Lesson 22 - Let's Practice What We Know #2

Hebrew Lesson Number 22:

Let's Practice What We Know #2

After reviewing our vocabulary from Hebrew Lessons echad ad eser (1 to 10), it's time to repeat and practice our grammar rules taken from these lessons. Hebrew grammar is Fun! Dikduk be-Ivrit ze kef!

Introduction to Lesson 22: 

Let's Practice What We Know #2

Learn Hebrew Pod - Lesson 22

Articles, prepositions, and verbs . . . oh my!  

There’s no need to be afraid.  And we don’t need to see the Wizard to ask him for a brain!  We’ve got all we need right here, as Jonathan, Eran, and Liat review and consolidate for us the many grammar topics we learned in Lessons 1 through 10.  So by the end of this lesson, we’ll remember:

• Why it’s called the “cheese cream rule”

• Why we’d ask Liat “ma shlomech?” instead of “ma shlomcha?”

• What the pa-albuilding block is, and . . .

• Why we ohavim et ha-shiurim shel Learn Hebrew Pod instead of ohavim ha-shiurim shel Learn Hebrew Pod.

No, Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.  We’re in Israel . . . the language is Hebrew, and we are well on our way!  Kadima!

Some Grammar from This Lesson:

Gender Pertinence and Numbers

Using numbers correctly in Hebrew requires a thorough understanding and awareness of gender pertinence principals in Hebrew. One of the best examples is when asking for or telling the time.

Liat: In Hebrew, when we ask for or say the time we use the word sha-a – an hour.

The question in Hebrew is “ma ha-sha-a?”

Literally, the translation is: “What is the hour?”

When replying, we may say, for example, "ha-sha-a chamesh" - the time is five.

Jonathan: Back to the gender pertinence aspect of saying the time. We emphasize again. Always be sure to choose the right adjective for a word. 

Eran: If our Hebrew word has masculine gender pertinence, the Hebrew adjective following it will be in the masculine form. If a word has feminine gender pertinence, the adjective following it, will be in the feminine form!

Liat: Hebrew uses two different sets of words for numbers, masculine sets and feminine sets. Since saying the time describes a feminine noun, (an hour is feminine, it ends with the 'a' suffix) we use the feminine set of numbers to indicate the time.

Jonathan: To practice how to say the time in Hebrew, please refer to Lesson 22-C, Exercise #4.

In English we use two kinds of articles. “The” which is a definite article and is used to refer to specific or particular nouns.  The other is indefinite as in “a” or “an” which we use before non-specific or non-particular nouns. 

We had started our discussion of the proper use of 'articles' in Hebrew, by acknowledging the following two simple basic rules:

חוק מספר אחת

Eran: chok mispar achat - Rule Number One: In Hebrew there is NO indefinite article. We don't use “a” or “an” preceding the noun. For example: “a student” in Hebrew is: “student”. “a book”  in Hebrew is: “sefer”. That’s it. Nothing can be simpler than that, just the noun without anything preceding it.

חוק מספר שתיים

Liat: chok mispar shta-yim - Rule Number Two: There is a definite article in Hebrew. It is connected to the noun as a prefix and not as a separate word.  In its simplest form, the article 'The' is the letter hey with the vowel 'a'. That makes a 'ha' sound. We connect the definite article ‘ha’ to the beginning of the word. Therefore, it is transliterated as one unit: “ha-ka-izz” which is “the summer” and “ha-choref” …”the winter”.