Shopping
Free Heblish Challenge – February 2010 – Training – Day 12:
Shalom,
Day 12 and today we are going to shop.
In our previous lesson we talked about the numbers one through twelve and I also gave you 6 new words to learn, because I’m guessing that if I talk to you about “dress” (simla), “bracelet” (tsamid), “ring” (tabaat), “bottle” (bakbuk), “cake” (uga) and “book” (sefer), you will probably stay alert… 😉
Today we are going to learn how to ask for a number of objects, since one dress is never enough … and one more thing; even if it’s not so easy – Don’t give up!
Today’s menu: Shopping – part 1
Attention: The underlined letters represent the accent.
In our previous lesson (Lesson 11) I told you that in Hebrew all nouns are feminine or masculine (with a few exceptions) and that we must use feminine or masculine numbers, depending on the gender of the noun. I also gave you two tables with 6 new words to learn, and now we are going to use them.
The following blackboard is familiar to you from lesson 9, where I showed you that to say: “for me one fish” in Hebrew, you should put the number “one” (e^ad) after the noun “fish” (dag): bishvili dag e^ad.
The same is true for feminine nouns:
– For me one cake – bishvili uga a^at.
– Woman: I want one dress, please – Ani rotsa simla a^at, bevakasha.
– Man: I want one ring – Ani rotse tabaat a^at.
As you can see, the number “one” comes after the noun.
Let’s go shopping… I’m sure you are all with me now. 😉
Since men feel like zombies during a shopping spree, we will leave them at home and let the women do the shopping today. So, all the questions below are asked by a woman.
When you use the plural in English, you usually put an “s” on the end of the noun. In Hebrew it is different, but we are not going to learn that right now, because today we are concentrating on the numbers we’ve learned.
Here is the table from our previous lesson. (You can always find it here: Numbers).
| The number | Feminine | Masculine |
| One | A^at | E^ad |
| Two | Shtaim | Shnaim |
| Three | Shalosh | Shlosha |
| Four | Arba | Arbaa (ar-ba-a) |
| Five | ^amesh | ^amisha |
| Six | Shesh | Shisha |
| Seven | Sheva | Shivaa (shiv-aa) |
| Eight | Shmone | Shmona |
| Nine | Tesha | Tishaa (tish-aa) |
| Ten | Eser | Asara |
| Eleven | A^at-esre | A^ad-asar |
| Twelve | Shteim-esre | valign=”top”>Shneim-asar |
Now, we will add the nouns:
| Feminine objects | Feminine objects | Masculine objects | Masculine objects |
| One ring | Tabaat a^at | One bracelet | Tsamid e^ad |
| Two rings | Will talk about it… | Two bracelets | Will talk about it… |
| Three rings | Shalosh tabaot | Three bracelets | Shlosha tsmidim |
| Four rings | Arba tabaot | Four bracelets | Arbaa tsmidim |
| Five cakes | ^amesh ugot | Five bottles | ^amisha bakbukim |
| Six cakes | Shesh ugot | Six bottles | Shisha bakbukim |
| Seven cakes | Sheva ugot | Seven bottles | Shivaa bakbukim |
| Eight cakes | Shmone ugot | Eight bottles | Shmona bakbukim |
| Nine dresses | Tesha smalot | Nine books | Tishaa sfarim |
| Ten dresses | Eser smalot | Ten books | Asara sfarim |
| Eleven dresses | A^at-esre smalot | Eleven books | A^ad-asar sfarim |
| Twelve dresses | Shteim-esre smalot | Twelve books | Shneim-asar sfarim |
You can see from the tables above that with the exception of the number “one” that we already learned, when counting nouns in Hebrew the numbers come before the noun, just as they do in English. We didn’t show you how to use the number “two,” because it is another exception and we will talk about it in our next lesson.
Feminine nouns
| A woman says | Heblish |
| I want one ring | Ani rotsa tabaat a^at |
| I want three cakes | Ani rotsa shalosh ugot |
| I want four dresses | Ani rotsa arba smalot |
Masculine nouns
| A woman says | Heblish |
| I want one bracelet | Ani rotsa tsamid e^ad |
| I want three books | An i rotsa shlosha sfarim |
| I want four bottles | Ani rotsa arbaa bakbukim |
Example:
Situation #1, a woman speaking:
– Excuse me, how much is the bracelet and how much is the ring? – Sli^a, Kama ole tsamid ve’kama ha’tabaat?
– Answer: The bracelet is 20 Shekels and the ring is 12 Shekels – Ha’tsamid ole 20 Shkalim ve’ha’tabaat shneim-asar Shkalim. (Shkalim is the plural of the Israeli currency, the “Shekel”).
– OK, I want one bracelet and three rings – Beseder, ani rotsa tsamid e^ad ve’shalosh tabaot. (tsamid is masculine and tabaat is feminine).
– Your friend says: And I want five bracelets, please – Ve’ani rotsa ^amisha tsmidim, bevakasha. (tsamid is masculine).
I have shown you some examples using Hebrew numbers, but I still owe you the usage for the number “two”.
In our next lesson we will have a lot of repetition and the exceptions I owe you – but if you want to strengthen what you’ve learned up to this point, write some sentences using the numbers 1 through 12, send them to me and I will correct them if needed. Take it as homework 😉
Lehitraot in Lesson 13.
