Lesson 12

Noun-Noun Phrases

סמיכות

This format is a somewhat confusing one if you come across it without knowing what it is. Do

you remember the word של? With this word, you can get the following phrases:

ב ׳מייקהג שלתוש

resident of Jamaica

But של can also be omitted. And so you would get:

תושב ג׳מייקה

resident of Jamaica

Jamaican resident

The noun that would have been after של describes or modifies the first one, kind of

functioning like an adjective. Unlike real adjectives, however, only the describing/modifying

noun gets the prefix ה:

נהה ראש ש

Rosh Hashana; literally “The Head of the Year”;

the Jewish new year

Sometimes, the noun being modified undergoes a change. The form it takes is called the

מיכותס form or the construct form in English.

Sometimes the vowels change:

ית הפ של ק ב

ית הב פ ק

coffee shop; literally ‘house of coffee’ or ‘coffee house’

If the noun is feminine, singular and ends in ה or ה , then the ה becomes ת:

של תפוח עוגה

תפוח תעוע

ה ה של מש תור

משה תתור

the Law of Moses

And if it the noun is masculine and plural, thus ending in ים, the ending becomes י :

ג׳מייקה של ביםתוש

יתוש ג׳מייקה ב

ר פ תים של ס ב

יב ר ת פ ס

schools literally, ‘book houses’

This picture from the cover of the Hebrew translation of a popular children’s book provides a

good example of both ending-changes, and gives you a good look at stylised Hebrew script:

story ז׳( ספור( kingdom ה )נ׳(כ ל מ מ Narnia נרניה

I remember being thoroughly confused the first time I saw that.

Anyway, here is some more vocabulary that makes use of סמיכות:

Bethlehem; literally ‘House of Bread’ ם ח ית ל בapple juice פוחים מיץ ת school; literally, ‘book house’ ר פ ית ס ב

Using the following words (and using examples above as reference), make the following

phrases in Hebrew:

juice נ׳( מיץ( cake נ׳( עוגה(

orange (the fruit) פוז )ז׳( ת letters; plural of נ׳( אותיות אות(

verb ל )ז׳( פע page ף )ז׳( ד

1. Orange juice

2. Apple cake

3. Hebrew letters (‘letters of Hebrew’)

4. Infinitive form of verbs (literally ‘name of verb’)

5. Homepage (web terminology; literally ‘page of [the] house’)