Lesson2
- 1. Verbs Verbs in Hebrew are quite a bit different than in English. A verb will change form depending on which person you use (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and if the subject of the sentence is singular or plural, masculine or feminine. In this lesson, we will introduce the pronouns in Hebrew and a few vocabulary words to make some simple sentences.
- 2. The verb ‘to be’ The verb ‘to be’ in English is the best example of how a verb can change based on a pronoun. For example: I am You are He is We are They are Notice how the same verb completely changes based on the subject. In Hebrew the verb ‘to be’ does not exist. So to say something like ‘I am a man’ you would say אניאיש (ani ish) literally ‘I man’. The lesson sentences will use this construction.
- 3. Indefinite nouns A noun in Hebrew can be definite or indefinite. For example: a cat or an owl are both indefinite (not specific) THE cat is definite (specific one) In Hebrew the words ‘a’ and ‘an’ for indefinite nouns also does not exist. Using the same example אניאיש (ani ish) illustrates this. Not only is there no form of the verb ‘to be’, but there is no word for the indefinite word ‘a’ in this sentence. Keep this in mind in the lesson sentences.
- 4. The root Almost all Hebrew words have a ‘root’. This is usually 3 letters although it can be 2 or 4 or more. Don’t worry about the meaning but notice the root in the following verb: Root למד ○ ,לומד למדתי , אלמד , למדו , מלמד , לימדתי Hebrew does add letters to the beginning, middle, and end of a word as you can see, but the root is present in every form of the verb (You can see the same three letters in every form). We will discuss these forms in later lessons. For now just learn that Hebrew words have 3 letter roots most of the time.