Grammar Lessons for Aleph with Beth Contents Contents Lesson 1 - First nouns and adjectives 1.1 Interrogative pronouns 1.2 The definite article 1.3 Adjectives Lesson 2 - Plural nouns and adjectives ’very‘ ְמא ֹד 2.1 2.2 Plural demonstrative ‘these’ 2.3 Plural forms 2.4 Irregular plurals Lesson 3 - Conjunction and gender ְו- The conjunction 3.1 3.2 Letters with two pronunciations 3.3 Gender and epicene nouns Lesson 4 - Subject Pronouns 4.1 Subject pronouns 4.2 Verbless clauses Lesson 5 - Family terms 5.1 Possessive pronoun suffixes 5.2 Construct forms 5.3 Letters with two pronunciations 5.4 Maqqef Lesson 6 - Prepositions and Location 6.1 Prepositions ִשׂים Imperative verb 6.2 marks definite direct objects ֶאת־ 6.3 Lesson 7 - Alphabet part 1 7.1 Consonants 7.2 Vowels 7.3 Definite article variants Lesson 8 - Parts of the Body 8.1 Dual forms 8.2 Nouns with plural form only 8.3 Nouns in construct form Lesson 9 - Things good and bad 9.1 Possessive suffixes review ָדּ ָבר The word 9.2 Draft copy: work in progress - Aleph with Beth - This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You are free to translate, adapt and redistribute as long as you credit the original source and release the adaptation under the same CC license. 2 9.3 Adjectives ‘good’ and ‘bad’ 9.4 The yes-no question marker prefix ִהנֵּה Hinneh 9.5 Lesson 10 - Alphabet part 2 10.1 Consonants 10.2 Vowels 10.3 Maqqef (review from 5.4) Lesson 11 - Construct Forms 11.1 Plural forms of son and daughter 11.2 Construct forms 11.3 Good or bad in the eyes of... Lesson 12 - Numbers 1-5 ַקח Imperative verb 12.2 ָכּל־ / כּ ֹל - All 12.3 Lesson 13 - Alphabet part 3 13.1 Consonants 13.2 Vowels 13.3 Letters with two pronunciations Lesson 14 - Nature and existence clauses 14.1 Nouns with plural form only 14.2 Metaphorical uses of body parts 14.3 Day and night adverbs 14.4 Collective nouns 14.5 Existence clauses Draft copy: work in progress - Aleph with Beth - This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You are free to translate, adapt and redistribute as long as you credit the original source and release the adaptation under the same CC license. 3 Lesson 15 - Geography and more 15.1 Much/many 15.2 Collective nouns 15.3 Rivers and wadis Lesson 16 - Alphabet part 4 16.1 Consonants Lesson 17 - Lamed and Possession 17.1 Expressing possession 17.2 Adjectives as nouns Lesson 18 - Children and Elders 18.1 Vocabulary Notes Lesson 19 - Alphabet part 5 19.1 Consonants 19.2 Reduced pataħ 19.3 Furtive pataħ Lesson 20 - Asher & Relative Clauses 20.1 Morphology of prepositions 20.2 Inseparable prepositions with the definite article (u-) (Review from 3.1) וּ- vǝ-) becomes) ְו- When 20.3 asher‘ ֲא ֶשׁר Relative Pronoun 20.4 Draft copy: work in progress - Aleph with Beth - This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You are free to translate, adapt and redistribute as long as you credit the original source and release the adaptation under the same CC license. 4 Draft copy: work in progress - Aleph with Beth - This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You are free to translate, adapt and redistribute as long as you credit the original source and release the adaptation under the same CC license. 5 Lesson 1 - First nouns and adjectives 1.1 Interrogative pronouns In Biblical Hebrew, there is no question mark (?). You can identify questions by their interrogative pronouns "what," "where," etc. In these lessons, all sentences, including questions, called a sof pasuq.1 (׃) will end with this symbol ָמה/ ַמה ?what ַאיֵּה ?where ַמה־זֶּה׃ זֶה ִאישׁ׃ ַמה־זּ ֹאת׃ ז ֹאת ִא ָשּׁה׃ What (is) This (is) a woman. What (is) this? This (is) a man. What (is) this? this? ַמה־זֶּה׃ זֶה ַפּר׃ ַמה־זּ ֹאת׃ ז ֹאת ָפּ ָרה׃ …This (is) a This (is) a cow. What (is) this? This (is) a bull. What (is) this? 1.2 The definite article There .( ָה- or ַה-) -The definite article ‘the’ is a prefix attached to the beginning of the word: ha is no indefinite article like ‘a’ or ‘an’; instead, an indefinite noun will have no article. Compare the man’). The definite article occurs on nouns, and also on any‘) ָה ִאישׁ a man’) with‘) ִאישׁ this fem.’) that directly modify‘ ז ֹאת this masc.’ or zo’t‘ זֶה adjectives and demonstratives (zeh them. This helps us to pair an adjective or demonstrative with the noun it modifies in the same phrase. 1 In the Hebrew Bible, the sof pasuq marks the end of a verse instead of the end of a sentence. A single verse may contain more than one sentence, but the sof pasuq will only occur at the end of the verse. Draft copy: work in progress - Aleph with Beth - This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You are free to translate, adapt and redistribute as long as you credit the original source and release the adaptation under the same CC license. 6 2 ַה ָ-/ה- ’Definite article ‘the ַה ַפּר ַה ָגּדוֹל the big bull ַה ַפּר ַהזֶּה this bull 1.3 Adjectives An adjective describes a property or characteristic of a noun and follows the noun it modifies. In Hebrew, the adjectives agree in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) with the nouns they modify. That is, an adjective has four possible forms: masculine singular, feminine singular, masculine plural and feminine plural. A masc. sg. noun will take a masc. sg. adjective, and a fem. sg. noun will take a fem. sg. adjective, as in the table below. ַפּר ָגּדוֹל ָפּ ָרה גְדוֹ ָלה Fem. sg. Fem. sg. Masc. sg. Masc. sg. A big cow A big bull 2 See section 7.3 for why the article has different spellings. Draft copy: work in progress - Aleph with Beth - This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You are free to translate, adapt and redistribute as long as you credit the original source and release the adaptation under the same CC license. 7 When an adjective directly modifies a noun in the same phrase, it also agrees in definiteness, and as in the previous examples in 1.2 and below right. If an , ַה- takes the definite article prefix then it must form a , ַה- adjective or demonstrative occurs with a definite noun but does not have sentence with an implied equivalence “is” or “are,” as in the example below left. ָה ִאישׁ ַה ָגּדוֹל ָה ִאישׁ ָגּדוֹל ‘the man (is) big’ ‘the big man’ Notice that we know that the adjectives and demonstratives in row 1 below form part of the same By contrast, the . ַה- phrase as the noun they modify because they are all marked with and therefore they must be , ַה- demonstratives in row 2 and the adjectives in row 3 do not have on one side or another of an implied verb “is,” forming complete sentences. This small This big man... 1 ָה ִא ָשּׁה ַה ְקּ ַטנָּה ַהזּ ֹאת ...woman ָה ִאישׁ ַה ָגּדוֹל ַהזֶּה 2 ז ֹאת ָה ִא ָשּׁה ַה ְקּ ַטנָּה׃ This (is) the small זֶה ָה ִאישׁ ַה ָגּדוֹל׃ This (is) the big Draft copy: work in progress - Aleph with Beth - This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You are free to translate, adapt and redistribute as long as you credit the original source and release the adaptation under the same CC license. 8 man. woman. This woman (is) This man (is) big. 3 ָה ִא ָשּׁה ַהזּ ֹאת ְק ַטנָּה׃ .small ָה ִאישׁ ַהזֶּה ָגּדוֹל׃ Draft copy: work in progress - Aleph with Beth - This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You are free to translate, adapt and redistribute as long as you credit the original source and release the adaptation under the same CC license. 9 Lesson 2 - Plural nouns and adjectives ’very‘ ְמא ֹד 2.1 is to intensify the adjective it modifies, like the ְמא ֹד One of the functions of the word mə’od word “very.” ָקט ֹן small טוֹב good ָקט ֹן ְמא ֹד very small טוֹב ְמא ֹד very good 2.2 Plural demonstrative ‘these’ and a feminine form zo’t זֶה For the singular demonstrative ‘this,’ there is a masculine form zeh . ֵא ֶלּה The plural demonstrative ‘these’ is the same for both genders: ’elleh .ז ֹאת Masculine Feminine ז ֹאת זֶה Singular ֵא ֶלּה Plural directly modifies a plural noun in the same phrase, it follows ֵא ֶלּה when ,ז ֹאת and זֶה Just like the noun and takes the definite article to match the noun (left below). It can also be the pronominal subject of the clause (right below). Draft copy: work in progress - Aleph with Beth - This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You are free to translate, adapt and redistribute as long as you credit the original source and release the adaptation under the same CC license. 10 ֵא ֶלּה סוּ ִסים These (are) horses ַהסּוּ ִסים ָה ֵא ֶלּה ...These horses 2.3 Plural forms while feminine nouns take the plural ending ,- ִ◌ ים Masculine nouns take the plural ending -im An adjective that modifies a noun will agree with it in gender and number, taking the .-וֹת ot- same ending that the noun takes.