All About Adjectives – Part II
Free Hebrew lessons – April 2011 – Training – Day 65
Hi !
I really missed you…
Last Thursday we didn’t have a lesson, but the holidays are behind us now, so we can continue with our Heblish course.
In our previous lesson we learned about adjectives. We learned about “good” and “bad” (tov ve’ra), “big” and “small” (gadol ve’katan) and also about “happy” and “sad” (samea^ ve’atsuv).
Today we will continue with some new Hebrew adjectives.
Today’s menu: All About Adjectives – Part II.
Attention: The underlined letters represent the accent.
I want to remind you that, although it’s not so important in English, gender is very important in the Hebrew language. In Hebrew a masculine noun requires a masculine adjective, and a feminine noun requires a feminine adjective.
1)
In English you say heavy.
In Hebrew you should say kaved.
| English | Hebrew – Feminine | Hebrew – Masculine |
| Heavy | kveda | kaved |
In English you say light.
In Hebrew you should say kal.
| English | Hebrew – Feminine | Hebrew – Masculine |
| Light* | kala | kal |
* Of course, in English there is another meaning for “light,” but here we are talking about “light” as opposed to “heavy.”
Example:
– The rock is heavy – Ha’sela kaved, (rock is masculine)
– But this little stone is light – Aval ha’even ha’ktana ha’zot, kala. (Stone (even) is feminine, that’s why we must use the feminine form, “ktana,” for “little”).
In our previous lesson, lesson 64, we learned that “small” is “katan” for (m) and ktana for (f). Now you can see that “little” has the same meaning.
More words: Rock-sela, but-aval, stone-even.
2)
In English you say beautiful.
In Hebrew you should say yafe. I mentioned this word in lesson 2 and in lesson 19.
| English | Hebrew – Feminine | Hebrew – Masculine |
| Beautiful | yafa | yafe |
In English you say ugly.
In Hebrew you should say me^oar.
| English | Hebrew – Feminine | Hebrew – Masculine |
| Ugly | me^oeret | me^oar |
Example:
– The princess is beautiful – Ha’nesi^a yafa,
– But the witch is ugly – Aval ha’me^ashefa me^oeret.
More words: Princess-nesi^a, witch-me^ashefa.
3)
In English you say long.
In Hebrew you should say aro^.
| English | Hebrew – Feminine | Hebrew – Masculine |
| Long | aruka | aro^ |
In English you say short.
In Hebrew you should say katsar.
| English | Hebrew – Feminine | Hebrew – Masculine |
| Short | ktsara | katsar |
Example:
– We had a long vacation – Aita lanu ^ufsha aruka. (Vacation, ^ufsha, is feminine)
– The spring in Israel is short – Ha’aviv be’Israel katsar. (Spring, aviv, is masculine)
More words: Vacation-^ufsha, spring-aviv.
I really like the way we are fleshing out our Heblish knowledge. Soon you will be able to carry on a simple conversation with an Israeli. They may smile at your accent, but they will understand what you are saying, and… if they speak slowly, you will be able to understand them! Hey, I need to definitely teach you how to say “please speak slower” in a future lesson, you’ll need that sentence.
Lehitraot in lesson 66… 😉
