Welcome to the second basic lesson of Hebrew! In this lesson we're going to learn how to ask for ages, some grammatical rules and very important vocabulary — numbers, the possessive and personal pronouns and others.

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Dialogue

The next day David and Sarah meet again in the same café. This time they talk about each other's ages. Words that aren't dotted with vowels are vocabulary you are supposed to know, read and translate once you see it even without vowels. If you don't, go to the previous lesson and study the “vocabulary” section.


Question-answer | question = Transliterate the dialogue (new vocabulary underlined). | answer = David: Shalom, Sarah! Bat kamah at?
Sarah: Hay (hi) David! Ani bat ‘esrim veshalosh.
David: Matay yom hahuledet shelakh?
Sarah: Yom hahuledet sheli maħar!
David: Mazal tov!
Sarah: Todah, lehitra’ot!
David: Bay (bye)!

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The Numbers

The first thing we are going to learn is the numbers in Hebrew. Unfortunately, numbers in Hebrew are like adjectives (only that naturally they don't declend in number). Therefore we are going to begin only with the numbers from 1-100.

Try to find a method to remember all the numbers. Some exercises here will assist you but it is also recommended you draw a crossword or something to help you remember all of them.

Hebrew table|Vocabulary|?בֵּן כַּמָּה אַתָּה|The Numbers|הַמִסְפָּרִים|3>

English	עִבְרִית m	עִבְרִית f
Number	Hebrew|מִסְפָּר m
0	Hebrew|אֶפֶס
1	Hebrew|אֶחָד	Hebrew|אַחַת
2	Hebrew|שְׁנַיִם	Hebrew|שְׁתַּיִם
3	Hebrew|שְׁלוֹשָׁה	Hebrew|שָׁלוֹשׁ
4	Hebrew|אַרְבַּעָה	Hebrew|אַרְבַּע
5	Hebrew|חָמִשָׁה	Hebrew|חָמֵשׁ
6	Hebrew|שִׁשָׁה	Hebrew|שֵׁשׁ
7	Hebrew|שִׁבְעָה	Hebrew|שֶׁבַע
8	Hebrew|שְׁמוֹנָה	Hebrew|שְׁמוֹנֶה
9	Hebrew|תִּשְׁעָה	Hebrew|תֵּשַׁע
10	Hebrew|עֲשָׂרָה	Hebrew|עֶשֶׂר
11	Hebrew|אֶחָד-עָשָׂר	Hebrew|אַחַד-עֶשְׂרֵה
12	Hebrew|שְׁנֵים-עָשָׂר	Hebrew|שְׁתֵים-עֶשְׂרֵה
13	Hebrew|שְׁלוֹשָׁה-עָשָׂר	Hebrew|שְׁלוֹשׁ-עֶשְׂרֵה
14	Hebrew|אַרְבַּעָה-עָשָׂר	Hebrew|אַרְבַּע-עֶשְׂרֵה
15	Hebrew|חָמִשָׁה-עָשָׂר	Hebrew|חָמֵשׁ-עֶשְׁרֵה
16	Hebrew|שִׁשָׁה-עָשָׂר	Hebrew|שֵׁשׁ-עֶשְׁרֵה
17	Hebrew|שִׁבְעָה-עָשָׂר	Hebrew|שֶׁבַע-עֶשְׁרֵה
18	Hebrew|שְׁמוֹנָה-עָשָׂר	Hebrew|שְׁמוֹנֶה-עֶשְׁרֵה
19	Hebrew|תִּשְׁעָה-עָשׂר	Hebrew|תְּשַׁע עֶשְׂרֵה
20	Hebrew|עֶשְׂרִים
25	Hebrew|עֶשְׂרִים וְחָמִשָׁה*	Hebrew|עֶשְׂרִים וְחָמֵשׁ*
30	Hebrew|שְׁלוֹשִׁים
40	Hebrew|אַרְבַּעִים
50	Hebrew|חָמִשִׁים
60	Hebrew|שִׁשִׁים
70	Hebrew|שִׁבְעִים
80	Hebrew|שְׁמוֹנִים
90	Hebrew|תִּשְׁעִים
100	Hebrew|מֵאָה

In 25 there is an additional Vav Hebrew|ו. You will learn about that in the coming lessons.

RULE: Unlike adjectives, numbers come before the nouns they number, just like in English.

Example:
Good afternoon (masculine plural) Four afternoons Four good afternoons
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Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns are very important words and are almost universal to all languages. They are important in the making of the most basic of sentences. In English, for instance, there are 7: I, we, you, he, she, it and they. In Hebrew there are 10: Hebrew table|Vocabulary|?בֵּן כַּמָּה אַתָּה|Personal Pronouns|כִּינוּיֵי-גוּף|2>

English	עִבְרִית
I	Hebrew|אֲנִי
You (m sing.)	Hebrew|אַתָּה
You (f sing.)	Hebrew|אַתְּ
He	Hebrew|הוּא*
She	Hebrew|הִיא*
We	Hebrew|אֲנַחְנוּ
You (m pl.)	Hebrew|אַתֶּם
You (f pl.)	Hebrew|אַתֶּן**
They (m)	Hebrew|הֵם
They (f)	Hebrew|הֵן**

Notes:
*The Aleph is silent.
**The plural feminine pronouns (Hebrew|אַתֶּן and Hebrew|הֵן) are quickly falling out of use, particularly by young people, replaced by the masculine pronouns. When talking to/about a mixed group of people from both genders use Hebrew|אַתֶּם and Hebrew|הֵם.

Now that we know the personal pronouns, it would be a good time to learn a very important grammatical rule:

RULE: Usually, Hebrew does not make use of the articles am, are and is.

You'll learn the exceptions as you progress.

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Asking for Age

If you want to ask for someone's age, say Hebrew|בֵּן כַּמָּה אַתָּה? to a male and Hebrew|בַּת כַּמָּה אַתְּ? to a female, as well as Hebrew|בְּנֵי כַּמָּה אַתֶּם? to a group of males or mixed genders and Hebrew|בְּנוֹת כַּמָּה אַתֶּן? for a group of exclusively feminine gender. What it literally means is “son/s/daughter/s of how much (are) you?”. If you want to ask about some else's age, “how old is she?”, use the correct form of the nouns Hebrew|בֵּן or Hebrew|בַּת and the desired personal pronoun at the end ((she) Hebrew|כַּמָּה הִיא? (singular feminine) Hebrew|בַּת). If you want to ask about a specific person simply replace his/her/their name with the personal pronoun.

To say how old you are, say “(number) Hebrew|אֲנִי בֵּן” if you are male and “(number) Hebrew|אֲנִי בַּת” if you are a girl. While the 1st person personal pronouns do not declend in gender, the words related to them are (so this is also true for adjectives, verbs, etc.). It literally means “I'm son/daughter of (number)”. This expression can have several meanings so you must add the number at the end.

Hebrew table|Vocabulary|?בֵּן כַּמָּה אַתָּה|Boys and girls|בַּנִים וְבַּנוֹת|2>

English	עִבְרִית
How much?	Hebrew|כַּמָּה?
Son	Hebrew|בֵּן
Boy
Daughter	Hebrew|בַּת
Girl
Boys/Sons	Hebrew|בַּנִים
Boys/Sons of (construct)	Hebrew|בְּנֵי־
Girls/Daughters	Hebrew|בַּנוֹת
Girls/Daughters of (construct)	Hebrew|בְּנוֹת־

Example:
Linda is 20 years old. I (you are a girl) am 10 years old.
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Grammar: Definite He

The English language uses two articles to indicate definiteness (or lack thereof) — “a”/“an” and “the”. “A” and “an” both represent indefiniteness, that is, something that is general and not specific: “a book”, “an apple”, “a house”. “The”, on the other hand, represents definiteness — something that is definite, specific, known to the person(s) you are talking to: “the book”, “the apple”, “the houses”.

Hebrew lacks the indefinite articles “a” and “an”, so if a word doesn't have a definite article it simply means it's indefinite. The definite article, on the other hand, does exist in Hebrew, and it is somewhat similar to the Usage Lamed we learned in the previous lesson: a one-letter prefix, that can be added to the beginning of any noun or adjective and represents definiteness.

The definite article is He with pataħ Hebrew|הַ.

Example:
A daughter The daughter
There are however some exceptions regarding what vowel follows He (usually it's pataħ):

• Before Aleph, Resh and ‘Ayin on which the accent falls on (Hebrew|הָעִיר ha‘ir — the accent the difference between desert and dessert is on the syllable beginning with an ‘ayin) it becomes Hebrew|הָ (ha with qamats).
• Before a Ħet with qamats or ħataf-qamats (Hebrew|חָ/חֳ), He with qamats and ‘Ayin without the accent it becomes Hebrew|הֶ (he).
• Very important note: Most Israelis ignore these rules and always pronounce the He with a pataħ Hebrew|הַ. You can use these rules if you want to 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).

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Possessive Pronouns

Now it's time you learn the possessive pronouns or adjectives. The possessive pronouns in English are “my”, “our”, “your”, “his”, “her”, “its” and “their” and they indicate the possessor of their subsequent noun. For example, if I say “my book”, I indicate that the book belongs to me. The possessive pronouns correspond to the personal pronouns; for every personal pronoun there is a possessive pronoun, so just as there are 7 personal pronouns in English and 10 in Hebrew, there are 7 possessive pronouns in English and 10 in Hebrew.

Hebrew table|Grammar|?בֵּן כַּמָּה אַתָּה|Possessive pronouns|שְׁמוֹת קִנְיַן|2>

English	עִבְרִית
-'s/of _	Hebrew|שֶׁל _
My	Hebrew|שֶׁלִי
Your (m sing.)	Hebrew|שֶׁלְךָ
Your (f sing.)	Hebrew|שֶׁלָךְ
His	Hebrew|שֶׁלוֹ
Her	Hebrew|שֶׁלָה
Our	Hebrew|שֶׁלָנוּ
Your (m pl.)	Hebrew|שֶׁלָכֵם
Your (f pl.)	Hebrew|שֶׁלָכֵן
Their (m)	Hebrew|שֶׁלָהֵם
Their (f)	Hebrew|שֶׁלָהֵן

RULE: Just like adjectives, the possessive pronouns come after the nouns possessed.

RULE: When followed by a possessive pronoun, the possessed noun becomes definite.

It's like saying “the _ of _”.

Examples:
My son The son of David/David's son
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Additional Vocabulary

Hebrew table|Vocabulary|?בֵּן כַּמָּה אַתָּה|Additional vocabulary|אוֹצַר מִילִים נוֹסָף|2>

English	עִבְרִית
Birthday	Hebrew|יום הֻלֶּדֶת m
The birthday	Hebrew|יום הַהֻלֶּדֶת
Luck	Hebrew|מַזָּל m
Mazal tov/Congratulations	Hebrew|מַזָּל טוב
Tomorrow	Hebrew|מָחָר
When?	Hebrew|מָתַי?

Note:
The expression Hebrew|מַזָּל טוב, while literally meaning “good luck”, is roughly equivalent to English “congratulations!”.

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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 = יום הולדת | answer = yom huledet
Birthday Question-answer | question = שש | answer = shesh
Six Question-answer | question = מספר | answer = mispar
Number Question-answer | question = אתם | answer = atem
You (m pl.) Question-answer | question = שלנו | answer = shelanu
Our | width=33% valign="top"| Question-answer | question = מחר | answer = maħar
Tomorrow Question-answer | question = היא | answer = hi
She Question-answer | question = עשרים | answer = ‘esrim
Twenty Question-answer | question = בן | answer = ben
Boy, son Question-answer | question = בני־ | answer = bney
Sons/Boys of | width=33% valign="top"| Question-answer | question = יום | answer = yom
Day Question-answer | question = שלו | answer = shelo
His Question-answer | question = בנות | answer = banot
Girls Question-answer | question = בת | answer = bat
Girl, daughter Question-answer | question = הם | answer = hem
They |}

Translate the dialogue from the beginning of this lesson. Question-answer | question = ?דוד: שלום, שרה! בַּת כַּמָּה אַתְּ | answer = David: Hello, Sarah! How old are you? Question-answer | question = .שרה: היי, דוד! אֲנִי בַּת עֶשְׂרִים וְשָׁלוֹשׁ | answer = Sarah: Hi, David! I'm 23 years old. Question-answer | question = ?דוד: מָתַי יום הַהֻלֶּדֶת שֶׁלָךְ | answer = David: When (is) your birthday? Question-answer | question = !שרה: יום הַהֻלֶּדֶת שֶׁלִי מָחָר | answer = Sarah: My birthday (is) tomorrow)! Question-answer | question = !דוד: מַזָּל טוב | answer = David: Mazal tov! Question-answer | question = !שרה: תודה, להתראות | answer = Sarah: Thanks, see you later! Question-answer | question = !דוד: ביי | answer = David: Bye!

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Summary

In this lesson, you have learned:

• The numbers.
• The personal pronouns.
• Asking for age (Hebrew|בֵּן כַּמָּה אַתָּה?).
• Definite He (Hebrew|הַ).
• The possessive pronouns.

Practice what you've learned in the exercises