Verbs
Free Hebrew lessons – October 2010 – Training – Day 40
Boker tov (good morning),
In our previous lessons we talked about verbs, I gave you some homework to do and you sent me your answers. Hooray! Most of you sent perfect answers, and I’m really proud of you.
In lesson 39 I promised to tell you why I call our course a “challenge.”
I think the “challenge” was actually more for me than for you, since in the beginning I didn’t know if I could really teach you Hebrew using English.
But, here we are, 40 lessons later, still going strong! Now that we (you AND me) know what we’re doing, I’d like to “challenge” each of you to send four of your friends the link to our Heblish website. Let’s get the group growing… I think the more students we have, the more we will interact and learn.
Ok, now that I’ve got you thinking about challenges instead of verbs and nouns, let’s get cracking!
Today’s menu: Common short sentences and some new verbs
Attention: The underlined letters represent the accent.
Some of you have asked me to explain how to start and continue a conversation, so let’s see an example:
| English | Talking to a man | Talking to a woman |
| What are you doing? | Ma ata ose? | Ma at osa? |
| I’m eating | Ani o^el | Ani o^elet |
| Have you seen the news? | Haim raita et ha^adashot? can be also: Raita et ha^adashot? |
Haim rait et ha^adashot? can be also: Rait et ha^adashot? |
| No, what happened? | Lo, ma kara? | The same since there is no verb here: lo, ma kara? |
| The earth stopped rotating | Kadur ha’arets hifsik lehistovev | The same. |
| Now I understand why I have headache | A^shav ani mevin lama yesh li keev rosh (ke-ev) | A^shav ani mevina lama yesh li keev rosh |
Let’s look at the verbs in the past and present tenses. Again, I will use orange for feminine.
| English | Masculine | Feminine |
| Do | Ose | Osa |
| Eat | O^el | O^elet |
| Have you seen?/ Did you see * | Raita? | Rait? |
| Understand | Mevin | Mevina |
*) A verb in the past tense.
Do / did (singular)
| English: Present / past | Hebrew: Present | Hebrew: Past |
| I do (I’m doing)/ I did – (m) | Ani ose (o-se) | Asiti (a-si-ti) |
| I do (I’m doing)/ I did – (f) | Ani osa (o-sa) | Asiti (a-si-ti) |
| You do (you’re doing) / you did – (m) | Ata ose (o-se) | Asita (a-si-ta) |
| You do (you’re doing) / you did – (f) | At osa (o-sa) | Asit (a-sit) |
| He does / he did – (m) | Hu ose (o-se) | Hu asa (a-sa) |
| She does / she did – (f) | Hi osa (o-sa) | Hi asta (as-ta) |
Eat / ate (singular)
| English: Present / past | Hebrew: Present | Hebrew: Past |
| I eat (I’m eating)/ I ate – (m) | Ani o^el | A^alti |
| I eat (I’m eating)/ I ate – (f) | Ani o^elet | A^alti |
| You eat (you’re eating) / you ate – (m) | Ata o^el | A^alta |
| You eat (you’re eating) / you ate – (f) | At o^elet | A^alt |
| He eats / he ate – (m) | Hu o^el | Hu a^al |
| She eats / she ate – (f) | Hi o^elet | Hi a^la |
See / saw (singular)
| English: Present / past | Hebrew: Present | Hebrew: Past |
| I see / I saw (I’ve seen) – (m) | Ani roe (ro-e) | Raiti (ra-i-ti) |
| I see / I saw (I’ve seen) – (f) | Ani roa (ro-a) | Raiti (ra-i-ti) |
| You see / you saw – (m) | Ata roe (ro-e) | Raita (ra-i-ta) |
| You see / you saw – (f) | At roa (ro-a) | Rait (ra-it) |
| He sees / he saw – (m) | Hu roe (ro-e) | Hu raa (ra-a) |
| She sees / she saw – (f) | Hi roa (ro-a) | Hi raata (ra-a-ta) |
Understand / understood (singular)
| English: Present / past | Hebrew: Present | Hebrew: Past |
| I understand / I understood – (m) | Ani mevin | Hevanti |
| I understand / I understood – (f) | Ani mevina | Hevanti |
| You understand / you understood – (m) | Ata mevin | Hevanta |
| You understand / you understood – (f) | At mevina | Hevant |
| He understands / he understood – (m) | Hu mevin | Hu hevin |
| She understands / she understood – (f) | Hi mevina | Hi hevina |
Believe me, I put a lot of time and effort into our lessons and I really want you to understand, so lay it on me, tell me what’s on your mind, I’m always open to your suggestions.
Lehitraot in lesson 41…
