"הסכין חותכת את האוכל שלנו."

Translation: The knife cuts our food.

[BezalelP]

Note that סכין is both m. & f., so you can also say הסכין חותך.

[Coreyhus]

So can it use both plural forms?
סכינים וסכינות?

[BezalelP]

No, the plural for סכין will always be סכינים. But you can match it with both m. f. adjectives or verbs.

[NikolaiChe1]

My dictionary says the plural of סכין is סכינות. And it's masculine...

[rich739183]

Which dictionary says the plural of סכין is סכינות?

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[rich739183]

Thanks, Nikolai; that's quite an outlier!
The Academy of the Hebrew Language doesn't recognize סכינות; neither does Milog, Morfix, or my paper dictionary, or even Reverso, Wiktionary (English or Hebrew) or Forvo.
Pealim is an excellent service, but along with סכינות they give the plural of "knife" as "knifes", while failing to give the established plurals סכינים and "knives", so I'll continue to follow BezalelP's advice.

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[NikolaiChe1]

Please check the online dictionary "Pealim".

[neilchamberlain]

Sorry but as a native English speaker I would never say the knife is cutting my food, I would say the knife is for cutting up my food

[SpinergySy]

"The knife is cutting our food" ... all by itself.

[yochris1]

It's a form of English only spoken in Duoland

[abstracam]

By itself?!

[artiopi]

Why is that knife a girl?

[artiopi]

I thought it was a good question :/

[BezalelP]

All nouns in Hebrew have a gender. Most are either male or female, but some have a dual-gender and can be referred to as either male or female. In this case, סכין is a noun than can be both male or female, and the example given uses it with a female form conjugation.

I hope this makes things clearer for you.

[rich739183]

BezalelP, is סכין more commonly used as feminine in most contexts, or in the context of food, or is the choice arbitrary and independent of context?

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[Hava_Dorit]

You want to know "why is that knife paired with a feminine verb?" - but your wording is awkward. In English a knife can't be a girl, but it can be seen as feminine (which means "girlish" but we don't say it that way.).

I'm glad Bezalel saw through that and was able to answer you.

[rich739183]

I don't think it helps people who are new to the concept of grammatical gender to imply that an inanimate object itself can have gender. They need to be told clearly that it's only the noun that has gender. Otherwise, consider their confusion when they encounter the names of objects - and even body parts, such as רֶחֶם - that are associated with one biological gender more than another but do not have the same grammatical gender.

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[yochris1]

A knife is girlish! That's just not true, sorry! Its got no gender. The strength of English is that objects do not have gender.

[Pafuncio5]

"Khotkhot", like the sound when you use a saw

[Hava_Dorit]

That is the plural form. The singular is "khotékhet."

Hasakín chotékhet et haókhel shelánu.