Contents

The following Help Topics are available:

Overview of Hebrew

Alphabet and Pronunciation

Nouns

Gender and Agreement

Number and Agreement

Pronouns

Articles

Adjectives

Adverbs

Verb Conjugations

Negatives and Questions

Prepositions

Conjunctions

For Help on Help for Windows, press F1.

For Help on Help for Macintosh, select Help with Quick Help from the [image] menu .


 Overview of Hebrew

Hebrew is spoken by over 4.6 million people around the world, primarily in Israel.  It belongs to the family of Semitic languages and originally dates back to Old Testament times.

Hebrew has undergone vast changes over the course of its history, and Modern Hebrew is quite different from the ancient language in which it has its roots.  It went through a renaissance in the 18th century, when Hebrew replaced Yiddish as the language of instruction among the Jews of Europe.  Hebrew was recognized as an official language of Jewish Palestine in 1922, and had established itself as a modern language by the time Israel was officially established in 1948.


Alphabet
 Alphabet and Pronunciation

The Hebrew alphabet consists of consonants, and is written from right to left.  Vowels, called nikud,  are represented by dots and lines, but these are often left out of the written language.  In this program, the Hebrew is transliterated, that is, written with the Roman alphabet.  The following chart gives the name of each Hebrew character, the symbol used here for transliteration, and an example of its pronunciation.

Letter Name:	Transliteration:	Pronunciation:

alef	none	silent, taking the sound of the vowel associated with it

bet	b	as in boy

vet	v	as in very

gimel	g 	as in good

dalet	d	as in dog

hay	h	as in hi

vav	v	as in very (or used as a vowel)

zayin	z	as in zoo

khet	kh	as in the German ich (k with friction at the back of the throat)

tet	t	as in top

yod	y	as in yes

kaf	k	as in kite

khaf	kh 	as in the German ich (k with friction at the back of the throat)

lamed	l	as in like

mem	m	as in move

nun	n	as in no

samekh	s	as in see

ayin	none	silent, taking the sound of the vowel associated with it

pay	p	as in pay

fay	f	as in fine

tzadik	ts	as in its

koof	k	as in kite

reish	r	as in the French rivier (gargling sound at the back of the throat)

shin	sh	as in show

tav	t	as in top

sav	s	as in see (not used in Modern Hebrew)

Vowels in Hebrew are written above, below or next to the letters.  In this Title, the vowels have been transliterated according to the chart below:

Vowels:

a	as in father

e 	as in wet

i 	as in see

o 	as in or

u 	as in too

Diphthongs (vowel combinations):

ay 	as in hi

ey	as in they


Nouns

A noun is a word that names a person, place, or thing.

mikhal (Michelle)

eilat (Eilat)

boker (morning)

See Also:

Gender and Agreement

Number and Agreement

Articles


Gender and Agreement

The GENDER of a Hebrew noun is either masculine (m.)or feminine (f.).  Generally speaking, feminine nouns end in a or -it, while masculine nouns usually have no ending:

berakha f. (blessing)

ivrit f. (Hebrew)

boker m. (morning)

See also:

Adjectives

Articles

Pronouns


Number and Agreement

Hebrew has both singular and plural forms.

Generally, masculine plurals are formed by adding -im:

bituy, bituyim (expression, expressions)

The feminine plural is usually formed by adding -ot:

mita, mitot (bed, beds)

Pronouns also have singular and plural forms:

ata (you [masculine singular]), 	at (you [feminine singular])

atem (you [masculine plural]), 	aten (you [feminine plural])

See Also

Nouns

Pronouns

Adjectives

Articles

Verb Conjugations


Pronouns

A pronoun is a word that stands for a previously mentioned (or understood) noun.  That noun is called the antecedent of the pronoun.

In the sentence,

The house was painted soon after it was built.

the pronoun it refers back to the noun house (the antecedent).

Pronouns can be used in various ways.

They can be the subject of a verb.

ani lo mevin.

(I dont understand. [masculine])

They can also be the object of a verb.

na-im me-od lehakir otakh.

(Its nice to meet you. [feminine])

Here is a chart of personal pronouns:

Subject:	Direct Object:
ani (I)	oti
ata (you m.)	otkha
at (you f.)	otakh
hu (he)	oto
hi (she)	ota
anakhnu (we)	otanu
atem (you pl.)	etkhem
aten (you f. pl.)	etkhen
hem (they)	otam
hen (they f.)	otan


Articles

The DEFINITE ARTICLE is ha- for all nouns, including masculine, feminine, singular and plural:

hakhaver m. (the friend)

hahazmana f. (the reservation)

hakartisim m. pl. (the tickets)

The definite article is used before both nouns and adjectives:

hamana hameyukhedet f. (the special course)

Hebrew does not have an indefinite article.

See Also:

Nouns

Gender and Agreement

Number and Agreement


Adjectives

An ADJECTIVE agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies.  Like nouns, adjectives usually end in -a for the feminine, -ot for the feminine plural, and -im for the masculine plural. Like singular masculine nouns, singular masculine adjectives retain their base form.

boker tov  [m. singular] (good morning)

mis-ada tova  [f. singular] (good restaurant)

dolarim amerika-iyim [m. plural] (American dollars)

Adjectives usually follow the nouns they modify:

kheder (room) zugi (double) = double room

See Also:

Gender and Agreement

Number and Agreement

Articles


Adverbs

ADVERBS are words that modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. Hebrew adverbs are not formed by adding a suffix, as in English.

Examples of adverbs:

po	(here)

mishehu po medaber anglit? (Does anyone here speak English?)

rak	(only)

ani medaber rak ketsat ivrit.  (I only speak a little Hebrew.)

me-od	(very)

na-im me-od lehakir otkha. (Its very nice to meet you.)

efshar	(possible)

efshar ledaber yoter le-at? (Is it possible to speak more slowly?)

bediyuk	(perfectly)

ani mevin bediyuk. (I understand perfectly.)

akhshav	(now)

hakol beseder akhshav. (Everything is fine now.)

See Also:

Adjectives


Verb Conjugations

Verb conjugations in Hebrew vary according to gender:

ani medeber ivrit. (I speak Hebrew [masculine])

ani medaberet ivrit.  (I speak Hebrew [feminine])

All Hebrew verbs have a root, to which consonants and vowels are added in different patterns, or binyanim.  There are seven different binyanim.

An example of a verb conjugation, with the root ktv:

lekhtov (to write)

Present tense:

kotev (I write, you write, he writes [masculine])

kotevet (I write, you write, she writes [feminine])

kotvim (we write, you write, they write [masculine plural])

kotvot (we write, you write, they write [feminine plural])

Past tense:

katavti (I wrote)

katavta (you wrote [masculine singular])

katavt (you wrote [feminine singular])

katav (he wrote)

katva (she wrote)

katavnu (we wrote)

ketavtem (you wrote [masculine plural])

ketavten (you wrote [feminine plural])

katvu (they wrote)

See Also:

Negatives and Questions


Negatives and Questions

In everyday Hebrew, the negative is formed by inserting lo after the subject:

ani lo mevin. (I dont understand. [masculine])

Questions that may be answered yes or no can be formed simply by changing the intonation:

At medaberet anglit.  (You speak English. [feminine])

At medaberet anglit? (Do you speak English? [feminine])

Questions words, such as ma (what), eyfo, (where), kama (how much), matay (when) or eykh (how) usually come first in the sentence, and the rest of the words remain the same:

ma shimkha?  (Whats your name?)

eyfo hasherutim? (Wheres the bathroom?)

kama ze lelayla? (How much is it per night?)

matay efshar lehikanes? (When is check-in?)

eykh mekhinim oto?  (How are they prepared?)

See Also:

Verb Conjugations


Prepositions

PREPOSITIONS are the connecting words that show the relationships between words in the sentence. Nouns, pronouns, noun phrases, gerunds or noun clauses can be the complement of prepositions.

Simple prepositions in Hebrew include the following:

avur	for
im	with
legabey	about
al yad	next to
la	to
ba	at, in
le	for
halikha labank	Going to the Bank.
dusiakh babank	Dialogues at the Bank
toda avur ha-ezra	Thanks for your help.
metugan, im harbe limon.	Fried, with lots of lemon.
kama ze lelayla?	How much is it for the night?


Conjunctions

CONJUNCTIONS  join words, phrases and clauses together.

Commonly used conjunctions in Hebrew include:

ve (and)

pegishot vedivrey berakha

(meetings and words of blessing)

aval (but)

eyn shum moshavim zeminim al yad hakhalon, aval ani yakhol latet lakh moshav al yad hama-avar.

(There are no seats by the window, but I can give you a seat by the aisle.)

o (or)

bemakhleket hatayarim o bemakhlaka rishona?  (Regular car, or reserved seating?)