1. Know that just as, in the participle, the feminine singular form appears in two patterns — poqedah or poqedet, mefaqedah or mefaqedet, and likewise for all similar forms — and although, for the most part, they occur in the pattern poqedet, as I explained earlier (in Treatise Two, Principle One, Section Four), so too nouns in the feminine gender occur in these same two patterns. Nevertheless, in the majority of cases they appear with a final he, as I explained above in Principle Eight. In the following principle I will explain some of the distinctions between these two patterns.

2. Know now that there are feminine nouns that appear with a final tav, and the letter preceding it is vocalized with a segol, such as qetoret and shibolet. In most cases, two segol vowels appear before it, as in adderet and ʿateret.

3. Know that these feminine nouns occur only in these two patterns: either with two segol vowels, or with a ḥolam followed by a segol before the feminine tav. The same holds when a prefixed mem is added, as in migʿeret and mishqolet, and likewise when a prefixed tav is added, as in taḥboshet and tifʾeret. In all such cases, the vowel before the ḥolam or the segol never changes, whether or not a dagesh follows it.

4. Know that their manner of vowel change and pointing—when they occur with guttural letters, or when they appear in pause—may all be learned and understood from three-letter nouns of this same pattern, those with ḥolam and segol, such as qetoret and similar forms. They follow the pattern of ḥadash and qodesh, that is, the ḥolam changes to a ḥaṭaf-qamats, as in qetorto, just as I explained in the Fourth Treatise.

5. And those nouns whose vowels are two segols, such as ʿateret, follow the same pattern as the nouns with six vowel points. See what I have written about this in the Third and Fourth Principles.

But know that the first segol never changes to a ḥiriq, but only to a pataḥ, as in ʿatarato, tifʾarato, and the like— just as in regel → raglo, and similar forms.