Jill Suzanne Jacobs - Hebrew For Dummies

TABLE 2-5Male and Female Pronomial Suffixes

TABLE 2-6Nonbinary Pronominal Suffixes

Check out this YouTube video on Hebrew pronomial suffixes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaLTQF39Hj4 .

In Hebrew, the noun comes first, followed by the adjective, which is the opposite of English. So, for example, you say יַלְדָּה הוֹבָה (yahl- dah toh- vah; girl good), meaning “good girl.” You also need to know that adjectives need to match the nouns they modify, both in gender and in number. Table 2-7lists some common adjectives. For more on number and gender, see the section “ Understanding Gender and Number” later in this chapter.

TABLE 2-7Exploring Some Common Adjectives

In addition, use this adjective pattern: Add an י ( ee ) ending to change a noun into an adjective. אָבִיב (ah- veev ) is “spring” (the season), (ah-vee- vee ) is “springlike,” יַלְדוּת (yahl- doot ) is “childhood,” and יַלְדוּתִי (yahl-doo -tee ) is “juvenile.” Cool, huh?

The Hebrew verb is an amazing animal! Verbs are conjugated in the present tense according to gender (male and female) and number (singular and plural). In the future and past tenses, verbs have gender, number, and person (first, second, or third). In the imperative (command form), you have only three forms to choose among: masculine singular (MS), feminine singular (FS), and plural (P). When you conjugate a verb, it must match the gender and number of the subject. See Appendix Afor examples.

Hebrew doesn’t have a word for “is” or “are.”

Hebrew has five verb tenses: the infinitive tense (“to” plus the verb); the past tense; the present tense; the future tense; and the imperative, which is the command form (as in “Shut the door”). In this section, I conjugate לִכְתֹּב (leech- tohv; to write) to show the conjugations because לִכְתֹּבis a regular verb with no exceptions.

In the present tense, Hebrew verbs are conjugated in four ways: masculine singular, feminine singular, masculine plural, and feminine plural. For example:

כּוֹתֵב (koh- tehv; write) (MS)

כּוֹתֶבֶת (koh -teh -veht ; write) (FS)

כּוֹתְבִים (koht- veem; writes) (MP)

כּוֹתְבוֹת (koht- voht; writes) (FP)

In the past tense, Hebrew verbs are conjugated according to number, gender, and person. You can either say the personal pronoun (I, you, he, she, we, you, they), as in אֲנִי כָּתַבְתִּי (ah- nee kah- tahv -tee; I wrote), or drop it, in which case the subject is implied: כָּתַבְתִּי (kah- tahv -tee; [I] wrote).

כָּתַבְתִּי (kah- tahv -tee; [I] wrote)

כָּתַבְתָּ (kah- tahv- ta ; [you] wrote) (MS)

כָּתַבְתְּ (kah- tahvt ; [you] wrote) (FS)

כָּתַב (kah- tahv ; [he] wrote)

כָּתְבָה (kaht- vah ; [she] wrote)

כָּתַבְנוּ (kah- tahv -noo; [we] wrote) (MP/FP)

כְּתַבְתֶּם (kah -tahv -tehm; [you] wrote) (MP)

כְּתַבְתֶּן (kah- tahv- tehn; [you] wrote) (FP)

כָּתְבוּ (kaht -voo ; [they] wrote) (MP/FP)

Like the past tense, the future tense has number, gender, and person, and you can either include the personal pronoun (אֲנִי אֶכְתֹּב, ah- nee eh ḥ -tohv; I will write) or drop it (אֶכְתֹּב, eh ḥ -tohv; [I] will write) because it’s implied. Here are some examples: