Adjectives agree with their nouns in number and gender but agree in state only if used attributively. Predicative adjectives are in the absolute state regardless of the state of their noun (a copula may or may not be written). Thus, an attributive adjective to an emphatic noun, as in the phrase "the good king", is written also in the emphatic state מלכא טבא "malkâ ṭāḇâ"—kinggood[emph.. In comparison, the predicative adjective, as in the phrase "the king is good", is written in the absolute state מלכא טב "malkâ ṭāḇ"—kinggood[abs..