Free Hebrew lessons – July 2010 – Training – Day 32:

Hi,

I hope you have recovered from last week’s lesson…

In our previous lesson we learned some basics on how to use the preposition “from” in Hebrew.

As promised, today we’ll continue to look at the word “from” and expand our knowledge of this very important preposition. We will also begin to study word endings, which is critical in Hebrew. 

Today’s menu: Preposition “from” & personal “endings”

Attention: The underlined letters represent the accent.

From

We already know that for from you should say “min” in Hebrew, but actually we don’t really say “min.”  In Heblish we use “me” or “mi” for that word.

We learned that when I say “I took the book from Susan,” I say
laka^ti et ha’sefer mi‘Susan, and when I say “I took the book from the library” I say
laka^ti et ha’sefer me‘ha’sifriya.

Let’s see more examples:
- I asked for the guitar from John – bikashti et ha’gitara mi‘John.
- I drank from the bottle – shatiti me‘ha’bakbuk.
- I drank from a bottle – shatiti mi‘bakbuk.
- From me to you (masculine) – mi‘meni ele^a.
But when you say “from the United States,” I say “mi‘artsot ha’brit.”
 

As I said, there are no rules that I can teach you to know when to use “me” and when to use “mi,” but how do you say: I took the book from him, from her or from them?…

That’s what we’re going to learn today, and I will also add (for the first time in our Heblish lessons) the words written in Hebrew.

Pay close attention to the endings of the words in the table above.  We will now start to learn personal word endings (suffixes). These endings give us important information:
 

For the first person (I am/me) “ani“, the end of the word is “i” (sounds like “ee”).
Let’s place it on a table:

The above table will help us during our next lessons. Just keep the “ending sounds” in your mind.

I know this looks daunting, but it will become clearer as we progress through our lessons. Just stick with me and you will be surprised at how much you really CAN learn!

Lehitraot in lesson 33 …

You are welcome to join our group on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=230884728509.

Free Hebrew lessons – July 2010 – Training – Day 31:

Shalom le’kulam (hi everybody),

In our previous lesson we learned the words for: flight (tisa), plane (matos), suitcase (mizvada), luggage (mizvadot) and some other words like big, the same, very and red.

Remember, after we learn a new word, I place it in our Dictionary.

Today we will learn an important preposition in Hebrew.
Are you ready?

Today’s menu: Preposition “from”

Attention: The underlined letters represent the accent.

From

For from you should say “min” in Hebrew.
- I took the keys from the car – laka^ti et ha’mafte^ot min ha’oto.
   – I took – laka^ti.
   – Keys – mafte^ot (singular: maftea^ (m) )
   – From – min
   – Car – oto or me^onit.

But, in Hebrew we don’t really say “min.”  We use an abbreviated form, just one letter, to express the word “from,” an “m.”  In Heblish we will need two letters to express “from,” since I want to show you the exact sound.

This letter “m” has two different sounds, “mi” and “me“. If you don’t remember the “e” sound or the “i” sound, please read and listen to lesson 4.

So, when do we use “me” and when do we use “mi” for “from?”  Let’s look at some examples and you will quickly see…
   – I took the book from Susan – laka^ti et ha’sefer mi‘Suzan. *
   – I took a taxi from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem – laka^ti monit mi‘Tel-Aviv le’Yerushalaim.

   – I took the book from the library – laka^ti et ha’sefer me‘ha’sifriya.
   – I took a taxi from the station to Jerusalem – laka^ti monit me‘ha’ta^ana le’Yerushalaim.

Let’s see more examples:
   – From Paris to Rome – mi‘Paris le’Roma. *
   – From my brother to my sister – mi‘a^i le’a^oti.
   – The teacher from class A2 – ha’more mi‘kita A2…

   – From the house to the garden – me‘ha’bait la’gan.
   – She gets in from the window – hi ni^nesa pnima me‘ha’^alon.
   – From the first moment… – me‘ha’rega ha’rishon…

* In Hebrew Susan sounds like Suzan, Paris sounds like Paris (pay attention to the accent) and Rome sounds like Roma.

When you look at the examples above you might say “hey, there is a rule here. For the word “from” you use “me” when it comes before a direct object (noun), such as “the” house, “the” station, “the” library, etc.”
Yes, you might say that, but I’m telling you, don’t look for rules. There are rules if you already know Hebrew, but I can’t teach you the rules in Heblish.

One of my friends said: Hebrew makes no sense!
And I say, what can I do, it’s God’s language… 

I showed you some examples and I will give you more in our next lesson. We won’t leave this important preposition without giving you more examples of its usage.

Give me your feedback on our Facebook Group page (link below) and we’ll see if you understand our lesson.

Lehitraot (see you) in lesson 32 …

You are welcome to join our group on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=230884728509.