Heblish – Hebrew lessons: Day 40
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 or our Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=230884728509. 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 |
Please, if you don’t completely understand everything in the tables, send me a message through our Heblish Facebook Group at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=230884728509.
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…
You are welcome to join our group on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=230884728509.
I’m waiting for membership confirmation on facebook, but…. since you show participle endings in the present(ing), when is the participle(present or past) (adjective?) used as opposed to the present tense or past tense of a verb.
Thanks
Bob, I don’t completely understand your question. Can you send me some phrases or words, examples, to show me what you mean? Thanks!
OK, now I understand your question, Bob.
Let’s go to the beginning. In the Bible there is no “present”! There are only past and future… Later, we “invented” the “present”. The present can be used as a noun and also as an adjective. Let’s take the word for “manager” MENAHEL ( in Hebrew). In English, you say “the manager manages…” (you have “manager” and “manage”), but in Hebrew I say “ha’menahel menahel.” The same word “menahel” for both noun and verb… The example you gave “hi levusha belavan” is kind of passive. Hi levusha, means, after she wore her clothes the situation is that… hi levusha.
I shut the door- sagarti et ha’delet. Now, ha’delet sgura.
It is a kind of “present” but it calls “beinoni paul”. It’s a unique group of words.
I hope it helps… 😉
Hello
I found this site and it is exactly what I have been looking for. I thank you for these lessons. I have been trying to learn Hebrew for over a year and stopped several times. I thank you for you efforts.
I will now follow each lesson and may even submit questions.
toda
Thanks very much, Sonia.
I hope you read all the lessons, but if not, please don’t miss lessons 4,5 and 6….
Shabbat Shalom