As an appellative noun we wish to indicate either one individual or many certain indefinite persons, and also one or many certain and known ones; something which among the Latins makes no difference1 but among the Hebrews and others there is a great difference. To be sure 
or 
may signify any man or all men. But if any one wants to signify only a man or men of whom he has spoken already or who is supposed to be denoted, he should put in front of the noun a 
with a patach and double the first letter of the noun, that is to dagesh it; and if the first letter should be one of those which are not able to be doubled, then the 
should have a kametz in place of the patach, like 
and the man Gabriel. But it should be noted that both the dagesh and the kametz may be compensated by a ga’ya, 
, etc. And this 
should be called 
, that is, the 
of knowledge, because it indicates a known thing and therefore, I shall call it the indicative.
Indeed truly this kind of use of the 
can have a place only in appellatives, adjectives, and participles; but not in proper nouns, in infinitives, nor in adverbs; and because it can signify only a single object, it may also not be in plurals of the same group; and with regard to relative nouns they never appear in the absolute state but only in the construct. But first let it be noted about this 
that it never comes before a genitive noun, for reasons which I shall show in this chapter.
Further, because all nouns among the Hebrews are indeclinable, the case is expressed generally only by a preposition, so called. I said “so called.” For with prepositions, as we have already said (indeed they are nouns), the genitive usually prevails; but as among the Greeks, ablative prepositions govern the genitive, and only by their meaning does the genitive take place of the ablative, so it is among the Hebrews everything occurs in the genitive and only by their meaning does the genitive take the place of all the other cases.
These are the prepositions of the cases generally used: 
and 
, etc. Of these 
preceding the noun are punctuated with a sheva. The 
, however, because it is used in place of 
, is punctuated with a chirek and the 
is compensated by the dagesh point in the succeeding letter; as all may see in the following examples:
Both 
with sheva, and 
indicate the dative; 
, and 
the ablative; the accusative, however, has no preposition, but in its place the particle 
should be used, which, therefore, never governs a genitive but always an accusative. The remaining cases have no prepositions. Therefore, when we said above that the genitive is used in place of the remaining cases, it is understood, in place of the dative and ablative, because these are expressed only by prepositions. But all these will become clearly intelligible from the following examples.
Example of an Indefinite Appellative Noun
Singular
| Nom. |  | a word |
| Gen. |  | Recognized by the construct of the preceding noun and its gender. |
| Dat. |  | Understand the preposition expresses the meaning of the dative and is in the construct state, and the noun is genitive. Further it should be noted that when the  indicates “terminus ad quem” it is possible to be substituted by a  at the end of the word, like  for  to the ground. |
| Acc. |  | Recognized by the active verb. |
| Voc. |  | |
| Abl. |  | Understand this like the above in the dative. |
Example of a Noun with the Definite Article 
Example of a Masculine Substantive Noun and Adjective
Example of the Feminine Gender
Example of a Relative Noun
Another Example of a Relative Noun
Another Example of an Adverb
Example of an Infinitive
Examples of Adverbs
From these examples, everyone is able easily to see according to what system all nouns which are construct are declined. But it should be noted I have nicely omitted the case of prepositions when from the meaning it is not possible to be in doubt, like Proverbs chapter 22, verse 21 
to bring back words with truth to them that send you. Indeed since 
is in absolute state, the genitive 
cannot refer to it, but it should have the prefixed preposition 
, which is here omitted. So, 1 Kings chapter 2, verse 7: 
and they shall be of those that eat at thy table; where also the preposition 
or 
in the genitive is rightly understood by a construct participle. Much more of this will be said at great length in the section on Syntax.
is really in the construct state and it is formed from 
like from 
fraud comes 
. I took the example of the construct, because as I said, prepositions are hard to conceive in the absolute state, and therefore, they are never declined with the definite article 
, because the 
usually applies to a thing already explained and known; whereas the construct applies to a thing to be explained and determined by the genitive, that is, a thing not yet known. And here I say the 
and construct, frequently, but I did not say it always applies; for often indeed in the highest eloquence, it is permissible to substitute the definite article for the construct, and the construct for the definite article 
; for example, it is more eloquent to say 
all prophets for 
. Because 
signifies prophets already known and 
in the construct and understood as genitive, signifies prophets of an already known thing, namely of God, of truth, etc. So to say 
they who drink in bowls of wine in place of 
is more eloquent. But of this at length in the Syntaxes. Here let it suffice to show in general that the construct, like the definite article 
, is able to be understood as a genitive, as a thing known, which cannot take place in the case prepositions.
