Welcome to the first basic lesson of Hebrew! In this lesson we're going to learn some basic greetings and basic grammatical features of Hebrew. First read the following dialogue and do the exercise related to it.

Edit

Dialogue

Two strangers, Sarah (Hebrew|שָׂרָה) and David (Hebrew|דָּוִד), meet each other in one of the many cafés of Tel Aviv. The following conversation takes place:


Question-answer | question = Transliterate the dialogue. | answer = David: Shalom! Qor’im li David. Ekh qor’im lakh?
Sarah: Shalom, David. Li qor’im Sarah. Ma shlomkha?
David: Tov, todah. Mah nishma‘?
Sarah: Shlomi metsuyyan! Shalom David.
David: Lehitra’ot.

Edit

Hellos and Goodbyes

Hebrew table|Vocabulary|?אֵיך קוֹרְאִים לך|Hello!|!שָׁלוֹם|2>

English	עִבְרִית
Hello!	Hebrew|שָׁלוֹם! m
Goodbye!
Hi!	Hebrew|הַיִי!
Bye!	Hebrew|בַּיִי!
See you later!	Hebrew|לְהִתְרָאוֹת!

While studying this table, you might have noticed that the word Hebrew|שָׁלוֹם is used for both “hello” and “goodbye”. There is also another word for goodbye, Hebrew|לְהִתְרָאוֹת, which literally means “see you later”. In a less formal conversation you might want to use the English loanwords Hebrew|הַיִי and Hebrew|בַּיִי.

Hebrew table|Vocabulary|?אֵיך קוֹרְאִים לך|Good day!|!יוֹם טוֹב|2>

English	עִבְרִית
Good day!	Hebrew|יוֹם טוֹב!
Good morning!	Hebrew|בֹּקֶר° טוֹב!
Good afternoon!	Hebrew|צָהֳרַיִם טוֹבִים!
Good evening!	Hebrew|עֶרֶב° טוֹב!
Good night!	Hebrew|לַיְלָה° טוֹב!

Words marked with ° have their accent falling on their penultimate syllable, as in bóqer.
The word Hebrew|טוֹב is an adjective, meaning “good” in the masculine, singular form. In most languages (English being an oddity) genders are expressed in the structure of the language. Hebrew, like Romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian), has two genders: masculine (male) and feminine (female). In Hebrew genders change nouns, adjectives, verbs, even numbers, so it is important to know whether the word is masculine or feminine. Looking at the form of the adjective Hebrew|טוֹב, you'd know that Hebrew|יוֹם, בֹּקֶר, עֶרֶב and Hebrew|לַיְלָה are masculine.

Hebrew|טוֹבִים is different because Hebrew|צָהֳרַיִם is masculine, plural. This phrase, by the way, means “good noon”, but because the expression “good noon” is not used in English, and the Hebrew translation of “good afternoon” is not commonly used, “good afternoon” is the more accurate translation.

Edit

Asking for Names

If you want to ask for someone's name, say Hebrew|אֵיך קוֹרְאִים לְךָ? to a male and Hebrew|אֵיך קוֹרְאִים לָךְ? to a female. It literally means “how people call to-you?”. What changes here is the “to-you” particle because in Hebrew there is a “you” pronoun for a male and for a female.

If you want to introduce yourself, say Hebrew|קוֹרְאִים לִי... which literally means “people call to-me...”. In Hebrew there is no distinction between masculine and feminine in the first person (I, we).

Edit

Grammar: the Usage Lamed

How come the expression “to you” and “to me” appears in one word? For that, we need to explain a grammatical feature of Hebrew.

In English, when you are saying you want to go to somewhere, you are using the preposition “to”. This remains the same in Hebrew, only that the preposition “to” appears as a single letter attached to the beginning of any noun (a prefix), namely Lamed.

The Lamed and Shva Na‘ Hebrew|לְ at the beginning of any noun dictate direction to a place. For instance, Hebrew|צָרְפַת means “France” whereas Hebrew|לְHebrew|צָרְפַת (letsorfat) means “to France”.

The Lamed always remains when you want to use the preposition “to”, but the vowel (and therefore the prefix itself) changes in any of the following cases:

• Before a definite noun it becomes Hebrew|לַ la (instead of *leha).
• Before a word beginning with a shva it becomes Hebrew|לִ li.
• Before a word beginning with a ħataf niqqud it becomes that symbol (example: Hebrew|אֳנִיָּה becomes Hebrew|לֳHebrew|אֳנִיָּה).
• Very important note: Most Israelis ignore these rules and always pronounce the Lamed with a shva na‘ Hebrew|לְ or pataħ Hebrew|לַ if it is definite. You can use these rules if you want but they may become a burden, so if you choose to skip them, you would be fully understood and considered to speak like “the everyday person in the street” (which is not necessarily a bad thing).

However, the Usage Lamed appears to have changed when before “I” and “you” (becoming Hebrew|לִי and Hebrew|לְךָ). The additional Yod in Hebrew|ִי and Khaf Hebrew|ָךְ/ְךָ are not the personal pronouns (they, you, she, etc.). So what happened here?

The Usage Lamed changes itself and the personal pronouns when before personal pronouns, forming one word. In Hebrew there are ten of these (singular and plural for the first person and plurality and gender in the second and third). The following table shows what is the result of adding a usage Lamed to the personal pronouns:

Hebrew table|Grammar|אֵיך קוֹרְאִים לך|UL with pronouns|ל' הַשִׁמּוּשׁ עִם כ"ג|2>

English	עִבְרִית
To me	Hebrew|לִי
To you (m sing.)	Hebrew|לְךָ
To you (f sing.)	Hebrew|לָךְ
To him	Hebrew|לוֹ
To her	Hebrew|לָה
To us	Hebrew|לָנוּ
To you (m pl.)	Hebrew|לָכֵם
To you (f pl.)	Hebrew|לָכֵן
To them (m)	Hebrew|לָהֵם
To them (f)	Hebrew|לָהֵן

In the dialogue Sarah switched the Hebrew|קוֹרְאִים and Hebrew|לִי (she said Hebrew|לִי קוֹרְאִים שָׂרָה.). She said it in this fashion to contrast between David's question and her response. In other words, it was as if she was saying: “You're name is David? Well, my name is Sarah”. Note the emphasis on the “my”. Because in European languages, including English, the possessive comes before the noun (“my house”, not “house my”), in Hebrew the verb Hebrew|קוֹרְאִים and the possessive Hebrew|לִי were switched to correspond to the European word order.

A more formal way of saying your name in Hebrew is Hebrew|...שְׁמִי, which means “my name is”. However, it is not recommended you use it in everyday life, and the possessive articles are somewhat more complicated.

Edit

How are You?

You might have noticed that while Sarah asked David Hebrew|מָה שְׁלוֹמְךָ?, David asked her Hebrew|מָה נִשְׁמַע?. Both essentially mean the same thing: “how are you?”.

The form Sarah asks David, Hebrew|מָה שְׁלוֹמְךָ?, is a bit more formal and it declends in number, gender and person. We won't learn all the declensions now but it would be good to know that when you ask a male, you would say Hebrew|מָה שְׁלוֹמְךָ? and when asking a female it would be Hebrew|מָה שְׁלוֹמֵךְ?. What it literally means is “what is your peace?” or rather “how is your wellfare?”.

David asks her back Hebrew|מָה נִשְׁמַע, which is more informal and common among younger people. What it literally means is “what is being heard?”. It stays the same regardless of gender, number or person.

From this we can conclude that Hebrew|מָה means “what” (not which “what kind of species?”, but asking for an object, as in “what is this thing?”).

You would answer by simply saying your state (like in English “how are you?” “fine”).

Hebrew table|Vocabulary|?אֵיך קוֹרְאִים לך|How are you?|מָה שְׁלוֹמך?|2>

English	עִבְרִית
Thank you	Hebrew|תּוֹדָה f
Excellent!	Hebrew|מְצֻיָּן!
OK/Fine	Hebrew|בְּסֵדֶר°
Good	Hebrew|טוֹב
Well
So-so	Hebrew|כָּכָה־כָּכָה
Not good	Hebrew|לֹא טוֹב
Bad	Hebrew|גָּרוּעַ°
Terrible	Hebrew|נוֹרָא

Edit

Grammar: Adjectives

Unlike English, in Hebrew the adjectives come after the nouns they describe. This means that if you want to say “good morning” in Hebrew, you would say Hebrew|בֹּקֶר טוֹב — “morning good”, not *Hebrew|טוֹב בֹּקֶר.

Important and universal grammatical rules would be placed in the blue “RULE:” boxes.

RULE: In Hebrew, adjectives come after the nouns they describe.

The only exception to this rule is when putting the emphasis on the adjective: “how good is this morning!” !Hebrew|כַּמָּה Hebrew|טוֹב Hebrew|הַבֹּקֶר.

RULE: In Hebrew, adjectives must agree in gender and in number with the nouns they describe.

A good example is one of the adjectives we learned, Hebrew|טוֹב “good”:

• “Good boy” (m sing.) Hebrew|יֶלֶד טוֹב tov
• “Good girl” (f sing.) Hebrew|יַלְדָּה טוֹבHebrew|ָה tovah
• “Good boys” (m pl.) Hebrew|יְלָדִּים טוֹבHebrew|ִים tovim
• “Good girls” (f pl.) Hebrew|יְלָדּוֹת טוֹבHebrew|וֹת tovot

The “neutral” form of the adjective is the masculine singular. The feminine is formed from this by adding Hebrew|ה or Hebrew|ת and changing the vowels a bit. The plural forms are created by taking the neutral form and adding Hebrew|-ִים for masculine and Hebrew|וֹת for feminine. Sometimes you'd have to change the vowels in the same way you changed the feminine.

Hebrew table|Grammar|?אֵיך קוֹרְאִים לך|Adjectives|תְּאָרִים|5>

Adjective	M sing.	F sing.	M pl.	F pl.
Good	Hebrew|טוֹב	Hebrew|טוֹבָה	Hebrew|טוֹבִים	Hebrew|טוֹבוֹת
Excellent	Hebrew|מְצֻיָּן	Hebrew|מְצֻיֶּנֶת	Hebrew|מְצֻיָּנִים	Hebrew|מְצֻיָּנוֹת
Bad	Hebrew|גָּרוּעַ	Hebrew|גְּרוּעָה	Hebrew|גְּרוּעִים	Hebrew|גְּרוּעוֹת
Terrible	Hebrew|נוֹרָא	Hebrew|נוֹרָאָה	Hebrew|נוֹרָאִים	Hebrew|נוֹרָאוֹת

As you've seen, the different forms of the adjective Hebrew|טוֹב were created by simply taking the masculine singular form and adding Hebrew|ה for feminine singular, Hebrew|ים for masculine plural and Hebrew|וֹת for feminine plural.

Hebrew|מְצֻיָּן however was not that simple, because the feminine form changed radically.

A good rule of thumb would be that adjectives that look similar declend the same way. For instance, the basic form of Hebrew|מְצֻיָּן is Hebrew|מְאֻאָא. Therefore, if you see an adjective Hebrew|מְקֻצָר (“shortened”) you'd know that the feminine form would be Hebrew|מְקֻצֶרֶת.

Edit

History: Revival of Hebrew

Hebrew ceased to be spoken around 200 years after the birth of Christ, but it remained a major literary language in which all written documents in Judea were written. When Jews were exiled they kept Hebrew as a literary and liturgical language for the sake of unity as well as keeping the knowledge given to them by their ancestors.

With the establishment of Zionism, Hebrew was sought as the universal spoken language of the Jews and was revived, standartized and modernized to allow it to find its place among the modern languages by the Jewish scholar Eliezer Ben-Yehudah and the haskalah movement. To this day it is considered one of the most (if not the most) successful language revival in history.

Edit

Vocabulary

Transliterate and translate the following Hebrew expressions to English.

{|width=100% style="background:#FFFFFF;" border="0" | colspan=3| |- | width=33% valign="top"| Question-answer | question = תודה | answer = todah
Thank you Question-answer | question = גרוע | answer = garua‘
Bad Question-answer | question = בוקר | answer = boqer
Morning Question-answer | question = ?איך קוראים לך | answer = ekh qor’im lekha/lakh
What's your name? Question-answer | question = יום | answer = yom
Day | width=33% valign="top"| Question-answer | question = ערב | answer = ‘erev
Evening Question-answer | question = מצויין | answer = metsuyyan
Excellent Question-answer | question = עברית | answer = ‘ivrit
the Hebrew language Question-answer | question = שלום | answer = shalom
Hello, goodbye, peace Question-answer | question = ?מה שלומך | answer = mah shlomkha/shlomekh
How are you? | width=33% valign="top"| Question-answer | question = להתראות | answer = lehitra’ot
See you later Question-answer | question = לילה | answer = layilah
Night Question-answer | question = טוב | answer = tov
Good Question-answer | question = ?מה נשמע | answer = ma nishma‘
What's up? Question-answer | question = נורא | answer = nora
Terrible |}

Translate the dialogue from the beginning of this lesson. Question-answer | question = ?דָּוִד: שָׁלוֹם! קוֹרְאִים לִי דָּוִד. אֵיך קוֹרְאִים לָךְ | answer = David: Hello! My name is David. What's your name? Question-answer | question = ?שָׂרָה: שָׁלוֹם, דָּוִד. לִי קוֹרְאִים שָׂרָה. מָה שְׁלוֹמְךָ | answer = Sarah: Hello, David. My name is Sarah. How are you? Question-answer | question = ?דָּוִד: טוֹב, תּוֹדָה. מָה נִשְׁמַע | answer = David: Good, thank you. How are you? Question-answer | question = .שָׂרָה: מְצֻיָּן! שָׁלוֹם, דָּוִד | answer = Sarah: Excellent! Goodbye, David. Question-answer | question = !דָּוִד: לְהִתְרָאוֹת | answer = David: See you later!

Edit

Summary

In this lesson, you have learned:

• How to greet people (Hebrew|שָׁלוֹם).
• How to say your name (Hebrew|קוֹרְאִים לִי..., Hebrew|שְׁמִי...).
• How to ask for names (Hebrew|אֵיך קוֹרְאִים לְ...?).
• How to say how you are (Hebrew|מְצֻיָּן).
• Adjectives.
• Usage Lamed.

Practice what you've learned in the exercises.