Lesson 43 - Running Errands

Learn Hebrew Pod - Lesson No. 43

סופר / סופרסל

But we are very happy that she did.  And maybe she is too . . . even though “real life” quickly rushed back in.  So much to do, it’s hard to know where to begin . . . the bank, the supermarket, the post office . . . and, of course, preparing to record the conversation and all the prepositions in Learn Hebrew Pod  shiur mispar arba-im ve-shalosh!

For Liat, though, Hebrew prepositions come naturally.  And with her help (and Eran’s and Jonathan’s), soon they will for us too.  By the time we’re done with Lesson 43--combined with all we learned in Lessons 33, 37, and 38--we will know almost all the prepositions used in Hebrew.  Wow!  We will be preposition ge-onim.  (Ge-onim, ge-onim . . . do we know what that means??  Join us for Learn Hebrew Pod Lesson 43, and you certainly will!)

מילות יחס

ליאת, יונתן וערן

המורים שלנו לעברית בדרגת הבינוניים

Eran: Next lesson, lesson forty four - ha-shi-ur ha-ba, shi-ur arba-im ve-arba, is the twentieth lesson of the Intermediate level… meaning it is…

Liat: The last Hebrew lesson on the Intermediate level, just before we go to the review lessons for this level. Since the Huf-al building block…

Eran: Is our last Hebrew building block…

Liat: To be studied on the intermediate level… don't you think it will be more appropriate if we teach that…

Eran: On the last lesson of the Intermediate level? I mean, the last building block in the last Hebrew lesson of this level?

Jonathan: I hear what you're saying guys…and actually, now that I think about it… hmm… ken, you might be right… but… what shall we do for today's lesson? What Hebrew dialogue shall we practice? What grammar topic?

?מה נלמד היום בשיעור שלנו

Liat: So… Jonathan, tishma - listen: as I just told you - kfi she-karega siparti lecha,  since I came back form Italy - me-az shechazarti me-Italya, I've had my hands full… not a moment to waste… I've had so many errands to do - ha-yu li kol kach harbe sidurim la-asot! So many, that they almost prevented me from practicing for today's Hebrew lesson, well, at least until I met Eran…

Eran: Oh… Liat… stop:)

Liat: lo lo, be-emet, Eran helped me so much Jonathan, you can’t even imagine… and all of that by giving me the right advice… ata ga-on, Eran, ga-on:) So… Jonathan, would you like to listen to my conversation with Eran?

Jonathan: Well, after such a buildup, Liat, how can I not be interested in listening to it? I see that you guys have given it quite a lot of thought, so you probably have your Hebrew dialogue written and prepared… you have probably also thought about a proper Hebrew grammar topic for this lesson, am I right? - ani zzodek?

Eran: You are correct, Jonathan - ata zzodek, Yonatan. Since, aside from completing the Hebrew building blocks list, on our Intermediate level curriculum we have to also complete another important task, going through the rest of the declension sets for Hebrew prepositions -

Liat: milot yachas be-Ivrit! Nachon?

Jonathan: wow, chevre… atem ge-onim. ma ha-iti ose bil-adeychem… - Guys… you are ge…

Liat: Stop Jonathan, you are using a line from our dialogue… don’t translate it…

Eran: ken, Yonatan:) let us.

Jonathan: wow… okay, bo-u natchil.

Eran & Liat: yalla, bo-u natchil.

Jonathan: toda raba lachem Eran ve-Liat! Let's remind ourselves of two basic important facts for understanding the concept of prepositions in general and specifically in Hebrew:

Prepositions are often an idiomatic part of a language. Therefore, the use of a certain preposition to connect between a verb and a noun may be different in English than in Hebrew.  The proper idiomatic use of prepositions might take some work to memorize.

Being able to properly use prepositions in Hebrew also acquires the mastering of their personal pronoun declensions.  

We are already familiar with some of these. For reviewing the ones we studied already, and for a more complete discussion of prepositions in Hebrew, please refer to lesson 38.

Other lessons in which we learned how to use prepositions in Hebrew are lessons:

15, 22, 24, 33 and 37.    

For the rest of this Hebrew lesson, we will practice what we already know, as well as learning some new charts.

The method of declining prepositions is based on keeping a basic, slightly-altered form of the preposition while adding to it the appropriate suffixes which indicate the relevant personal pronoun that it is related to.

The alteration for the basic preposition and the personal pronoun suffixes are different for different prepositions. 

However, some prepositions use pretty much the same techniques for these alterations.

be-shi-ur mispar shloshim ve-shmone - in lesson number 38, we went through the following prepositions and their personal pronoun declensions:

'et', 'it', 'le', 'be', 'shel', 'ezzel', bishvil', 'biglal', 'le-yad', 'al-yad' and  'betoch'.

In the current lesson and in the C lesson, we will continue exploring Hebrew prepositions and their personal pronoun declensions, covering almost all the prepositions used in Hebrew.

As in lesson 38, we will try to navigate through the different prepositions, dividing them into groups which use quite the same declensional manner and system. Let's start exploring today's prepositions by comparing our old friend 'ezzel' with 'be-ad' – for/ in favor of/ through.  This preposition is quite archaic and is not often used in conversational Hebrew. It does though exist and still functions in literary Hebrew.