learning hebrew 4 (top ten grammar tips)

people have wildly different views of how hard hebrew is to learn. people who feel hebrew is easy to learn explain that the root system, or basic verb structure, largely organizes grammar and conjugation. however, the language grammar is also very different than romantic or latin languages, so it can be quite difficult to understand what the rules and systems are and exactly how they operate.

for me, it took a little bit of hard work to get started into the language, but once i started to understand some or the really core concepts, i feel like the work started to get easier for me. the things i've listed below are some understandings that i've picked up from speaking and reading and listening over time. i imagine that the ideas aren't totally pure, but i hope they can be helpful if you're trying to find your way. each idea is something that i didn't know at first and then learned to internalize with practice.

(where possible, i've tried to give a brief explanation of what i mean, as well as a link to a useful website to explain further. some explanations are still in draft, and please forgive any spelling errors below. i will fix as soon as i see them and realize (or learn) my mistakes.)


1) gender
in hebrew, all nouns and adjectives are masculine or feminine.

when you describe nouns, you have to conjugate the adjective to match the gender of the noun. it's exactly like you would do in spanish. . . that is, it's backwards from english. generally, a word that ends with a "ה" or with a "ת" will be feminine. all other word endings will generally be masculine. (of course, there are always irregulars.)

• red car
• car red = מכונית אדומה

• black sock
• sock black = גרב שחור

2) verb conjugation
you conjugate each verb according to case, tense, and binyan.

we do conjugate our verbs in a rather regular fashion in english, but our verbs also vary according to language of origin. (we've received a mishmash of rules from a mishmash of languages.) in hebrew, you conjugate each verb according to the subject and tense, the same as in english. however, you also learn to understand different rules for different g'zarot, types or forms of the verbs. if each binyan is a building, then the g'zarot are like little rooms of verbs within the buildings.


3) verb system
there are 7 verb "buildings", or binyanim.

each verb (most often) has a 3 letter root, or שורש. you can often apply a different filter to the base root in order to cause different verbs. as you get to understand the binyanim, you start to understand how to adjust verbs for actions someone is performing, actions you are performing to somebody or something else, and actions you perform to yourself. for example:

he is wearing a shirt.
he dresses her in a shirt.
he dresses himself in a shirt.

• הוא לובש חולצה.
• הוא מלביש אותה בחולצה.
• הוא מתלבש את החולצה.

4) "et" and "ה"
a special hebrew word identifies proper or specific nouns.

there is no direct corrolary to the hebrew word "et" in english. you simply have to learn to add it in every time the direct object is a proper or specific noun.

for example:
i do not want the orange stroller.
i do not want "et" the orange stroller.

• אני לא רוצה את העגלה הכתומה.
• ani lo rotze et ha-agalah ha-k'tuma.

when you have a specific noun to identify, you also place a "ה" before the noun and adjective in order to signify they are joined. (a sentence without the second "ה" will mean something different.)


5) smichut
two nouns join together to form a connected phrase.

in hebrew, when you match two nouns together, you move the "ה" from before the specific noun to between the two nouns. you also change the ending of the first noun and make the second noun (only) plural (when necessary).

feminine smichut:
swimming pool
pool swimming

• בריכה + שחייה
• בריכת שחייה

masculine smichut:
air temperament (weather)
temperament air

• מזג אוויר

masculine plural smichut:
sun glasses
glasses sun

• משקפיים + שמש
• משקפיי שמש

6) prepositions
individual verbs use specific prepositions.

the specific preposition don't really make sense, although it helps to learn which means what. there can be some intuition when verbs acts towards on upon somebody. however, these can really only be learned by reading or hearing in context and then memorizing. (they are also listed in 501 Hebrew Verbs.)

• לראות את
• להשתמש ב
• לענות ל

7) prepositions decline
the prepositions conjugate according to pronoun case.


when you form sentences, it's important to understand an important hebrew convention: you conjugate prepositions. in english, you would simply add the preposition as an independent word in a sentence. however, when prepositions connect to pronouns, you conjugate the preposition to fit the pronoun case. that is, you or he or she or us or so on. a partial list of included prepositions: of, with, towards, in, from, with, for, on, between, before, after, behind, in front, as, and without.

• i am going with | you.
• i am going "wiyu".
• אני הולך עיתך.

(i have a great document here, but i can't find the original website, and i don't yet know how to link the document to the blog.)


8) imperative
use the future tense to order someone around.

israelis use the future tense as the colloquial imperative. that is, "do this!" there is an actual imperative that is used more in songs, films, and literature. soem words are still used in the imperative, like sit or go, but most are just used in the future tense. (the convention is to add the word בבקשה , or please, when using the future tense.)

• ask!
• תשאל
• תשאלי

• eat!
• תאוכל
• תאוכלי

9a) making nouns.
you can generally make exact nouns from the verb's root.

• שמר
• שמירה

• דיבר
• דיבור

• התרגש
• התרגשות

9b) making adjectives.
you can generally make adjectives from verb conjugation.

9c) making adverbs.
you can sometimes make adverbs from connected adjectives.


10) double negatives.
you say no and the negative verb together.

in formal english, a double negative cancels out the negative and makes a positive idea. however, hebrew requires the use of "no" as well as the negative direct object. it's more like american black english, where you could say something like, "i ain't saying nothing."

• I didn't do nothing.

• אני לא עסיתי שום דבר.

some extra tips just for free:
(although, strictly speaking, they're all for free, i guess.)

A) pronominal suffixes
you can add declined endings to nouns in order to show possession.

in prayerbook hebrew, you often find changed endings to the same base noun. it is possible to add the possessive noun to the end of the base noun. for example, your bagel becomes something like "bagelyr". this is largely uses only in high hebrew (prayerbooks and literature); however, there are some places where pronominal suffixes are more conventional, including body parts.

(my best suggestion is to wait for a while before you try to learn and add in these endings. they're a bit tricky and using regular possessive pronouns is also completely normal and completely fine.)


B) "ש".
that means that, but it also splits time and tense.

"ש" is used (more often than in hebrew) to split sentences with the word "that". you will start to get a sense over time of when israelis interject the word, but it is often used to split the sentence by verb tense or sentence subject.

• xxxx
• xxxx
  

• xxxx
• xxxx
  

C) sentence structure
noun + verb? verb + noun?

in hebrew, not all sentences run noun verb, noun verb. some sentences flip the noun and verb (and even the direct object) in order to emphasize the actor or the action and some sentences are simply conventional to flip:

• it is raining.
  
• falling (is) rain.
• יורד גשם.

D) impersonal sentences.
you're really talking about everybody.

impersonal sentences in english use a singular verb. however, impersonal sentences in hebrew use the masculine plural conjugation and drop any preceding pronoun. it implies something like that everybody is doing something always.

• one uses a fork to pick up food.
• משתמשים במזלג לתקוע אוכל

E) Cardinal and ordinate numbers.
there are four different sets of numbers: masculine and feminine numbers to count and assign.

when you simply count numbers, you use the feminine set of cardinal numbers to count. however, when you count specific things, you use the specific gender to number those things. for example:

• six pencils
• שיש אפרונות

• six monkeys
• שישה קופים

there also are two sets of numbers when you use ordinal numbers to count sets or positions, like races or streets.

• sixth place
• XXX

• 8th avenue
  
• שדרה שמינית
  

F) The Subjunctive.
i would like to . . .

in english, we often use the subjunctive tense in order express a want or wish more politely. for example, when we order food, we might say, "i would like to order. . . ". you make the subjunctive tense in hebrew by adding the correct conjugated past tense form of to be or להיות.

• i would like
• הייתי רוצה

• we would like
• היינו רוצים