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Biblical HebrewLesson 4

The Hebrew Caféthehebrewcafe.com/forum

א Textbook: Cook & Holmstedt’s Biblical Hebrew: A Student Grammar (2009)Found here online: http://individual.utoronto.ca/holmstedt/Textbook.html

http://individual.utoronto.ca/holmstedt/Textbook.html

Review�ר�ה ח�ז

The Hebrew Caféthehebrewcafe.com/forumSlide 2

�ר�ה ח�ז


• What are the three “inseparable prepositions” and what do they mean?

• Translate the following words or phrases into Hebrew:- The king. -There is no king in land.-The slave. -There is no slave in the house.-The way. -There is no way to Israel.-The house. -The king came out (צ�א� ..from the house (י-The slave. -The slave is the same as the king.

• The main issues in lesson 3 dealt with the definite article, the three inseparable prepositions and the preposition ן and how each is pointed מ�(vocalized) when they come into contact with a noun.

• This will all get much clearer as you get experience reading text.

Slide 3

Nouns in Hebrewצם �ש��מו ת ע�


שמות עצם


In English, we say that a noun is a person, place, thing or idea. Thus, “friend” is a noun, since it is a person; “school” is a noun, since it is a place; “pencil” is a noun, since it is a thing; and, “attention” is a noun, since it is an idea.

Generally, nouns in English are made plural by adding –s or –es to the end of the word. Thus, we have dog-dogs, boy-boys, friend-friends and lady-ladies.

There are irregular plurals in English, such as woman-women and child-children.

Possession is shown regularly by adding ’s to singular nouns (my friend’s house) and just ’ to plural nouns (my friends’ house). Possessives are always placed before the head of noun phrases in English.

Slide 5

שמות עצם


In Hebrew, by comparison, nouns are again representative of persons, places, things and ideas. ל�ך ים .is a noun (king) מ�� מ��ש�� (heaven) is a noun. .is a noun (love) א�ה�ב�ה ,is a noun. And (song/poem) ש��יר

All nouns in Hebrew are either masculine or feminine in gender. Even nouns that don’t have gender in English do in Hebrew. For example, “table,” “throne” and “day” are masculine, while “land,” “ground” and “commandment” are feminine. There’s no real reason behind how the language decides what is masculine and feminine, but there are signs in the words themselves to indicate whether they are masculine or feminine (most of the time).

Slide 6

שמות עצם


Hebrew grammar books generally say that masculine nouns are unmarked in the singular (they have no ending – just the root letters) and are marked with ים� in the plural, while feminine nouns end in either ה or .in the plural ו�ת and are marked with ת

Examples of this are: – מל�כ�ים ל�ך �ל�ב�יםמ�� ל�ב – כ � ל�ד�יםכ� ל�ד – י � י�

kingdog (m.)boy

��ה – מל�כו�ת �ל�בו�תמ�לכ ��לב��ה – כ ל�דו�תכ ��ה – י �לד יqueendog (f.)girl

�ו�ת לכ�י �ת – מ� �סו�ת מ�לכו �ס�ה – סו �ב�ר�ים סו ��ב�ר – ד דkingshipmareword, message

Slide 7

שמות עצם


The fact is, though, that “exceptions” make up about 30% of the cases. So, really, a masculine noun can have a feminine-looking plural .(father – א�ב-א�בו�ת)

All of these words are masculine. Notice the “feminine” ending.��ס�או�ת ח�לו�ן – ח�לו�נו�ת ח�לו�ם – ח�לו�מו�ת ��ס�"א – כ כ

dreamwindowchair, throne

ש��לח�ן – ש��לח�נו�ת א�ב – א�בו�ת fathertable

These nouns are feminine with “masculine” endings:��ים ל ��ה – מ� ל �יםמ� �ה – ש��נ ע�יר – ע�ר�יםש��נ

wordyearcity

Slide 8

שמות עצם


Body parts are generally unmarked but are feminine.

�ד יןי � ג�לע� � �יםר� �נ �ןפ� ז ��דא ��ף י כhandeyelegfaceearhand

A few exceptions to this are:ר�ע� א�ףש)"ע�רזupper armhairnose

This should cover everything that we need to know about Hebrew nouns at this point. Notice that we have not yet mentioned anything about possession in Hebrew. This is being saved for later, since it will take some explanation of its own.

Slide 9

Comments on Verbsהע�רו ת ע�ל־פ��ע�ל�ים


הערות על פעלים


Verbs – Definitions• Hebrew verbs (just like nouns) are regularly built on three-letter

(“triliteral” or “triconsonantal”) roots. This is called the shoresh.

• The root מ-ל-ך can be arranged in many different ways:

Slide 11

�*(מ� )מ�לכ ל�ך � [noun] king

��ה מ�לכ [noun] queen

�ת מ�לכו [noun] kingship, reign

מ�מל�כ�ה [noun] kingdom

ל�ך מ� [verb] he was king, reigned

ל�יך ה�מ [verb] he made X king, caused X to reign



Verbs (cont.)• So, the root of a word refers to the three letters that make up the

underlying idea behind it. With our previous example, the root mem-lamed-kaf (מ-ל-ך) is associated with kingliness or royalty. The root shin-kuf-resh (ש�-ק-ר), however, is associated with deception and falsehood. We have �ר�ש��ק (“lie, falsehood”) and ש��ק�"ר (“he lied”) associated with it.

• The binyan (Hebrew, ן� י ��נ associated ב-נ-ה structure” from the root“ בwith building) of a verb is the pattern that it falls into. There are seven regular binyanim that we will learn as well as some offshoots of them. For example, ל�ך he reigned” is in the binyan kal (the “simple” binyan“ מ�– since it is based on the root letters without any additions) while ל�יך ה�מ“he caused X to reign” is in the binyan hiphil (which is causative). In the meantime, we’re learning only the binyan kal.

Slide 12



Verbs (cont.)• Tense generally refers to time reference, either past, present or future.

English has all three tenses in various forms. Biblical Hebrew (as opposed to modern Hebrew) does not have any tenses. When we speak of verb forms in biblical Hebrew, we need to speak of aspect rather than tense.

• There are two aspects of the verb in Hebrew – perfect and imperfect.

• The perfect is generally associated with the past tense when it stands alone. From this aspect, we see the action as a whole event. We look at it from outside as if it’s complete (“perfect”).

• Alternatively, the imperfect is generally associated with the future tense. From this aspect, we see the events unfolding around us, as incomplete.

Slide 13



Verbs (cont.)• Hebrew also has what has come to refer to the “present tense” in modern

thinking. It is far less frequent than either of the two finite verb paradigms. We tend to call it an “active participle” and translate it either with the present tense or with –ing .

• For the moment, we are going to look only at part of the perfect. Specifically, we’re going to learn the singular forms.

• Number is either singular or plural. It matches the subject of the sentence.

• Gender in verbs can be masculine, feminine or common (either for men or women).

• Person can be either first (the one speaking), second (the one spoken to) or third (the one spoken about).

Slide 14

Verb Examples�מ�או ת ש�ל פ�ע�ל�ים �ג� ד


דגמאות של פעלים


�י ) דת� � �פ� �יק� (ת�‘I attended’ (1CS)

( דת� � �פ� ק� (ת�‘you attended’ (2FS)

( � דת� � �פ� �ק� (ת�‘you attended’ (2MS)

�/קד�ה ) (�הפ�‘she attended’ (3FS)

�ק�ד (-) פ�‘he attended’ (3MS)



�י ) רת� �ימ��ש�� (ת�‘I kept’ (1CS)

( רת� מ��ש�� (ת�‘you kept’ (2FS)

( � רת� �מ��ש�� (ת�‘you kept’ (2MS)

(�הש��/מר�ה )‘she kept’ (3FS)

(-) ש��מ�ר‘he kept’ (3MS)



�י ) כת� �יל��ה� (ת�‘I went’ (1CS)

( כת� ל��ה� (ת�‘you went’ (2FS)

( � כת� �ל��ה� (ת�‘you went’ (2MS)

(�הה�/לכ�ה )‘she went’ (3FS)

(-) ה�ל�ך‘he went’ (3MS)

Goals of Lesson 4ב�יע�י �ר ה�ר� מ�ט��רו ת ה�ש��עו


ב�יע�י �ר ה�ר� מ�ט��רו ת ה�ש��עו


The fourth lesson’s goals are basically as follows:

• Basic noun concepts:There are masculine and feminine nouns.Masculines are generally unmarked in the singular and -im in the plural.Feminines end in heh or tav and have -ot in the plural.

• Basic verb concepts:Person = 1, 2 or 3.Gender = M or F.Number = S, P or C.Binyan = structure (for now, kal is all we’re learning)Aspect = PERFECT or IMPERFECT.

• How to conjugate a verb in binyan kal in the singular.

Slide 20

Biblical HebrewLesson 4


א Textbook: Cook & Holmstedt’s Biblical Hebrew: A Student Grammar (2009)Found here online: http://individual.utoronto.ca/holmstedt/Textbook.html

http://individual.utoronto.ca/holmstedt/Textbook.html