalev-) and קַן־ (kan-).

The five chapters that comprise the Academy’s collected grammatical rulings include both methodical, comprehensive chapters and individual rulings on a variety of questions that required a decision. The five chapters are:

Noun Inflection – this chapter is the most comprehensive of the five. The discussions on this subject began in 1941 during the era of the Language Committee, the precursor to the Academy.

Nouns: Patterns and Forms – this chapter complements the preceding one. It contains rulings regarding the form of nouns in certain patterns and of nouns with suffixes; the form of dozens of words; the gender, plural form, spelling, and inflection of groups of words and of individual words; matters of vocalization.

Verb-Conjugation Rules – the rules are arranged by root-type. In some of the root-types there are systematic rules, while in others rules were formulated only where a decision was necessary.

Standard Hebrew – this chapter contains Academy decisions on proper usage, phrases and syntax, and numbers. The Academy renders relatively few rulings on these issues, regarding them as matters of style and personal preference. 

Foreign Words – Modern Hebrew is constantly absorbing words from other languages. The rules in this chapter address issues of spelling, pronunciation, and pointing of the foreign words in Hebrew.