You
Free Hebrew lessons – March 2011 – Training – Day 62
Shalom, ma shlom^em? (Hi, how are you (in plural)?)
In our previous lesson we talked about the future tense. I chose a sentence from the Beatles song “All My Loving” and taught you how to say tisgeri (close, in the future tense – speaking to a woman), anashek (I will kiss) and etgaagea (I will miss (you)).
In our next lesson I will teach you how a woman would say the same sentence to a man, but in lesson 61, when I mentioned the sentence “And I’ll kiss you,” I promised to talk about the word you, today …
Today’s menu: You and with you.
Attention: The underlined letters represent the accent.
In English you say:
– You are my love
– I love you
– I want to dance with you
In Hebrew, “you” is expressed using at least three different words…
A woman speaking to a man
– You are my love – Ata ahuvi
– I love you – Ani ohevet ot^a
– I want to dance with you – Ani rotsa lirkod it^a
Ata, ot^a, it^a…
It will not be easy to explain “when” to use “what,” because I don’t really want to teach you complex Hebrew, it is not what we are trying to do here, but I will say this:
1) You use “ata” when “you” is a person doing something (an action, like drinking coffee), or when you would say “you are…” (like, you are wonderful). I think the best way to learn this concept of “you” is to look at examples.
Here are some examples (speaking to a man):
– You are going – Ata hole^
– You are handsome – Ata nae
– Are you drinking coffee? – Ata shote café? (I can also ask “ha’im ata shote café?“)
– Where do you live? – Eifo ata gar?
2. Ot^a is when “you” isn’t doing an action, but an action IS being directed toward “you”.
Here are some examples (speaking to a man):
– I met you – Pagashti ot^a
– I see you – Ani roa ot^a (a woman speaking to a man)
– She photographed you – Hi tsilma ot^a
– He will catch you – Hu itpos ot^a
3. It^a is simply “with you.”
Here are some examples (speaking to a man):
– I am going with you – Ani hole^et It^a (a woman speaking to a man)
– She is coming with you – Hi baa It^a
– They will do that with you – Hem yaasu et ze It^a
Is it just me, or did this seem like the longest month ever? Maybe it’s because February is a short month; I don’t know, but wow, tomorrow is finally April and I’m ready to say “hello Spring!” 😉
Lehitraot in lesson 63…
