Now that we have learned the Hebrew alphabet and the vowel signs and other pronunciation aids, let’s turn to pronouns and nouns.
As you can see in the chart below, Hebrew personal pronouns indicate the person, number and gender of the individual referred to, except for the first person, “I” and “we.” The Hebrew words for “I” and “we” signal person and number, but not gender.
Singular Pronouns |
Plural Pronouns
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(ahnee, ah-no-chee)
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I
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(ah-nach-nu)
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we
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(aht-tah)
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you (m.)
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(aht-tem)
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you (m.)
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(aht)
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you (f.)
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(aht-ten)
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you (f.)
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(hoo)
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he, it (m.)
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(hem)
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they (m.)
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(hee)
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she, it (f.)
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(hen)
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they (f.)
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Practice substituting the other singular pronouns for
A biblical example of a similar expression occurs in 2 Samuel 12:7. The prophet Nathan told King David the story of the rich man with many flocks who took the only ewe of a poor man to serve to visitors. When Nathan finished the story, David was so incensed at the injustice that he was ready to have the rich man killed for the deed. He asked Nathan who the man of wealth was. Nathan replied, “
Notice the ha before eesh. Ha is the equivalent of “the” in English. This definite article has only this from and may be used with any noun. Note that it is attached to the noun as a prefix; in this respect it is unlike our independent word “the” Hebrew has no indefinite articles like a or an. The indefinite idea is expressed by the noun without a definite article.
The main conjunction in Hebrew is the letter Vav, meaning “and.” It is used as a prefix to the following word. We can practice using the conjunction with the pronoun expressions we have been learning:
Or we could be more definite by saying,
By now, you have met several nouns. Let’s meet some feminine nouns, as well as some adjectives:
Feminine Nouns and Adjectives |
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Singular |
Plural
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Translation
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commandment
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blessing
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alive, living
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sabbath
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beautiful
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candelabra (menorah)
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great, large
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Many singular feminine nouns end with the vowel kamats followed by a silent He (
Masculine nouns usually have a plural ending of chirik gadol and Mem (
Masculine Nouns and Adjectives |
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Singular |
Plural
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Translation
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word, thing
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son
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alive, living
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king
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judgment, custom
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prophet
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great, large
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Use the masculine personal pronouns together with these nouns to form sentences in the present tense, for example,
In our next lesson we will study verbs and use them with the examples given here to form simple sentences. In the meantime, you have learned enough to read Genesis 1:1, which we met in our first lesson:
bereh-sheet ba-rah e-lo-heem et ha-sha-ma-yeem ve-et ha-ah-rets.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”