Hebrew/Basic/3

 Basic Lesson 3 —

Before moving on, we must be introduced to some basic structures at the heart of Hebrew grammar, without which we cannot proceed. This lesson is quite theoretic, so pay attention.

Roots
All nouns and verbs in Hebrew stem from sequences of consonants or radicals, known as roots. Adding letters before, after and between the consonants form the words. The roots would almost always have 3 consonants, although roots of 4 and 2 exist as well.

All the letters of the Hebrew alphabet can be radicals, even the vowels letters and.

Hebrew has set “moulds” in which the roots may be inserted. One noun we learned,, is stemmed from the root and is in the miqttal mould. The word, while also formed in the miqttal mould, is stemmed from the root.

The more ancient and traditional nouns do not follow any structured mould. For instance, the word, while also formed from the root , has no noun mould it fits.

Roots have general meaning related to the words they form. For instance, the root has the general meaning of “writing”, so  means “handwriting”,  means “[news] article” and  means “[postal] letter”. Some roots have more than one meaning; the root could mean “count”, “tell” and “haircut”.

It is also important to maintain the correct sequence of the consonants, as these change the meaning altogether. The root means “grow”,  means “skip”,  means “heal [wounds]” and  means “supporting [an idea]/raising a banner”.

Prefixes
In the previous lesson we learned the definite article,, and that it is attached directly to a word. In modern Hebrew there are 8 prefixes, of which only 6 are used. We have learned one already, the definite article. For all of them there are grammatical rules as to which vowel following the prefix should be used, but they are ignored by Israelis.

The sixth prefix,, will be discussed in future lessons.

Vav
The conjunction “and” appears in Hebrew as Vav with shva na‘.

Examples
 * A number


 * Peace (shalom) and a number

Bet
The preposition “in” appears in Hebrew as Bet with shva na‘.

Examples
 * A number


 * In a number

Lamed
The preposition “to” is denoted as Lamed with shva na‘, just as “in”.

Examples
 * A number


 * To a number

Mem
The preposition “from” is formed by the prefix Mem with tsere or ħiriq.

Examples
 * A number


 * From a number

Prefixes + Definite Article
The prefixes and  are contracted with the definite article to form  and, respectively. The other prefixes are added normally.

Examples
 * In a number


 * In the number


 * And the number

Introduction to Plurals
You've already learned Hebrew has two genders: masculine and feminine. But so far you have only learned singular nouns.

Generally, the plurals are formed by adding to masculine nouns, and  to feminine nouns.

Examples
 * A number
 * m


 * Number s

There are some irregulars, however:

We will learn how to make complex pluralizations in future lessons, and the irregular nouns.

Summary
In this lesson, you have learned: Practice what you've learned in the exercises.
 * Roots.
 * Prefixes in Hebrew.
 * Basic pluralization.

Next lesson: Basic 4 >>>