Free Hebrew lessons – July 2010 – Training – Day 33:

Hi,

Hot, very hot and humid, so… let’s try to cool off a bit…  

In our previous lesson we learned more about the word “from.” We learned how to say “from me” (mi’meni), “from you” (mi’m^a), “from him” (mi’meno) etc… and we began to explore word endings in Hebrew, and the information they tell us.

Today we’ll do a short review of “from,” learn something interesting about “water” and “sky,” look at the important possessive word “mine,” and finally, start looking at “tenses” in Hebrew. That sounds like a lot, but it will be easy! 

Today’s menu: New words-water, sky; the possessive word “mine”; introduction of “tenses”

Attention: The underlined letters represent the accent.

First, since it’s hot today, let’s drink some water…

Water

For water, you should say maim, in Hebrew.

In Hebrew the word for water, maim, is written using only three letters – “mem,” “yod” and “mem“.

Now for the interesting part…You can see that the first letter and the last letter are the same. This means that you can read it from right to left and also from left to right. It’s like a circle, like a mantra, a whole.
The idea conveyed is, that water is something endless, where it begins and ends no one knows…

Sky

For sky, you should say shamaim, in Hebrew.
The meaning of the word “sham” is “there,” and the meaning of “maim” you just learned…  Therefore “sky” (shamaim), means “there is water.”

If you open the first book in the Bible, Bereshit, you will see in chapter 1 verse 6, God separated the water which was under the sky from the water above the sky. This is a curious thing, but it can help you to remember how to say “sky” in Hebrew.

OK, now that we have had enough water… we can go ahead with our lesson.

In our previous lesson we learned the word “from” and I asked you to pay attention to the suffixes.

Today I will show you a new word and its inflection – Mine.

First, if you compare the two tables, you can see that there is something common between all the words in both tables – the endings. The suffixes are the same…

Second, notice in the table for “mine” that the first four letters are the same for each inflection, the letters “shel”

Possessive

The word “shel” in Hebrew means “of” or “belonging to.”

Examples:
- This is my book – ze ha’sefer sheli.
- Whose book is this? – shel mi ha’sefer ha’ze?
- This is Yaron’s book – ze ha’sefer shel Yaron.
- Right, this is his book – na^on, ze ha’sefer shelo.

In Hebrew there are 4 tenses but only 3 are really important to know: Past, Present and Future. That’s it!
Personally, I think that it’s enough.
- We are talking about yesterday, last year, our wedding…
- We are talking about today, what we are doing now and…
- We are talking about tomorrow, next year, our pension, etc… right?

So, these 3 tenses are what we need to learn. We already talked about tenses in lesson 14, and I won’t talk about them today; I just wanted to introduce the subject, again. Next lesson, we’ll really dig into tenses.

Today we’ve learned:

1. How to say “water” and “sky,” maim and shamaim,
2. We’ve seen that the inflections for “from” and “mine” give us the same suffixes – (personal endings),
3. We learned the word for “of / belonging to”, shel, and its inflections and…
4. We mentioned the 3 tenses in Hebrew: past, present and future.

Lehitraot in lesson 34 …

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 …

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