Verbs
Free Hebrew lessons – September 2010 – Training – Day 39
Hi,
When we started our challenge (in our next lesson I will explain why “challenge?…”), I said that I would not give lessons during holidays – yours or mine. However, from the many e-mails you have sent me, I understand how important these lessons are for you, so… even though today is another holiday – Succot, I decided to publish this lesson.
In our previous lessons we talked about the holidays Rosh Ha’shana and Yom Kippur, but before that, in lesson 36 we learned some verbs in the present tense plural, like: we sit, you sit, they sit –
Ana^nu yoshvim, atem yoshvim, hem yoshvim for masculine,
And: We sit, you sit, they sit:
Ana^nu yoshvot, aten yoshvot, hen yoshvot for feminine.
This is going to be a DOUBLE lesson (I’ll tell you why, later), so… sweep your desk clean, get comfortable and focused…
Today’s menu: Verbs
Attention: The underlined letters represent the accent.
Some of you have asked me to explain how to start and continue a conversation, others have asked me to explain the difference between “had” and “was,” how to say “I had a car, I had no time,” and when and how to use past tense versus past participle, etc…
I really want to teach you all of these things and more, but there are many words and concepts to learn, so we must focus on one thing at a time. The solution: each of you can be part of our Heblish group on Facebook and ask me your specific questions there. This would be great for three reasons. First, all of the other students will read your questions and learn from my responses; second, I can answer you outside the framework of the lessons; and third, it will give me some ideas for our future lessons. This will help us all since I’m not a teacher; I’m just a person who has an excellent knowledge of the Hebrew language (but not great English) trying to teach you my language in your language… can you imagine? 😉
Today, I will teach you six new verbs in the present tense and you will try to conjugate them yourself…
I’m going to give you the persons table: I, you, he, etc… and a complete table for one verb.
Usually our Heblish words are in blue, but for the tables below I am using orange for the feminine words to help you see the difference between masculine and feminine. And, by the way, I do understand that the concept of “feminine” and “masculine” verbs, nouns, adjective, etc. is very odd to English speakers, but it’s basic to the Hebrew language.
After that table, I want you to try solving the other tables yourself. (I have not left the tables completely blank; you will see where you need to fill in the missing words)
My suggestion is, copy the tables, solve them and send them to me by e-mail. If you like, you can add more questions regarding Hebrew to your e-mail and I promise to check your homework and answer your questions. So, you will have a private teacher for this lesson… 😉
First, here is the complete persons table:
| English subject pronouns | Hebrew subject pronouns |
| Singular | |
| I / I am (m) | Ani |
| I / I am (f) | Ani |
| You / you are (m) | Ata |
| You / you are (f) | At |
| He / he is (m) | Hu |
| She / she is (f) | Hi (remember, the “i” sounds like “ee”) |
| Plural | |
| We / we are (m) | Ana^nu |
| We / we are (f) | Ana^nu |
| You / you are (m) | Atem |
| You / you are (f) | Aten |
| They / they are (m) | Hem |
| They / they are (f) | Hen |
Let’s learn the new verbs (m):
| English Verb | Hebrew Verb |
| (I) break | (Ani) shover |
| (I) count | (Ani) sofer |
| (I) drive | (Ani) noheg |
| (I) close | (Ani) soger |
| (I) sell | (Ani) mo^er |
| (I) wear | (Ani) lovesh |
In the above table you just learned 6 new verbs.
Can you tell me what these six new words have in common?
“Listen” to the sound of them: shover, sofer, noheg, soger, mo^er, lovesh …
1. They all have only two syllables.
2. The accent is on the last syllable.
3. They all have this sound: o-E, o-E, sho–ver, so–fer, no–heg, so–ger, mo–^er, lo–vesh… o–E… can you hear this?
Now let’s see a complete table for the first verb, break (shover), but first, let’s remember this rule:
In the present – there are only 4 inflections for every Hebrew verb:
– Singular for (m), singular for (f), plural for (m) and plural for (f).
What do I mean by that?
I mean that a verb following
I (m), is the same for you (m), and also for he (m), and a verb following
I (f), is the same for you (f), and also for she (f), and a verb following
We (m), is the same for you (m), and also for they (m), and a verb following
We (f), is the same for you (f), and also for they (f).
Break – shover
| English Pronouns | Verb | Hebrew Pronouns | Hebrew Verb |
| Singular | |||
| I / I am (m) | break/breaking | Ani | shover |
| I / I am (f) | break/breaking | Ani | shoveret |
| You / you are (m) | break/breaking | Ata | shover |
| You / you are (f) | break/breaking | At | shoveret |
| He / he is (m) | breaks/breaking | Hu | shover |
| She / she is (f) | breaks/breaking | Hi | shoveret |
| Plural | |||
| We / we are | break/breaking | Ana^nu | shovrim |
| We / we are | break/breaking | Ana^nu | shovrot |
| You / you are (m) | break/breaking | Atem | shovrim |
| You / you are (f) | break/breaking | Aten | shovrot |
| They / they are (m) | break/breaking | Hem | shovrim |
| They / they are (f) | break/breaking | Hen | shovrot |
Count – sofer
| English Pronouns | Verb | Hebrew Pronouns | Hebrew Verb |
| Singular | |||
| I / I am (m) | count/counting | Ani | sofer |
| I / I am (f) | count/counting | Ani | soferet |
| You / you are (m) | count/counting | Ata | sofer |
| You / you are (f) | count/counting | At | ? |
| He / he is (m) | counts/counting | Hu | ? |
| She / she is (f) | counts/counting | Hi | soferet |
| Plural | |||
| We / we are | count/counting | Ana^nu | sofrim |
| We / we are | count/counting | Ana^nu | sofrot |
| You / you are (m) | count/counting | Atem | ? |
| You / you are (f) | count/counting | Aten | sofrot |
| They / they are (m) | count/counting | Hem | ? |
| They / they are (f) | count/counting | Hen | ? |
Drive – noheg
| English Pronouns | Verb | Hebrew Pronouns | Hebrew Verb |
| Singular | |||
| I / I am (m) | drive/driving | Ani | noheg |
| I / I am (f) | drive/driving | Ani | noheget |
| You / you are (m) | drive/driving | Ata | noheg |
| You / you are (f) | drive/driving | At | ? |
| He / he is (m) | drives/driving | Hu | ? |
| She / she is (f) | drives/driving | ? | noheget |
| Plural | |||
| We / we are | drive/driving | Ana^nu | nohagim |
| We / we are | drive/driving | Ana^nu | nohagot |
| You / you are (m) | drive/driving | Atem | ? |
| You / you are (f) | drive/driving | Aten | ? |
| They / they are (m) | drive/driving | Hem | ? |
| They / they are (f) | drive/driving | ? | nohagot |
Close – soger
| English Pronouns | Verb | Hebrew Pronouns | Hebrew Verb |
| Singular | |||
| I / I am (m) | close/closing | Ani | soger |
| I / I am (f) | close/closing | ? | ? |
| You / you are (m) | close/closing | Ata | ? |
| You / you are (f) | close/closing | At | sogeret |
| He / he is (m) | closes/closing | Hu | soger |
| She / she is (f) | closes/closing | ? | sogeret |
| Plural | |||
| We / we are | close/closing | Ana^nu | ? |
| We / we are | close/closing | Ana^nu | sogrot |
| You / you are (m) | close/closing | ? | sogrim |
| You / you are (f) | close/closing | Aten | ? |
| They / they are (m) | close/closing | Hem | sogrim |
| They / they are (f) | close/closing | Hen | sogrot |
Sell – mo^er
| English Pronouns | Verb | Hebrew Pronouns | Hebrew Verb |
| Singular | |||
| I / I am (m) | sell/selling | Ani | ? |
| I / I am (f) | sell/selling | ? | mo^eret |
| You / you are (m) | sell/selling | Ata | mo^er |
| You / you are (f) | sell/selling | At | ? |
| He / he is (m) | sells/selling | ? | ? |
| She / she is (f) | sells/selling | Hi | |
| Plural | |||
| We / we are | sell/selling | Ana^nu | ? |
| We / we are | sell/selling | ? | mo^rot |
| You / you are (m) | sell/selling | ? | ? |
| You / you are (f) | sell/selling | Aten | ? |
| They / they are (m) | sell/selling | ? | mo^rim |
| They / they are (f) | sell/selling | Hen | ? |
Wear – lovesh
| English Pronouns | Verb | Hebrew Pronouns | Hebrew Verb |
| Singular | |||
| I / I am (m) | wear/wearing | ? | ? |
| I / I am (f) | wear/wearing | ? | loveshet |
| You / you are (m) | wear/wearing | ? | ? |
| You / you are (f) | wear/wearing | At | ? |
| He / he is (m) | wears/wearing | Hu | ? |
| She / she is (f) | wears/wearing | ? | |
| Plural | |||
| We / we are | wear/wearing | Ana^nu | ? |
| We / we are | wear/wearing | ? | ? |
| You / you are (m) | wear/wearing | ? | ? |
| You / you are (f) | wear/wearing | ? | ? |
| They / they are (m) | wear/wearing | ? | lovshim |
| They / they are (f) | wear/wearing | ? | ? |
I know…whew! This lesson covered a lot of ground, but I think we need some repetitive “fill in the blank” work to really cement these basic grammar rules into our minds. Start with the first table, and I bet by the time you come to the last table you find it is very easy and you will be proud of what you have accomplished.
Now here’s the reason for today’s “DOUBLE” lesson… next Thursday is the second holiday of Succot, so we will not have our regular lesson. The timing is perfect, because I wanted to give you extra time to work on your homework (the tables).
I will be monitoring our Free-Hebrew FB Group and looking for your homework in my e-mail, so….
Lehitraot in October, in lesson 40 … 40?… Yes, 40 😉
