Q&A: What is the linguistic explanation for many masculine nouns in Hebrew taking the feminine plural form, and vice versa—feminine nouns taking the masculine plural form (e.g., רחובות ארוכים, דרכים ארוכות)?

Bottom line: the real reason is because it sounds better to the native ear. Most linguists dislike this kind of explanation, because it has no neat, ‘rational’ basis—i.e., it doesn’t fit into a neat, predictable category—and yet it ultimately explains most, if not all, exceptions to neat rules in all languages. Thus:

Q&A: What are the Hebrew equivalents of NATO radio alphabet’s “Alpha, Bravo, Charlie” etc.?

It’s known as the alef-bet tzlili (sound-based alphabet), and is as follows:

• Alef – Alef א אָלֶף
• Bet – Boaz ב בֹּעַז
• Gimmel – Gimmel ג גִּימֶל
• Dalet – David ד דָּוִד
• Heh – Hagar ה הגר
• Vav – Vav וָו
• Zayin – Ze’ev ז זְאֵב
• Ḥet – Havvah ח חַוָּה
• Tet – Tiaḥ ט טִיחַ
• Yod – Yonah י יוֹנָה
• Kaf – Karmel כ כַּרְמֶל
• Lamed – Leah ל לֵאָה
• Mem – Moshe מ מֹשֶׁה
• Nun – Nesher נ נֶשֶׁר
• Samekh – Samekh ס סָמֶךְ
• Ayin – Ayin ע עַיִן
• Peh – Pesel פ פֶּסֶל
• Tzadi – Tzipor צ צִפּוֹר
• Quf – Qoraḥ ק קוֹרַח
• Resh – Ruth ר רוּת
• Shin – Shamir ש שָׁמִיר
• Tav – Telem ת תֶּלֶם