All About Adjectives
Free Hebrew lessons – April 2011 – Training – Day 64
Shalom lekulam (Hi everyone),
In our previous lesson we talked about the future tense and about “you,” and I taught you how to use some verbs in both genders. Thanks, to everyone who sent me sentences using the words from our last lesson. I’m glad to see you are learning so much Hebrew… we are on the right track! 😉
Today we will learn some new Hebrew adjectives.
Today’s menu: All About Adjectives.
Attention: The underlined letters represent the accent.
First, although it’s not so important in English, gender is very important in the Hebrew language. We appreciate our ladies… 😉
So, in Hebrew a masculine noun requires a masculine adjective, and a feminine noun requires a feminine adjective.
1)
In English you say good.
In Hebrew you should say tov. I taught you this word in our first lesson.
| English | Hebrew – Feminine | Hebrew – Masculine |
| Good | Tova | Tov |
In English you say bad.
In Hebrew you should say ra.
| English | Hebrew – Feminine | Hebrew – Masculine |
| Bad | Raa (ra-a) | Ra |
Example:
– This boy is a good boy – Ha’yeled ha’ze hu yeled tov,
– But his brother is bad – Aval a^ shelo ra.
More words: Boy-yeled, but-aval, brother-a^, his-shelo.
2)
In English you say big.
In Hebrew you should say gadol.
| English | Hebrew – Feminine | Hebrew – Masculine |
| Big | Gdola | Gadol |
In English you say small.
In Hebrew you should say katan.
| English | Hebrew – Feminine | Hebrew – Masculine |
| Small | Ktana | Katan |
Example:
– His cake is big – Ha’uga shelo gdola, (uga is feminine, that’s why we must use the feminine form, “gdola,” for “big”)
– So, why is mine small? – Az lama sheli ktana?
More words: Cake-uga, so-az, why-lama, mine – sheli.
3)
In English you say happy.
In Hebrew you should say samea^.
| English | Hebrew – Feminine | Hebrew – Masculine |
| Happy | Sme^a | samea^ |
In English you say sad.
In Hebrew you should say atsuv.
| English | Hebrew – Feminine | Hebrew – Masculine |
| Sad | Atsuva | Atsuv |
Example:
– Now I have a big cake too, so I am happy – A^shav gam li yesh uga gdola, az ani samea^.
– But why is my brother sad?… – Aval lama a^ sheli atsuv?…
Because I switched our cakes!… 😉
More words: Now-a^shav, I have-yesh li, too-gam.
I think this lesson will really enrich your Hebrew vocabulary; we need adjectives, even simple ones, to bring any language to life. We’ll explore more adjectives in the future.
Next week will be Passover, a very important holiday in Israel (and for Jews everywhere), so we will not have a lesson. Have a blessed week and I’ll see you here on April 28th.
Happy Holidays!
Lehitraot in lesson 65…
