Hebrew Lessons / Shi`urey Ha`ivrit

[ghur]

Answers to Lesson 6:

Y-D-` means 'to know', right?

I believe so

[Mecislau]

yod?`im
יודעות yod?`at

The stress returns to the final syllable in the plural. In the masculine singular it was penultimate because of the new vowel introduced by the `ayin. In the feminine singular, it was penultimate because it always is supposed to be.

Oh, and the feminine plural is yoda`ot. Don't mix up the vowels here, or you'll mess up the plurality.

Y-D-` means 'to know', right?

Oh, whoops, I forgot to put in the meaning of the root. *edits*

Yes, it means "to know".

[Cathbad]

(god... the infinitive is just so much simpler in Arabic : p)

How so, if I may ask?

Well actually... as far as we've explained it, if you want to say 'I like to study Arabic', the sentence is

احب ان ادرس العربيّة
'uẖib 'an 'adrus al-ʿarabiyya

where the infinitive is formed simply by adding 'an before a form of the verb which agrees with the (modal?) verb in person and gender.

[Grath]

Would kosher meals be aruchot ksharot or aruchat ksherot? ksherot just doesn't sound right...

[Mecislau]

Would kosher meals be aruchot ksharot or aruchat ksherot? ksherot just doesn't sound right...

Neither - you're changing two factors at once. It'd be 'aruchot ksherot. The plural of 'aruchah is 'aruchot, and the feminine plural of kasher is ksherot.

The English word "kosher" comes from the Ashkenazi (Eastern-European Jewish) pronunciation, which turned /a/ to /o/ in many places. The pronounce "Israel" more like "Yisroil".

Well actually... as far as we've explained it, if you want to say 'I like to study Arabic', the sentence is

احب ان ادرس العربيّة
'uẖib 'an 'adrus al-ʿarabiyya

where the infinitive is formed simply by adding 'an before a form of the verb which agrees with the (modal?) verb in person and gender.

I think there was a time, pre-Biblical Hebrew, where that was allowed. I believe the infinitive is based on an older verb form (I'm not sure which, though), which has just had the prepositon ל le- "to" attached. In Biblical Hebrew, whenever these cliticizable prepositions were used, a very complex array of vowel changes could occur, most of which have been lost in modern Hebrew. These changes are only preserved in the infinitive.

Apparently other cliticizable prepostions like ב מ כ be-, mi-, ka- "in, from, as" can also be used instead of ל in certain cases, but this is rather rare. I've yet to come across these constructions.

[Grath]

Would kosher meals be aruchot ksharot or aruchat ksherot? ksherot just doesn't sound right...

Neither - you're changing two factors at once. It'd be 'aruchot ksherot. The plural of 'aruchah is 'aruchot, and the feminine
plural of kasher is ksherot.

Right, that's what I meant with the second version -- typo.

The English word "kosher" comes from the Ashkenazi (Eastern-European Jewish) pronunciation, which turned /a/ to /o/ in many places. The pronounce "Israel" more like "Yisroil".

Yeah, I know... They even have a seperate holy book, the Touro.
Actually, that pronunciation is rapidly going extinct here, because all the kids learn the Modern Israeli pronunciation in Jewish Lessons. We still make fun of it though, mainly by changing all the vowels to "oi" or /@/ and all the /t/s to /s/.

[Mecislau]

<b>Lesson 7 / השעור השיבעי / Hashi`ur Hashiv`i</b>

1) Adjectives Part 2

You have already seen how many adjectives lose a vowel in all forms but the masculine singular. In the same way, many adjectives change a vowel in all forms but the masculine singular. These occur most often, but are not limited to, when no vowel can be dropped because too awkward of a cluster would be formed.

The two most common vowel changes are /a/ > /e/ in the first syllable and /o/ > /u/ in the second.

ישן, ישנה, ישנים, ישנות yashan, yeshanah, yeshanim, yeshanot "old"
עגול, עגולה, עגולים, עגולות `agol, `agulah, `agulim, `agulot "round"

From now on, whenever a new adjective is introduced, both its masculine singular and feminine singular forms will be shown. This will allow you to determine whether or not any alterations, whether drops or changes, should occur.


Now, the second type of adjectives are those ending in י -i in the masculine singular. For these, you just add ת -t for the FemSg, ים -yim for the MascPl, and ות -yot for the FemPl. Demonstrated with רציני retzini "serious" and פופולרי popul?ri "popular".

• MascSg: רציני, פופולרי retzini, populári
• FemSg: רצינית, פופולרית retzinit, populárit
• MascPl: רציניים, פופולריים retziniyim, populariyim
• FemPl: רציניות, פופולריות retziniyot, populariyot

And if I hadn't already said it - always put adjectives after the noun they modify.


2) The Preposition של shel / Possessive Pronouns

The preposition של shel means "of", and is used in many expressions of possession, the equivalent of -'s in English. Like in Spanish and many other languages, to say "Peter's dog", you'd literally say "the dog of Peter", that is, הכלב של פיטר hak?lev shel Piter.

Just like את 'et, though, this preposition conjugates whenever its object is a pronoun, effectively forming possessive pronouns. So to say "my dog", you'd say "the dog of-me", or, הכלב שלי hakélev sheli. Here's how של conjugates:

• שלי sheli (1SG "my")
• שלך shelcha (2SGM "your")
• שלך shelach (2SGF "your")
• שלו shelo (3SGM "his")
• שלה shelah (3SGF "her")
• שלנו shelánu (1PL "our")
• שלכם shelachem (2PLM "your")
• שלכן shelachen (2PLF "your")
• שלהם shelahem (3PLM "their")
• שלהן shelahen (3PLF "their")

Compare these endings to those of the forms of את 'et. You can see how similar they are.


3) The Demonstrative Pronouns

Hebrew has three demonstrative pronouns - זה zeh "this (Masc), זאת zot "this (Fem)", and אלה 'éleh "these". The singular forms agree in gender with the noun they replace.

Remember, these are pronouns, not adjectives. They cannot directly modify a noun, but must stand on their own:

זה טלפון zeh telefon "this is a telephone"
זאת המכונית חדשה שלי zot hamechonit chadashah sheli "this is my new car" (lit. "This [is] the-car the-new of-me)

There is no real equivalent to "that/those". The regular third person pronouns are used instead:

הוא הבית שלי hu' habáyit sheli "That's my house"


4) יש yesh and אין 'eyn

These two words mean "there is" and "there isn't", respectively. They are unchanging in form, and the noun immediately follows them. I'm not entirely sure what part of speech they are, strictly speaking. I almost want to say they're prepositions.


5) "To Have"

Hebrew has no verb "to have" like in English, but rather uses יש yesh combined with an indirect object (that is, a noun prefixed by ל le-/la-).

יש לסטודנט מחברת yesh lastudent machb?ret "The student has a notebook" (lit. "There is to the student a notebook")

For some odd reason, if the possessed object is definite, you may use את 'et. This is common in colloquial usage:

יש ליונתן את הספר שלך yesh leYonatan 'et haséfer shelcha "Jonathan has your book"

To negate these sentences, replace יש yesh with אין 'eyn:

אין לסטודנט מחברת 'eyn lastudent machbéret "The student doesn't have a notebook" (lit. "There isn't to the student a notebook")


EXERCISES:

1) Translate the following few sentences into English, about Yonatan's house, using the vocabulary below. The transliteration is shown after the vocabulary.

זה הבית שלי, קרוב העיר תל-אביב. הוא לא מאוד גדול, אבל גם לא מאוד קטן. אני גר פה עם המשפחה שלי. עחשיו האבא שלי קורה את העיתון בחדר האורחים והאישה שלו (האמא שלי) בגינה. האחה שלי במטבח. אני בחדר השנה שלי, לומד למבחן בבית הספר מחר.

לחברה שלי יש דירה חדשה בעיר. זאת קטנה, אבל מאוד יפה


Vocabulary:

• קרוב qarov "near"
• תל-אביב Tel-'Aviv "Tel Aviv" (literally "Hill of Spring")
• מאוד me'od "very" (non-declining - just stick it immediately before an adjective)
• אבל 'aval "but"
• גם gam "also"
• גר gar "I/you/he reside, live" (we'll learn how to conjugate this verb in the next lesson)
• פה poh "here"
• עם `im "with"
• משפחה mishpachah "family"
• אבא 'ába' "father"
• ק-ר-א Q-R-' "read"
• עיתון `iton "newspaper"
• חדר האורחים chadar ha'orchim "living room" (we'll talk about this construction next lesson)
• אמא 'íma' "mother"
• גינה ginah "garden"
• אחה 'achah "sister" (brother = אח 'ach)
• מטבח mitbach "kitchen"
• חדר השנה chadar hashenah "bedroom"
• ל-מ-ד L-M-D "learn, study"
• מבחן mivchan "test, exam"
• בית הספר beyt haséfer "school"
• מחר machar "tomorrow"
• חברה chaverah - in this case, "girlfriend"
• דירה dirah "apartment"

Zeh habáyit sheli, qarov ha`ir Tel-'Aviv. Hu' lo' me'od gadol, 'aval gam lo' me'od qatan. 'Ani gar poh `im hamishpachah sheli. 'Achshav ha'ába' sheli qoreh et' ha`iton bechadar ha'orchim veha'ishah shelo (ha'íma' sheli) baginah. Ha'achah sheli bamitbach. 'Ani bechadar hashenah sheli, lomed lamivchan bebeyt haséfer machar.

Lachaverah sheli yesh dirah chadashah ba`ir. Zot qatanah, 'aval me'od yafah!





For those who this seems to be going a little too fast for - sorry. However, the lessons will always be in this thread, so you don't always have to do the newest lesson as soon as it comes out. You can check your answers with other posts here, and I don't mind you asking questions about past lessons.

[Tuli]

The prepositional pronouns remind me of nothing so much as Irish Gaelic.
I've discovered that I've been spelling לא wrong (as לוא).
Answers for Lesson 7 (Which I could read mostly in Hebrew, yay!):
This is my house, near the city Tel Aviv. It's not very big, but also not very small. I live here with my family. Now my father is reading the newspaper in the living room and his wife (my mother) is in the garden. My sister is in the kitchen. I'm in my bedroom studying for a test at school tomorrow.

My girlfriend has a new apartment in the city. It's small, but very pretty!

EDIT: Added the missing half of the sentence.

[Mecislau]

The prepositional pronouns remind me of nothing so much as Irish Gaelic.
I've discovered that I've been spelling לא wrong (as לוא).
Answers for Lesson 7 (Which I could read mostly in Hebrew, yay!):
This is my house, near the city Tel Aviv. It's not very small. I live here with my family. Now my father is reading the newspaper in the living room and his wife (my mother) is in the garden. My sister is in the kitchen. I'm in my bedroom studying for a test at school tomorrow.

My girlfriend has a new apartment in the city. It's small, but very pretty!

Not too bad. Though it seems as though you missed half of the second sentence.

And yeah, the spelling can be a pain at times, since certain vowels are marked so inconsistantly. "לוא" would be logical, but that's just not how it is!

[Xonen]

This is my house, near the city of Tel Aviv. It's not very large, but not very small either. I live here with my family. Now my father is reading the newspaper in the living room and his wife (my mother) is in the garden. My sister is in the kitchen. I'm in my bedroom, studying for an exam at school tomorrow.

My girlfriend has a new apartment in the city. It's small, but very beautiful!

BTW, the word 'aval doesn't seem to have a gloss anywhere (at least I couldn't find it with the search function). Not that its approximate meaning is that hard to figure out from the context, but?

[Mecislau]

BTW, the word 'aval doesn't seem to have a gloss anywhere (at least I couldn't find it with the search function). Not that its approximate meaning is that hard to figure out from the context, but?

D'oh! Yeah, it's the conjunction "but".


Point out these little oversights whenever I make them. I don't want to accidently be using something that you don't understand!

[Mecislau]

<b>Lesson 8 / השעור השמיני / Hashi`ur Hashmini</b>


I might give you all some extra time with this if you need it. It's a bit longer.


1) The Nominal Construct

The Nominal Construct is a noun form used for most genitive constructions other than true possession - that is, words/phrases such "weekend", "riverbank", "coffeehouse", "evening meal", "train station", "glass of water", etc. In English, you can take the second element of each of these nouns, move it in front of the other, and add an "of", and they'd still make sense: the end of the week, the bank of the river, the house of coffee, etc.

Hebrew doesn't form compounds like this, and prefers avoiding prepositions like של shel if they're not needed. This is where the construct form comes into play. It's kind of like a reversed genitive case, in that it goes on the "possessed" (since there's no real possession, I use the term loosely) rather than on the "possessor".

To form the construct, start by arranging the nouns as though you were going to use a preposition: סוף של שבוע, תחנה של רכבת sof shel shavú`a, tachanah shel rakévet (lit. "end of week, station of train"). Then drop the preposition, and turn the first noun into its construct form.

Most masculine singular nouns show no change: סוף שבוע sof shavú`a "weekend".

Feminine singular nouns ending in ה -ah add -t: תחנת רכבת tachanat rakévet "train station".

Masculine plural nouns add י -ey instead of ים -im: סופי שבוע sofey shavú`a "weekends"

Feminine plural nouns are regular: תחנות רכבת tachanot rak?vet "train stations".

Where I say "no change" or "regular", though, I mean in most cases. Several nouns do actually have other forms, generally with a vowel dropped unexpectedly.

Examples of Lost Vowels:
ארץ 'éretz "land" has the normal plural ארצות 'aratzot, but: ארצות הברית 'artzot habrit "United States"
מתנה "present" has the normal plural מתנות matanot, but: מתנות חתונה matnot chatunah "wedding presents"

Examples of Other Changes:
בית báyit becomes beyt in the construct singular: בית ספר beyt séfer "school" (lit. "book-house")
Nouns of the form C?CeC become CiCCey in the construct plural: ספרי היסטוריה sifrey historiyah "history books"


To make construct nouns definite, add the definite article to the second word, never the first: בית הספר beyt has?fer "the school". To add a clitic preposition, attach it to the first word in its indefinite form: בבית הספר bebeyt haséfer, not *babeyt or *baséfer.


2) Numbers 0-10

Hebrew numbers are adjectives like any others, but they display a few peculiar qualities. One is the fairly significant differences between the masculine and feminine vowels - sometimes even the consonants will change. Also, note that the masculine forms of numbers have feminine endings (like -ah), while feminine numbers look masculine. Why this happens, I can't say.

<table border=0><tr> <td>&nbsp;</td><td colspan=2><b>Feminine</b></td><td colspan=2><b>Masculine</b></td></tr><tr><td><b>0</b></td><td>אפס</td><td><i>'éfes</i></td><td>אפס</td><td><i>'éfes</i></td></tr><tr><td><b>1</b></td><td>אחת</td><td><i>'achat</i></td><td>אחד</td><td><i>'echad</i></td></tr><tr><td><b>2</b></td><td>שתיים</td><td><i>shtáyim</i></td><td>שניים</td><td><i>shnáyim</i></td></tr><tr><td><b>3</b></td><td>שלוש</td><td><i>shalosh</i></td><td>שלושה</td><td><i>shloshah</i></td></tr><tr><td><b>4</b></td><td>ארבע</td><td><i>'árba`</i></td><td>ארבעה</td><td><i>'arba`ah</i></td></tr><tr><td><b>5</b></td><td>חמש</td><td><i>chamesh</i></td><td>חמישה</td><td><i>chamishah</i></td></tr><tr><td><b>6</b></td><td>שש</td><td><i>shesh</i></td><td>שישה</td><td><i>shishah</i></td></tr><tr><td><b>7</b></td><td>שבע</td><td><i>shéva`</i></td><td>שבעה</td><td><i>shiv`ah</i></td></tr><tr><td><b>8</b></td><td>שמונה</td><td><i>shmóneh</i></td><td>שמונה</td><td><i>shmonah</i></td></tr><tr><td><b>9</b></td><td>תשע</td><td><i>tésha`</i></td><td>תשעה</td><td><i>tish`ah</i></td></tr><tr><td><b>10</b></td><td>עשר</td><td><i>`éser</i></td><td>עשרה</td><td><i>`asarah</i></td></tr></table>

A few notes. First of all, the feminine forms are the default counting forms. That is, if you were just reading off numbers with no noun being modified (say, as in a telephone number), you'd use the feminine forms. Secondly, unlike other adjectives, all of these numbers come before the noun they modify (except for 1 'achat/'echad, which follows). And finally, when 2 shtáyim/shnáyim modifies a noun, it shortens to שתי\שני shtey/shney. That is, shtáyim/shnáyim are the counting forms, shtey/shney the adjective forms.


3) Some Question Words

To form questions in Hebrew without an interrogative pronoun, all you need is a change in tone: שרה יושבת שם? כן\לא Sarah yoshévet sham? Ken/lo' "Is Sarah sitting over there? Yes/No."

If you're using an interrogative pronoun, just add it to the beginning of the sentence: מה אתה כותב mah 'atah kotev? "What are you writing?"

Here are some interrogative pronouns you'll be using a lot:

• מה mah "What?"
• מי mi "Who?"
• איפה 'éyfoh "Where?"
• מתי matay "When?"
• למה lámah "Why?"
• כמה kámah "How much?"

You can use prepositions immediately before these pronouns for more detail: על מה `al mah "about what", מאיפה me'?yfoh "from where". The only exception is you don't use את before any interrogative, even if it represents the direct object. So, in the example above, you wouldn't say *את מה אתה כותב *'et mah 'atah kotev.


4) Time of Day and Time Longer than Day, Part 1

The following are words used to refers to periods of time longer than a few hours (we'll discuss telling the time with hours/minutes later):

• בוקר bóqer "morning"
• לילה láylah "night"
• יום yom "day"
• שבוע shavú`a "week"
• חודש chódesh "month"
• שנה shanah "year"

You may add the definite article to any of these words to make an adverb, meaning "this ___":

• הבוקר habóqer "this morning"
• הלילה haláylah "tonight"
• היום hayom "today"
• השבוע hashavú`a "this week"
• החודש hachódesh "this month"
• השנה hashanah "this year"

אני הולך לחוף היום 'ani holech lachof hayom "I'm going to the beach today"


EXERCISES:

1) Translate into English using the vocabulary given. The transcription is below the vocab list:

יונתן ושרה בטלפון

יונתן: שלום שרה! יש לך זמן חפשי היום? אני ומספר חברים שלי רוצים ללכת לקולנוע הלילה. י
שרה: יופי! אני מאוד רוצה לראות סרט איתכם. מי גם הולכים? י
יונתן: נו... מארק וטליה. אולי בן. י
שרה: מתי הסרט? אני לא יכולה לעזוב מהבית לפני 7:00 (שבע) כי אני אוכלת את ארוחת הערב עם המשפחה שלי. י
יונתן: זאת לא בעיה. אין סרטים טובים לפני שבע. בשמונה בסדר? י
שרה: כן! זה טוב. שלום! י

(Pardon the random yods. I need them in there in order for the punctuation to work properly on the board, for some reason. It views the punctuation as roman LtR characters, while the rest of the text is Hebrew RtL text.)

Vocabulary:

• טלפון telefon - telephone
• לך lach - to you (f)
• זמן zman - time
• חפשי chafshi - free (as in unoccupied, not price)
• מספר mispar - number (Word Connections: ספר s?fer "book". Both come from a root meaning "count" or "recount")
• קולנוע qolnó`a - movie theatre
• יופי yófi - great! excellent! (an interjection)
• סרט séret - film
• עם `im - with (איתכם 'itchem = "with you all (m)")
• נו nu[/u] - Well...
• אולי 'ulay - perhaps
• יכולה yecholah - I/You/She can (fem. sg.) - We'll learn this later.
• ע-ז-ב `-Z-B - to leave
• לפני lifney - before (lit. "to the face of" - this preposition technically forms a construct with the following noun)
• כי ki - because
• ארוחה 'aruchah - meal (I will smack you if you translate ארוחת הערב 'aruchat ha`érev literally. Be smart.)
• בעיה be`ayah - problem
• בסדר beséder - okay (lit. "in order" - as you will soon see, many Hebrew adverbs are formed using ב be- plus a noun)

Yonatan veSarah batelefon

Yonatan: Shalom Sarah! Yesh lach zman chafshi hayom? 'Ani vemispar chaverim sheli rotzim laléchet laqolnó`a haláylah.
Sarah: Yófi! 'Ani me'od rotzah lir'ot séret 'itchem. Mi gam holchim?
Yonatan: Nu... Marq veTalyah. 'Ulay Ben.
Sarah: Matay haséret? 'Ani lo' yecholah la`azor mehabáyit lifney 7:00 (shev`a) ki 'ani ochélet 'et 'aruchat ha`érev `im hamispachah sheli.
Yonatan: Zot lo' be`ayah. 'Eyn sratim tovim lifney shev`a. Beshmoneh beséder?
Sarah: Ken! Zeh tov. Shalom!


2) I was going to say to give your phone number in Hebrew, but since this is a public forum, that might be a bad idea. So give me this fake number in Hebrew: (721) 259-0183. Put this in a sentence beginning with "My telephone number is..." (use the construct form here!)

3) Translate the following into Hebrew. For more number practice. Don't forget about the quirks with numbers 1 and 2.

• Three friends (m).
• Four friends (f).
• Six apples.
• Ten bananas.
• Two cars.
• One dog.
• Eight books.
• Seven nights (לילות leylot - masculine!)
• Six meals
• Ten houses (בתים batim - masculine!)
• Seven sheqels (שקל shéqel - you guess the plural)
• Four cheesecakes (גבינה gvinah "cheese", עוגה `ugah "cake" - use the construct form)
• Two history books.

[Delalyra]

Ahhhh! Somehow I didn't get topic reply notifications and managed to miss about four lessons! Eek!

/relurks

[Mecislau]

Ahhhh! Somehow I didn't get topic reply notifications and managed to miss about four lessons! Eek!

/relurks

I've been posting new lessons here about every two days...

[Delalyra]

Ahhhh! Somehow I didn't get topic reply notifications and managed to miss about four lessons! Eek!

/relurks

I've been posting new lessons here about every two days...

I noticed. I'll blame my AOL for not sending me the emails.

[Xonen]

1) Jonathan and Sarah on the telephone.

Jonathan: Hello Sarah! Do you have free time today? I and a number of my friends want to go to the movie theater tonight.
Sarah: Great! I'd very much want to see a film with you all. Who are coming?
Jonathan. Well, Mark and Talyah. Maybe Ben.
Sarah: When's the film? I can't leave the house before 7:00 because I'm eating dinner with my family.
Jonathan: That's no problem. There are no good films before seven. Is at eight okay?
Sarah: Yes! That's good. Bye!

2) Mispar telefon sheli sh?va`-sht?yim-'achat sht?yim-chamesh-t?sha` '?fes-'achat-shm?neh-shalosh.

3) Shloshah chaverim.
'Arba` chaverot.
Shishah tapuchim.
`?ser bananot.
Shtey mechoniyot.
K?lev 'echad.
Shmonah sfarim.
Shiv`ah leylot.
Shesh 'aruchot.
`Asarah batim.
Shiv`ah shqalim.
'Arba `ugot gvinah.
Shney sifrey historiyah.

[Mecislau]

Very nice, Tuomas. Your answers look perfect. Just one little comment:

2) Mispar telefon sheli sh?va`-sht?yim-'achat sht?yim-chamesh-t?sha` '?fes-'achat-shm?neh-shalosh.

While there's nothing technically wrong here, I think using the definite form of "telephone number" would sound a bit better.

You generally use definite articles with possessed nouns: hak?lev sheli "my dog" (lit. "the dog of me")

Lack of a definite article implies partitiveness: k?lev sheli "[one of] my dog[s]" (lit. "a dog of me").

[valinta]

I've been printing these out and working on them in a notebook over the past few days, so I'll probably drop a few lesson's worth of answers here soon. They've been doing great for me so far!

[Mecislau]

I'm posting this a bit earlier than I was planning to, but I'm not going to be here this weekend. Or pretty much all of next week (other than some brief stops by, though I'm not going to have the time to write more lessons in the meantime).

So, if you haven't done #8 above yet, don't fret. You've got plenty of time to post your answers to both #8 above and #9 here.



<b>Lesson 9 / השעור התשיעי / Hashi`ur Hatshi`i</b>


1) Verbs with Medial Vav or Yod

As you should all know, the letters vav and yod represents both consonants (/v/ and /j/, respectively) and vowels (/o, u/ and /i/). You just know that's going to be problematic when it comes to verbs...

Both Gzarot ע"ו and ע"י (Medial vav and medial yod) conjugate the same way in the present tense. You lose the middle consonant and:

• MascSg: CaC
• FemSg: CáCah
• MascPl: CaCim
• FemPl: CaCot

Pretty simple and logical. So, with the root ר-ו-ץ R-V-Tz "run": רץ, רצה, רצים, רצות ratz, rátzah, ratzim, ratzot.

The infinitive for these roots is formed using laCuC for medial vav roots and laCiC for medial yod root (ie, the vocalized form): לרוץ larutz "to run".

Some useful roots using this pattern:

• ג-ו-ר G-V-R "reside"
• ש-י-ר Sh-Y-R "sing"
• ק-ו-ם Q-V-M "get up, wake up"
• ש-י-ם S-Y-M "put"
• ב-ו-א B-V-' "come" (infinitive: לבוא lavo')

2) י-כ-ל Y-K-L - To be able to

This verb, while technically considered part of Pa`al, has its own conjugation pattern:

• MascSg: יכול yachol
• FemSg: יכולה yecholah
• MascPl: יכולים yecholim
• FemPl: יכולות yecholot

These are followed by the infinitive to express the modal "can". However, this verb by itself, like in English, has no infinitive.

אני יכול לבוא מחר 'ani yachol lavo' machar "I can come tomorrow"


3) צריך tzarich "need"

Tzarich is the equivalent of the verb "to need" in English. However, it's technically an adjective, not a verb, so perhaps it might better be translated as "in need of". It has four forms:

• MascSg: צריך tzarich
• FemSg: צריכה tzrichah
• MascPl: צריכים tzichim
• FemPl: צריכות tzrichot

It can be followed by either a noun or an infinitive. When used with a noun, do not use the prepostion את 'et, since tzarich is not a verb, and therefore has no direct object. The "actual" verb is the implied "to be".

אני צריך לעזוב בשש 'Ani tzarich la`azov beshesh "I need to leave at six [o'clock]."
אני צריכה מונית 'Ani tzrichah monit "I need a taxi".


4) ה-ל-ך H-L-K vs. נ-ס-ע N-S-`

Both of these verbs, ללכת laléchet and לנסוע linsó`a, mean "to go". However, H-L-K is used for travel on foot (also, "walk"), while N-S-` is used for travel by vehicle (also, "travel, drive"). For those here who know some Russian, the distinction is essentially the same as идти vs. ехать.


5) Conjugation of ב be- and ל le-

Both of these cliticizable prepostions conjugate the same way when their object is a pronoun:

• לי\בי li/bi (1SG "to me", "in me")
• לך\בך lécha/bécha (2SGM "to you", "in you")
• לך\בך lach/bach (2SGF "to you", "in you")
• לו\בו lo/bo (3SGM "to him", "in him")
• לה\בה lah/bah (3SGF "to her", "in her")
• לנו\בנו lánu/bánu (1PL "to us", "in us")
• לכם\בכם lachem/bachem (2PLM "to you all", "in you all")
• לכן\בכן lachen/bachen (2PLF "to you all", "in you all")
• להם\בהם lahem/bahem (3PLM "to them", "in them")
• להן\בהן lahen/bahen (3PLF "to them", "in them")

You can use the forms of ל le- as indirect object pronouns. Additionally, use them with יש yesh and אין 'eyn for personal expressions of possession: יש לי yesh li... "I have..."


6) The Relative Pronoun ש she-

Yep, it's another clitic, but one that's relatively easy to use (pardon the pun). All you do is tack it onto the following word, with no other modifications.

It functions both as a subordinating conjugation:
אני יודע שהיא באה ביומיים 'ani yodé`a shehi' bá'ah byomáyim "I know that she is coming in two days."

And as a relative pronoun "that" or "who(m)":
זאת הילדה שאני אוהב! י zot hayaldah she'ani 'ohev! "This is the girl that I love!"


7) The Dual, and the Singular/Dual/Plural of Time Terms

The dual is formed by adding the ending יים -áyim instead of normal ים -im (or תיים -táyim for feminine nouns). This often messes up the vowels in the noun stem, though. Duals nouns take plural agreement on verbs and adjectives.

But don't just go and use this ending on any noun you want. It is no longer highly productive, and its usage in colloquial speech is more or less limited to terms of time and "natural duals" (things that normal come in pairs - arms, legs, eyes, etc).

Here are the singular, dual, and plural forms of some of the time and date terms you learned in the last lesson. First is singular, second is dual, third is plural:

• יום yom "day" / יומיים yomáyim "two days" / יומים yomim "days"
• שבוע shav?`a "week" / שבועיים shvu`áyim "two weeks" / שבועות shavu`ot "weeks"
• חודש ch?desh "month" / חודשיים chodsháyim "two months" / חודשים chodashim "months"
• שנה shanah "year" / שנתיים shnatáyim "two years" / שנות shanot "years"

You can use the prepostions ב be- and ל le- with these terms:
היא באה בשבועיים Hi' bá'ah beshvu`áyim "She's coming in two weeks"
אני גר פוה לשנתיים 'Ani gar poh leshnatáyim "I'm living here for two years"


And just stating the obvious: Don't use שתי\שני shtey/shney with dual nouns.


EXERCISE:

1) Yonatan is talking a friend about taking a vacation in the summer. You be the friend, and translate the lines given below in English. At the same time, you need to understand what Yonatan is saying in Hebrew. Hopefully you can handle the multitasking.

יונתן: אני רוצה לנסוע לאירופה הקיץ כמו חופשה. מה אתה חושב על אנגליה? י
You: I think that it's a nice country. Why would you be going?*
יונתן: נו, יש לי קרובים שם ואני אוהב לבקר אותם. י
You: And you would have the opportunity to speak English, which you've been learning in school.*
יונתן: נכון. י
You: How much would the trip cost?
יונתן: אוי, אני לא בטוח. לא זול. אולי אלפיים שקלים לשבועיים. י
You: Can you pay for the airplane ticket? Or would your parents help, if they know that you are coming?
יונתן: אני יכול לשלם לחלק נסיעה.

* English has a lot more aspects in its verbs than Hebrew does. Translate both the conditional "would go" and the past progressive "have been learning" as present tense in Hebrew. Obviously, since you haven't learned any other tenses yet. Just don't feel worried that you can't express the same aspects as easily.


Vocabulary:

• אירופה 'eyrópah - Europe
• קיץ qáyitz "summer"
• כמו kmo "like, as"
• חופשה chufshah "vacation"
• ח-ש-ב Ch-Sh-B "think"
• על `al "about"
• אנגליה 'angliyah - England
• יפה yafeh "nice, pretty"
• קרוב qarov "relative" (also the adjective "close") - /a/ > 0 in plural
• שם sham "there"
• לבקר levaqer "to visit" (this is a different binyan/verb class. If I can't think of any really important stuff that has to be covered next lesson, we should be doing this)
• הזדמנות hizdamnut "opportunity"
• לדבר ledaber "to speak"
• אנגלית 'anglit "English (language)"
• ל-מ-ד L-M-D "learn"
• נכון nachon "true"
• נסיעה nesi`ah "trip"
• ע-ל-ה `-L-H "cost"
• בטוח batúach "sure, certain"
• זול zol "cheap"
• אלפיים 'alpáyim "two thousand" (even though we haven't done higher numbers yet, you should be able to guess the origins of this word)
• לשלם leshalem "to pay"
• כרטיס kartis "ticket"
• מטוס matos "airplane" (use the construct for "airplane ticket")
• או 'o "or"
• הורה horeh "parent"
• ע-ז-ר `-Z-R "help"
• אם 'im "if"
• חלק chéleq "part, portion"

Yonatan: 'Ani rotzeh lins?`a le'eyr?pah haq?yitz kmo chufshah. Mah 'atah choshev `al 'angliyah?
You: I think that it's a nice country. Why would you be going?
Yonatan: Nu, yesh li qrovim sham ve'ani 'ohev levaqer 'otam.
You: And you would have the opportunity to speak English, which you've been learning in school.
Yonatan: Nachon.
You: How much would the trip cost?
Yonatan: 'Oy, 'ani lo' bat?ach. Lo' zol. 'Ulay 'alp?yim shqalim leshvu`?yim.
You: Can you pay for the airplane ticket? Or would your parents help, if they know that you are coming?
Yonatan: 'Ani yachol leshalem lech?leq nesi`ah.


Sorry for the short text. I'm leaving on a short trip soon, so I didn't have much time to write this lesson. I get back on Sunday. If any of you want to try writing a few sentences about something on your own for me to check, please, feel free to, though I'm not requiring it . There's a very good online dictionary at http://milon.morfix.co.il/Default.aspx (just type in either an English word or a Hebrew word in the box), if you need some more vocabulary. Try not to use too many words you don't know yet, though. Sorry - it's only in Hebrew script, so it's not of much help for those who can't sound it out...

[Tuli]

Answers for Lesson 8:
Exercise 1
Jonathan and Sarah on the Telephone
Jonathan: Hello, Sarah! Do you have free time today? A number of my friends and I want to go to the movie theater tonight.
Sarah: Great! I want to see a movie with you all a lot. Who all else is going?
Jonathan: Well. . . Mark and Talyah (does this correspond to an English name?). Perhaps Ben.
Sarah: When is the movie? I can't leave the house before 7:00 because I'm eating dinner with my family.
Jonathan: This (seems more natural to translate it as "that") isn't a problem. There aren't good movies before seven. Is at eight okay?
Sarah: Yes! This is good. Bye!
Exercise 2
מספר הטלפון שלי שהע-שתיים-אחת שתיין-חמש-תשע-אפס-אחת-שמונה-שלוש. י
Mispar hatelefon sheli sh?va`-sht?yim-'achat sht?yim-chamesh-t?sha`-'?fes-'achat-shm?neh-shalosh.
Exercise 3
שלושה חברים shloshah chaverim
ארבע חבריות '?rba` chavereyot
שישה תפוחים shishah tapuchim
עסר בננות `?ser bananot
שתי מכונייות shtey mechoniyot
כלב אחד k?lev 'echad
שמונה ספרים shmonah sfarim
שבעה לילות shiv`ah leylot
שש ארוחות shesh 'aruchot
עסרה בתים `asarah batim
שבעה שקלים shiv`ah shqalim
ארבע עוגות גבינה '?rba` `ugot gvinah שני ספרי היסטוריה shney sfarey historiyah

This was typed up fairly late at night; forgive any typos.
I'm going out of town too, for the weekend and most of next week.
אני גם הולכ מהעיר. אני לומד את השעור התשיעי

[Mecislau]

Talyah (does this correspond to an English name?). Perhaps Ben.

No, not really. In English it's generally rendered as "Talia".

Occasionally, though, you may see Talia (or Talya) derived from the Russian name Natalya, which is cognate with Natalie. However, this bears no real relation to the Hebrew name. That I know of.

(seems more natural to translate it as "that")

Yes, go ahead and do that. The worst thing you can do when translating is translating literally. In my opinion, t's best to read a sentence first, think about the intended meaning, and then write the sentence from scratch in the target language. Sometimes that'll mean the new sentence bears little similarity to the original, but more accurate meaningwise.

ארבע חבריות '?rba` chavereyot

Eep. You've messed up the plural there. That'd work if the noun were *chaveret, but the feminine form of chaver is chaverah חברה

Don't add -et for the feminine unless the masculine is CoCeC, not CaCeC!

שני ספרי היסטוריה shney sfarey historiyah

Remember how to form the construct of nouns of the form C?CeC. They become CiCCey in the construct plural.

אני גם הולכ מהעיר. אני לומד את השעור התשיעי

Being picky here, but don't forget about the sofiyot letters (final forms). כ becomes ך at the end of a word: הולך

It may be better to use the verb נוסע nos?`a rather than הולך holech, though, since you're travelling and not just taking an evening stroll out of town, I'd assume. But I don't blame you - you didn't read Lesson 9 when you wrote this, where I first told you about the distinction...

And just for your information, the prepostion "out of" is חוץ ל chutz la-, literally "to the outside of". Yes, this is a "construct-forming" preposition, in that it also forms a construct pair with the following noun: חוץ לעיר chutz la`ir "out of town".

Don't worry about the odd positioning of the ל, where you might expect *לחוץ העיר lechutz ha`ir. I believe this is just an older construction that's since been frozen.

[Tuli]

Thank you, Maknas! As a note, for C?CeC>CiCCey, you have in Lesson 8 that it?s the construct singular. Knowing that it?s plural clears up a bunch of things. (And that gives me one error I have an excuse for. ) I have no idea where I pulled chavereyot from. But in the mean time, I have managed to confirm to everyone that I?m crazy by muttering to myself in as much Hebrew as I can.

Answers for Lesson 9:
Yonatan: I want to go to Europe this summer as a vacation. What do you think about England?
Me: 'Ani choshev shehi' '?retz yafah. L?mah 'atah nos?`a?
אני חושב שהיא ארץ יפה. למה אתה נוסע? י
Yonatan: Well, I have relatives there, and I love to visit them.
Me: Veyesh l?cha 'et hahizdamnut ledaber 'et 'anglit, she'atah lomed bebeyt s?fer.
ויש לף את ההזדמנות לדבר את אנגלית, שאתה לומד בבית ספר. י
Yonatan: True.
Me: K?mah nesi`ah `olah?
כמה נסיעה עולה? י
Yonatan: Oy, I'm not sure. It's not cheap. Perhaps two thousand sheqels for two weeks.
Me: 'Atah yachol leshalem 'et kartis hamatos? 'O hahorim shelcha `ozrim, 'im hem yoda`im she'atah ba'?
אתה יחול לשלם את כרטיס המטוס? או ההורים שלף עוזרים אם הם יודעים שאתה בא? י
Yonatan: I can pay for part of the trip.

[Mecislau]

Thank you, Maknas! As a note, for C?CeC>CiCCey, you have in Lesson 8 that it?s the construct singular. Knowing that it?s plural clears up a bunch of things. (And that gives me one error I have an excuse for. )

Ack! Silly me. At least I glossed the example in that lesson correctly as "history books". I'll fix that...

Just remember that -ey is a masculine construct plural ending.

Answers for Lesson 9:
Yonatan: I want to go to Europe this summer as a vacation. What do you think about England?
Me: 'Ani choshev shehi' '?retz yafah. L?mah 'atah nos?`a?
אני חושב שהיא ארץ יפה. למה אתה נוסע? י
Yonatan: Well, I have relatives there, and I love to visit them.
Me: Veyesh l?cha 'et hahizdamnut ledaber 'et 'anglit, she'atah lomed bebeyt s?fer.
ויש לף את ההזדמנות לדבר את אנגלית, שאתה לומד בבית ספר. י
Yonatan: True.
Me: K?mah nesi`ah `olah?
כמה נסיעה עולה? י
Yonatan: Oy, I'm not sure. It's not cheap. Perhaps two thousand sheqels for two weeks.
Me: 'Atah yachol leshalem 'et kartis hamatos? 'O hahorim shelcha `ozrim, 'im hem yoda`im she'atah ba'?
אתה יחול לשלם את כרטיס המטוס? או ההורים שלף עוזרים אם הם יודעים שאתה בא? י
Yonatan: I can pay for part of the trip.

Yay! You did really well there.

My only suggestion would be to use a definite article in the line "How much would the trip cost?" - K?mah hanesi`ah `olah?

[Raphael]

Err, please don't get mad at me for trying to get into this thread so long after it started.

If you aren't, two way too belated questions:

1) How important is the glottal stop? Does the meaning of a word ever depend on wether it's there or not? Is it theoretically possible to get by without it?

2) Could someone- not Maknas, he's already doing so much great work with the classes- explain the phonology for the phonology-ignorant? That is, in terms of "it's pronounced like the (...) in (..).

[Mecislau]

Err, please don't get mad at me for trying to get into this thread so long after it started.

No problem at all! I love having more people involved!

1) How important is the glottal stop? Does the meaning of a word ever depend on wether it's there or not? Is it theoretically possible to get by without it?

Actually, yes. Many Israelis already drop the glottal stop entirely. I don't think it's ever really had a huge functional load in Hebrew except possibly in clusters and word-finally.

2) Could someone- not Maknas, he's already doing so much great work with the classes- explain the phonology for the phonology-ignorant? That is, in terms of "it's pronounced like the (...) in (..).

Nah, I don't mind.

א - 'alef - silent or glottal stop (like the middle of "uh-oh" [@.?oU] or the beginning of "apple" [?{.p5=])
ב - beyt - /b/, or /v/ when lenited.
ג - gimel - /g/
ד - dalet - /d/
ה - hey - /h/, or silent word-finally
ו - vav - /v/ when consonantal, /o/ or /u/ when vocallic
ז - zayin - /z/
ח - chet - /X/, like in "loch" or "Bach", except further back in the throat
ט - tet - /t/
י - yod - /j/ (that is, English "y" as in "yes") when consonantal, /i/ when vocallic
כ - kaf - /k/, or /X/ when lenited
ל - lamed - /l/
מ - mem - /m/
נ - nun - /n/
ס - samech - /s/
ע - `ayin - silent or glottal stop
פ - pey - /p/, or /f/ when lenited
צ - tzadi - /ts)/, almost like in "cats"
ק - qof - /k/
ר - reysh - /R/ (a voiced uvular fricative, the voiced form of /X/. No real English equivalent. It also is pronounced as a uvular approximant in many positions, which is an even harder sound to describe)
ש - shin - /s/ or /S/ (as in "she")
ת - tav - /t/

The vowels are relatively simple:
/a/ - father
/e/ - bet
/i/ - see
/o/ - no (except not a diphthong, like it is in English)
/u/ - moon

Regarding lenition - Several consonants have a lenited allophone. The rules for when to use which are incredibly complex. However, consonants are reliably lenited word-finally and often before another consonant, and never word-initially.

Stress generally falls on the last syllable of a word. If it doesn't, it will be on the second-to-last (which I will make here with an accent: s?fer), which is known as the "segolate vowel". Stress never occurs on any other syllable.

That all being modern Hebrew pronunciation, of course.