The agenda of the previous three lessons was to introduce you to the Hebrew
language. You only repeated phrases from the list. Now to actually start using
those phrases we need pronouns, so we can build phrases like "you need" or "we
want".
It might sound a bit trivial for some of you who already know this material
and consider it trivial. Nevertheless, some more practice never hurts.
The most remarcable thing about Hebrew is that unlike European languages,
here we have masculine and feminine form of pronouns for "you" and "they".
Another thing which might be confusing for English-speaking students is that in
Hebrew both the forms "thou" and "you" still exist and are actively used.
The last but not the least source of confusion is the fact that she
in Hebrew is pronounced exactly like English word "he":
הִיא
(Hebrew, what a language! Me is who, who
is he, and he is she!)
|
English
|
Pronunciation
(whatever notation is more intuitive for you)
|
Hebrew
|
| I |
[ ani
] , [ anee ]
|
אֲנִי |
| We |
[ anachnu
] |
אֲנַחְנוּ |
| You (rather Thou)
- Masculine, single |
[ ata
], [ ataa ],
[ atah ]
|
אַתָּה |
| You (rather Thou)
- Feminine, single |
[ at ], [
aat ] - NOT like English word at
|
אַתְּ |
| You - Masculine, plural |
[ atem
]
|
אַתֶּם |
| You - Feminine, plural |
[ aten
]
|
אַתֶּן |
| He |
[ hu ] -
pronounced like who
|
הוּא |
| She |
[ hi ] -
pronounced like he
|
הִיא |
| They - masculine |
[ hem ]
|
הֵם |
| They - feminine |
[ hen ]
|
הֵן |
|
|
The above table should suffice for everyday spoken language, although I
could give more flavor for nearly each one of the pronouns. Maybe I'll do it it
some other section later.
Now, if you want to build up a phrase saying "we want" or "they need", it
should come in appropriate gender and number.
In Hebrew, there is a difference in the plural and singular ending for famine
and muscular. You already know how to say "I want / I need" in masculine and
feminine form, or such.
Now let's see how the verbs we've learned in the Lesson 3 change their gender
and number (in present tense.)
|
WANT
| Single, Masculine |
[ rotzeh
] |
רוֹצֶה
|
|
Single, Feminine |
[ rotzah
] |
רוֹצָה |
| Plural, Masculine |
[ rotzim
] |
רוֹצִים |
|
Plural, Feminine |
[ rotzot
] |
רוֹצוֹת |
HAVE (to)
Please, note the non-vocalized spelling.
| Single, Masculine |
[ chayav
] |
חַיָּב
חייב |
|
Single, Feminine |
[ chayevet
] |
חַיֶּבֶת
חייבת |
| Plural, Masculine |
[ chayavim
] |
חַיָּבִים
חייבים |
|
Plural, Feminine |
[ chayavot
] |
חַיָּבוֹת
חייבות |
NEED
| Single, Masculine |
[ tzarikh
] |
צָרִיך
|
|
Single, Feminine |
[ tzrikhah
] |
צְרִיכָה |
| Plural, Masculine |
[ tzrikhim
] |
צְרִיכִים |
|
Plural, Feminine |
[ tzrikhot
] |
צְרִיכוֹת |
Now try to build phrases similar to those from Lesson 3, using plural
forms for "we" and "you".
This lesson is probably too "grammatical", so I'll try to liven the things up
in the next lesson.
Good luck!
