Grammar Lessons

Grammar Lessons
for Aleph with Beth

Contents
Contents
Lesson 1 - First nouns and adjectives
1.1 Interrogative pronouns
1.2 The definite article
1.3 Adjectives
Lesson 2 - Plural nouns and adjectives
2.1 ‫‘ מְא ֹד‬very’
2.2 Plural demonstrative ‘these’
2.3 Plural forms
2.4 Irregular plurals
Lesson 3 - Conjunction and gender
3.1 The conjunction -ְ‫ו‬
3.2 Letters with two pronunciations
3.3 Gender and epicene nouns
Lesson 4 - Subject Pronouns
4.1 Subject pronouns
4.2 Verbless clauses
Lesson 5 - Family terms
5.1 Possessive pronoun suffixes
5.2 Construct forms
5.4 Maqqef
Lesson 6 - Prepositions and Location
6.1 Prepositions
6.2 Imperative verb ‫ׂשִים‬
6.3 ‫ אֶת־‬marks definite direct objects
Lesson 7 - Alphabet part 1
7.1 Consonants
7.2 Vowels
7.3 Definite article variants
Lesson 8 - Parts of the Body
8.1 Dual forms
8.2 Nouns with plural form only
8.3 Nouns in construct form
Lesson 9 - Things good and bad
9.1 Possessive suffixes review
9.2 The word ‫ּדָ בָר‬
9.3 Adjectives ‘good’ and ‘bad’
9.4 The yes-no question marker prefix
9.5 Hinneh ‫ִהּנֵה‬
10.1 Consonants
10.2 Vowels
10.3 Maqqef (review from 5.4)
Lesson 11 - Construct Forms
11.1 Plural forms of son and daughter
11.2 Construct forms
11.3 Good or bad in the eyes of...
Lesson 12 - Numbers 1-5
12.1 Numbers 1-5
12.2 Imperative verb ‫קַח‬
Draft copy: work in progress - Aleph with Beth - This work is licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. You are free to translate, adapt and
redistribute as long as you credit the original source and release it under the same CC license. 2
12.3 All - ‫ ּכ ֹל‬/ ‫ּכָל־‬
13.1 Consonants
13.2 Vowels
Lesson 14 - Nature and existence clauses
14.2 Metaphorical uses of body parts
14.3 Day and night adverbs
14.4 Collective nouns
14.5 Existence clauses
Lesson 15 - Geography and more
15.1 Much/many
15.3 Rivers and wadis
16.1 Consonants
Lesson 17 - Lamed and Possession
17.1 Expressing possession
17.2 Adjectives as nouns
Lesson 18 - Children and Elders
18.1 Vocabulary Notes
19.1 Consonants
19.2 Reduced pataħ
19.3 Furtive pataħ
Lesson 20 - Asher & Relative Clauses
20.1 Morphology of prepositions
20.2 Inseparable prepositions with the definite article
20.3 When -ְ‫( ו‬vǝ-) becomes -‫( ּו‬u-) (Review from 3.1)
20.4 Relative Pronoun ‫’ ֲאׁשֶר‬asher
Lesson 20b - Writing the Hebrew Alphabet
20b.1 The Hebrew Alphabet or Aleph-Bet
Lesson 21- Verbs come & go (qatal singular)
21.1 Introduction to the Hebrew Verb
21.2 Aspect
21.3 Weak & Strong Verbs
21.4 Binyanim & Qal
Lesson 22 - Say & Imperatives
22.1 ‫ ָאמַר‬- He Said
22.2 Imperatives
22.3 The vayyiqtol or vav-consecutive-imperfect
Lesson 23 - Possessive Suffixes part 1 & Body Parts
23.1 Possessive Suffixes
Lesson 24 - Possessive Suffixes part 2 & Family Terms
24.1 Family Terms
Lesson 25 - Hear & Obey
25.1 Voice/Sound - ‫קוֺל‬
25.2 Hear & Obey
25.3 The Name of God
Lesson 26 - Be & Beauty
26.1 To Be - ‫ָהי ָה‬
26.2 Beauty - ‫ יָפֶה‬and ‫יָפָה‬
Lesson 27 - Give & Take, Silver & Gold
27.1 Give ‫ & נָתַ ן‬Take ‫ָלקַח‬
27.2 Conjugating more verbs in the plural
Lesson 28 - Marriage
28.1 New Vocabulary
28.2 Vayyiqtol Review
28.3 Taking & Giving Wives
Lesson 29 - More Prepositions
29.1 City - ‫עִיר‬
29.2 To Say - ‫לֵאמ ֹר‬
29.3 The ‫ מִן‬Preposition
29.3 More Prepositions
Lesson 30 - Possessive Suffixes 3 - plural masc. nouns with suffixes
31.1 Numbers 6-10
Lesson 32 - Prophets & More Verbs
32.1 New Vocabulary
32.2 ‫ & ּדִ ּבֶר‬Piel
32.3 ‫ָרָאה‬
Lesson 33 - ‫ אֶת־‬with definite direct objects
33.1 Review of definiteness & examples
Lesson 34 - Truth, Lies & Imperative forms
34.1 He’s not, I’m not, but rather
34.2 Truth & Lie
34.3 Imperative forms
Lesson 35 - Fruit & Prepositions with Suffixes
35.1 Adding suffixes to prepositions
35.2 ‫ַמ ֲעׂשֶה‬
Lesson 36 - Flesh & Blood, Altars & Anointing
36.1 New vocabulary
Lesson 37 - Dead & Alive
37.1 ‫ ָּב נָה‬- “build”
37.2 Dead & Alive
37.3 ‫ַוּי ֵַרע‬
37.4 ‫ י ִ ְהי ֶה‬- he will be
Lesson 38 - Israel asks for a king
Lesson 39 - Strength & Wisdom: Comparisons
39.1 New Vocabulary
39.2 Comparative ‫מִן‬
Lesson 40 - Noah & the Ark: Categories of Creatures
40.1 Creature Categories
40.2 More vocabulary
Lesson 41 - Kaf & Similarities
41.1 New Vocabulary
41.2 The ‫ ְּכ‬Preposition
41.3 ‫ַּכ ֲאׁשֶר‬
Lesson 42 - Light & Darkness, Morning & Evening
42.1 New Vocabulary
Lesson 43 - Creation (no new grammar to discuss)
Lesson 44 - Go out & lift up
44.1 New Vocabulary
44.2 More Conjugations of ‫ָרָאה‬
44.3 ‫“ אֵת‬with”
44.4 Sof Pasuq ‫׃‬
Lesson 45 - Verb Sequences: Vayyiqtol Forms 1
45.1 Vayyiqtol
45.2 Qamets Hatuf
45.3 Review Weak Verbs
Lesson 46 - Send, Messenger & Object Pronouns
46.1 More on Both Kinds of ‫אֵת‬
46.2 New Vocabulary
Lesson 47 - Food & Drink
47.1 New Vocabulary
Appendix 1 - The Hebrew Names of the Books of the Bible
Lesson 1 - First nouns and adjectives
1.1 Interrogative pronouns

In Biblical Hebrew, there is no question mark (?). You can identify questions by their
interrogative pronouns "what," "where," etc. In these lessons, all sentences, including questions,
will end with this symbol (‫ )׃‬called a sof pasuq.1
where? ‫ַאּי ֵה‬ what? ‫מַה‬/‫מָה‬
‫ז ֹאת ִאּׁשָה׃‬ ‫מַה־ּז ֹאת׃‬ ‫זֶה אִיׁש׃‬ ‫מַה־ּזֶה׃‬

What (is)
This (is) a woman. What (is) this? This (is) a man. What (is) this?
this?
This (is) a… ‫ז ֹאת ּפ ָָרה׃‬ ‫מַה־ּז ֹאת׃‬ ‫זֶה ּפַר׃‬ ‫מַה־ּזֶה׃‬

This (is) a cow. What (is) this? This (is) a bull. What (is) this?
1.2 The definite article
The definite article ‘the’ is a prefix attached to the beginning of the word: ha- (-ַ‫ ה‬or -ָ‫)ה‬. There
is no indefinite article like ‘a’ or ‘an’; instead, an indefinite noun will have no article. Compare
‫‘( אִיׁש‬a man’) with ‫‘( ָהאִיׁש‬the man’). The definite article occurs on nouns, and also on any
adjectives and demonstratives (zeh ‫‘ ז ֶה‬this masc.’ or zo’t ‫‘ ז ֹאת‬this fem.’) that directly modify
them. This helps us to pair an adjective or demonstrative with the noun it modifies in the same
phrase.
1
In the Hebrew Bible, the sof pasuq marks the end of a verse instead of the end of a sentence. A single verse
may contain more than one sentence, but the sof pasuq will only occur at the end of the verse.
Definite article ‘the’ -ָ‫ה‬/-ַ‫ה‬2
the big bull ‫ַהּפַר ַהּגָדֹול‬
this bull ‫ַהּפַר ַהֶּזה‬
1.3 Adjectives
An adjective describes a property or characteristic of a noun and follows the noun it modifies. In
Hebrew, the adjectives agree in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural)
with the nouns they modify. That is, an adjective has four possible forms: masculine singular,
feminine singular, masculine plural and feminine plural. A masc. sg. noun will take a masc. sg.
adjective, and a fem. sg. noun will take a fem. sg. adjective, as in the table below.
‫גְדֹולָה‬ ‫ּפ ָָרה‬ ‫ּגָדֹול‬ ‫ּפַר‬

Fem. sg. Fem. sg. Masc. sg. Masc. sg.
A big cow A big bull
2
See section 7.3 for why the article has different spellings.
When an adjective directly modifies a noun in the same phrase, it also agrees in definiteness, and
takes the definite article prefix -ַ‫ה‬, as in the previous examples in 1.2 and below right. If an
adjective or demonstrative occurs with a definite noun but does not have -ַ‫ה‬, then it must form a
sentence with an implied equivalence “is” or “are,” as in the example below left.
‫ָהאִיׁש ּגָדֹול‬ ‫ָהאִיׁש ַהּגָדֹול‬
‘the man (is) big’ ‘the big man’
Notice that we know that the adjectives and demonstratives in row 1 below form part of the same
phrase as the noun they modify because they are all marked with -ַ‫ה‬. By contrast, the
demonstratives in row 2 and the adjectives in row 3 do not have -ַ‫ה‬, and therefore they must be
on one side or another of an implied verb “is,” forming complete sentences.
This small
This big man... ‫ָהאִיׁש ַהּגָדֹול ַהּזֶה‬ woman... ‫ָה ִאּׁשָה ַה ְּק ַטּנָה ַהּז ֹאת‬ 1
This (is) the big This (is) the small

man. ‫זֶה ָהאִיׁש ַהּגָדֹול׃‬ woman. ‫ז ֹאת ָה ִאּׁשָה ַה ְּק ַטּנָה׃‬ 2
This woman (is)

This man (is) big. ‫ָהאִיׁש ַהּזֶה ּגָדֹול׃‬ small. ‫ָה ִאּׁשָה ַהּז ֹאת ְק ַטּנָה׃‬ 3
Lesson 2 - Plural nouns and adjectives
2.1 ‫‘ מְא ֹד‬very’
One of the functions of the word mə’od ‫ מְא ֹד‬is to intensify the adjective it modifies, like the
word “very.”
good ‫טֹוב‬ small ‫קָט ֹן‬
very good ‫טֹוב מְא ֹד‬ very small ‫קָט ֹן מְא ֹד‬
2.2 Plural demonstrative ‘these’
For the singular demonstrative ‘this,’ there is a masculine form zeh ‫ ז ֶה‬and a feminine form zo’t
‫ז ֹאת‬. The plural demonstrative ‘these’ is the same for both genders: ’elleh ‫ ֵאּלֶה‬.
Masculine Feminine
Singular ‫זֶה‬ ‫ז ֹאת‬
Plural ‫ֵאּלֶה‬
Just like ‫ ז ֶה‬and ‫ז ֹאת‬, when ‫אּלֶה‬

ֵ directly modifies a plural noun in the same phrase, it follows
the noun and takes the definite article to match the noun (left below). It can also be the
pronominal subject of the clause (right below).
These horses... ‫ַהּסּוסִים ָה ֵאּלֶה‬ These (are) horses ‫ֵאּלֶה סּוסִים‬
2.3 Plural forms
Masculine nouns take the plural ending -im ‫ים‬ ◌ִ -, while feminine nouns take the plural ending
-ot ‫ֹות‬-. An adjective that modifies a noun will agree with it in gender and number, taking the
same ending that the noun takes.
bull ‫ּפַר‬ cow ‫ּפ ָָרה‬
bulls ‫ּפ ִָרים‬ cows ‫ּפָרֹות‬
a big bull ‫ּפַר ּגָדֹול‬ a big cow ‫ּפ ָָרה גְדֹולָה‬
big bulls ‫ּפ ִָרים ּגְד ֹ ִלים‬ big cows ‫ּפָרֹות ּגְד ֹלֹות‬
2.4 Irregular plurals

Some nouns are irregular and take the plural suffix that is associated with the opposite gender.
Two of these nouns are ‫אּׁשָה‬
ִ and ‫עֵז‬, which take the masculine plural ending ‫ ִ◌ ים‬- even
though they are actually syntactically feminine. We can see their true syntactic gender by the fact
that adjectives that modify them take the feminine plural ending ‫ֹות‬-.
woman ‫ִאּׁשָה‬ goat ‫עֵז‬
women ‫ׁשים‬
ִ ָ‫נ‬ goats ‫ִעּזִים‬
big women ‫ׁשים ּגְד ֹלֹות‬
ִ ָ‫נ‬ small goats ‫ִעּזִים ְקטַּנֹות‬
We will see irregular masculine nouns that take the feminine plural ending in future lessons.
Lesson 3 - Conjunction and gender
3.1 The conjunction -ְ‫ו‬
The conjunction prefix vǝ-, -ְ‫ו‬, can join many types of phrases and clauses. It is most often
translated “and,” but may be translated as “but” or other conjunctions, depending on the context.
It is written attached to the word following it.
‫אִיׁש ְו ִאּׁשָה‬
“a man and a woman”
In some contexts, -ְ‫( ו‬vǝ-) becomes -‫( ּו‬u-), depending on the word it is attached to. This sound
change happens:
1) before the labial (involving the lips) letters ‫ו‬,‫מ‬,‫ב‬,‫פ‬

2) before a shewa vowel ְ
In this lesson, we encounter -‫ ּו‬before the labial letter ‫פ‬, as in ‫ּופָרֹות‬, ‫ ּופַר‬etc. and before a
word with the shewa vowel ְ at the beginning, as in ‫ּונְעָרֹות‬ ,‫ ּוגְ ַמּלִים‬etc. We will see more
examples of this sound change in later lessons.

Some letters (often called the begadkefat letters to help remember them3) become fricativized in
certain contexts (the airstream is constricted but keeps flowing instead of being cut off
completely). In the pronunciation you hear in the videos, only three letters ‫פ‬, ‫ ב‬, and ‫כ‬, undergo
this sound change, and it is always marked by the absence of dagesh (a dot in the center of the
letter):
● When they are marked with a dagesh, they are pronounced as stops (airstream cut off
completely, like in b, p, and k).
3
The full set of begadkefat letters include bgdkpt: ‫בגדכפת‬. In some classical pronunciation systems these are all
fricativized, so when they have no dagesh: b → v, g → ɣ, d → ð, k → χ, p → f, t → θ. However, in Modern Hebrew
and the Sephardic pronunciation we are using in our videos, the only letters that undergo this process are ‫כ‬, ‫פ‬, ‫ב‬.
● When they have no dagesh, they are pronounced as fricatives (airstream keeps flowing,
like in v, f, and χ).
k ‫ּכ‬ p ‫ּפ‬ b ‫ּב‬ Stops with dagesh
χ ‫כ‬ f ‫פ‬ v ‫ב‬ Fricatives without dagesh
This is why you will hear some letters change their sounds in certain contexts, such as after -ְ‫ ו‬or
-‫ּו‬. In this lesson you hear p change to f, and k change to χ (a uvular trill like in German “Bach”),
as in the examples below. In future lessons you will also hear b change to v.
‫ּו ְכ ָבׂשִים‬ ‫ְּכ ָבׂשִים‬ ‫ּו ַפר‬ ‫ַּפר‬
u-χǝvasim kǝvasim u-far par
and sheep (pl.) sheep (pl.) and a bull bull
(In the videos, the other begadkefat letters ‫ג‬,‫ ד‬and ‫ ת‬will always be pronounced ɡ, d and t
respectively, with or without a dagesh.)
3.3 Gender and epicene nouns
Nouns in Hebrew belong to one of two genders, masculine (‫ זָכָר‬zaχar) or feminine (‫קבָה‬ ֵ ְ‫נ‬
4
nəqevah). In this video we sort all the nouns we’ve learned so far according to their gender.
Feminine nouns often end in ‫ – ָ◌ ה‬or ‫–ת‬, but not always.
4
As in Romance languages like Spanish or French, the gender of inanimate nouns is purely grammatical, and is
therefore arbitrary and unpredictableː for example, the word for ‘jar’ is grammatically masculine, while the word for
‘cup’ is grammatically feminine even though both are inherently neuter by nature.
A few animate nouns in Hebrew have just one form for both male and female sexes. These are
called “epicene nouns,” and the word for camel, ‫ ָּגמָל‬, is one of these. The form ‫ ָּגמָל‬could refer
to a male camel or a female camel. An adjective or demonstrative modifying an epicene noun
would signal if it is a male or female in that context, as in the examples below.
This small (male) camel ‫ַה ָּגמָל ַהָּקט ֹן ַהֶּזה‬
This small (female) camel ‫ַה ָּגמָל ַה ְּק ַטּנָה ַהּז ֹאת‬
Key helps
Why? ← ‫ָלּמָה‬
I don’t know ← ‫אֵינֶּנִי י ֹדַ עַת‬
Such is Hebrew! ← ‫ָּככָה ִעבְרית‬
Lesson 4 - Subject Pronouns
4.1 Subject pronouns

Subject pronouns have singular and plural forms, and distinguish between masculine and
feminine in the second and third persons. For example, ‫ אַּתָ ה‬attah is ‘you’ when speaking with a
man, and ְ‫ אַּת‬at is ‘you’ when speaking with a woman. Likewise, ‫ אַּתֶ ם‬attem is ‘you’ when
speaking with a group of men or a mixed group, and ‫ אַּתֶ ן‬atten is ‘you’ when speaking to a
group of women. The first-person pronouns ‘I’ and ‘we’ are the same regardless of the gender of
the speaker. There are two versions of the pronoun ‘I’ that appear in the Hebrew Bible: the most
common is ‫אנִי‬
ֲ ‘ani, but ‫‘ ָאנֹכִי‬anoχi also appears frequently. There’s no clear difference in
meaning between these two 1sg. pronouns.
Singular Plural
Masculine Feminine Masculine Feminine
‫ ָאנֹכִי‬/ ‫ֲאנִי‬ I ‫ֲאנַחְנּו‬ we
‫אַּתָ ה‬ ְ‫אַּת‬ you ‫אַּתֶ ם‬ ‫אַּתֶ ן‬ you
‫הּוא‬ ‫הִיא‬ he/she ‫הֵם‬ ‫ֵהּנָה‬ they
4.2 Verbless clauses

Just like the sentences in the previous lessons, the sentences in this lesson are verbless. In
Hebrew, a simple clause can be formed by juxtaposing the subject and the complement that
describes it, with no verb necessary. The complement may be a noun (as in 1) or an adjective (as
in 2). In later lessons we will also see prepositional phrases in verbless clauses to describe the
location of the subject.
You (are) (a) donkey. ‫אַּתָ ה חֲמֹור׃‬ 1
You (are) small. ‫אַּתָ ה קָט ֹן׃‬ 2
In some contexts, we may also see the complement come first and the subject afterward.
What (is) she? ‫מָה־הִיא׃‬ 1
A small woman (is) she. ‫ִאּׁשָה ְק ַטּנָה הִיא׃‬ 2
Key helps
Conjunction ‫ּכִי‬. It has many translations in different contexts, but here
it marks a counter-statement after a negative statement, similar to “on the
contrary” or “but rather...”
Lesson 5 - Family terms
5.1 Possessive pronoun suffixes

Hebrew marks possession with pronominal suffixes on nouns. In this lesson we encounter three
of those suffixes: the first person singular ‘my’ ‫ ִ י‬- and the third person singular masculine ‘his’
‫ֹו‬- and feminine ‘her’ ‫ָ◌ ּה‬-.5 Often when these suffixes are added to a word, the vowels of the
noun stem contract or are shortened. Here ‫ → ׁשֵם‬-‫ׁשְמ‬.
5
The letter he marked with a dot (called a mappiq) ‫ּה‬- -ahh distinguishes it from a qamets he ending ‫ ָ ה‬-a.
‫ ָ ּה‬- is pronounced with an h sound at the end instead of a pure a vowel like ‫ ָ ה‬.
‫ׁש ָמּה‬
ְ ‫ׁשְמֹו‬ ‫ׁש ִמי‬
ְ ‫ׁשֵם‬
her name his name my name name
5.2 Construct forms

This lesson teaches terms for family relationships. Notice that the words for the relationships
‘husband’ and ‘wife’ are the same as ‘man’ and ‘woman.’
In this lesson, you will hear some of the words change form when a possessor follows. These are
called “construct forms” in Hebrew grammar, and this is a fundamental feature of the structure of
Hebrew. This is covered in more detail in Lesson 11, but for now, just focus on understanding the
alternate forms of the words when they have a possessor.
Abraham is Isaac’s father. ‫ַאב ְָרהָם ֲאבִי י ִ ְצחָק‬ ‫ָאב ← ֲאבִי‬
Esau is Jacob’s brother. ‫ֵעׂשָו ֲאחִי יַעֲק ֹב‬ ‫ָאח ← ֲאחִי‬
Sarah is Abraham’s wife. ‫ׂש ָָרה ֵאׁשֶת ַאב ְָרהָם‬ ‫ִאּׁשָה ← ֵאׁשֶת‬
Note that some words change the spelling of their vowels slightly when they are in construct
form, but the pronunciation is not affected.
David is Jesse’s son. ‫ָּד וִד ּבֶן־יִׁשַי‬ ‫ּבֵן ← ּבֶן‬
Rachel is Leah’s sister. ‫ָרחֵל אֲחֹות לֵָאה‬ ‫ָאחֹות ← אֲחֹות‬
All nouns that are followed by a possessor are in construct form, but some words, like ‫ אֵם‬and
‫ּבַת‬, are exactly the same in construct form as their free form (called “absolute form”).
Sarah is Isaac’s mother. ‫ׂש ָָרה אֵם י ִ ְצחָק׃‬ ‫אֵם ← אֵם‬
Whose daughter are you?

‫ּבַת־מִי אַּתְ ׃‬ ‫ּבַת ← ּבַת‬
(lit. daughter of who (are) you?)
Jacob is Leah’s husband. ‫יַעֲק ֹב אִיׁש לֵָאה׃‬ ‫אִיׁש ← אִיׁש‬
Note that even though the word ‫ ָאחֹות‬aħot ‘sister’ ends in -ot ‫ֹות‬-, it is singular and not plural.6
6
The plural form of ‫‘ ָאחֹות‬sister’ is not attested in its free absolute form in the Hebrew Bible, but it may be
‫‘ ֲאחָיֹות‬sisters.’
We saw in 3.2 how the begadkefat letters p ‫ ּפ‬and k ‫ ּכ‬change their sounds in some contexts and
become fricativized to f and χ respectively. In this lesson, we hear b ‫ ּב‬undergoing the same
change: After -‫ּו‬, it loses the dagesh and becomes ‫ב‬, and is pronounced v.
k ‫ּכ‬ p ‫ּפ‬ b ‫ּב‬ Stops with dagesh
χ ‫כ‬ f ‫פ‬ v ‫ב‬ Fricatives without dagesh
‫ ּב‬is a labial letter, so it triggers the change of the conjunction from vǝ- -ְ‫ ו‬to u- -‫ ּו‬that we saw in
section 3.1.
‫ּו ֵבן‬ ‫ֵּבן‬ ‫ּו ַבת‬ ‫ַּבת‬
u-ven ben u-vat bat
and a son son and a daughter daughter
5.4 Maqqef
You will see some words written connected with a bar ‫־‬, called a maqqef. This connects a short
word to the word that follows it and marks them as forming one phonological word with one
accented syllable. It does not appreciably affect the meaning or pronunciation. It is often optional
in the Hebrew Bible, so in these lessons we try to follow the form that you will see most
frequently.
Key helps
Who? ← ‫מִי‬
I don’t know ← ‫אֵינֶּנִי י ֹדַ עַת‬
Also ← ‫ּגַם‬
Lesson 6 - Prepositions and Location
6.1 Prepositions
In this lesson, we learn some prepositions that describe location relative to an object. The
shortest of these is -ְ‫ּב‬, which is one of three prepositions ( ‫ל‬
ְ ‫ ) ְּב ְּכ‬that consist of only one letter
prefixed to the following word, and they cannot be separated from the word. For that reason they
are often called the inseparable prepositions. -ְ‫ ּב‬has a broad range of meanings, but in the
examples in this lesson it means ‘in’ or ‘on.’ As we’ll see more in later lessons, the one-letter
prepositions combine with the vowel of the definite article -ַ‫ ה‬when they occur together on the
same word. So -ְ‫ ּב‬plus -ַ‫ ה‬becomes -ַ‫ ּב‬as in the word ‫ּבי ִת‬
ַ ‫‘ ַּב‬in the house’ or ‫‘ ּבַּדֶ ֶרְך‬in/on the
road’.
‫ מִדְ ּבָר = ַּבּמִדְ ּבָר‬+ -‫ ַה‬+ -‫ְּב‬

ba-midbar - ‘In the wilderness’
The other prepositions are not prefixed to the following words, but ‫ עַל־‬is usually connected
with a maqqef ‫־‬. As discussed briefly in 4.2, the sentences in this lesson are verbless, with the
location of the subject indicated by simply juxtaposing the prepositional phrase with the subject.
No verb is necessary.
‫ָהעֵז ִל ְפנֵי ַהּפָר׃‬
“The goat (is) in front of the bull.”
6.2 Imperative verb ‫ׂשִים‬
In this lesson we learn our first verb, in the imperative (command) form, ‫ ׂשִים‬sim, ‘put!’7 In the
video, Beth tells Avram to put a cow or horse in specific places.
6.3 ‫ אֶת־‬marks definite direct objects
When the direct object of a sentence is definite (i.e. it has the definite article -ַ‫ה‬, is a proper
‫אֶת־‬. This preposition
noun, or has a possessive suffix), it is usually marked with the preposition
has a purely grammatical meaning that is not translatable into English. Like ‫עַל־‬, ‫ אֶת־‬is usually
linked to the following word with a maqqef ‫־‬, but sometimes it appears on its own as ‫אֵת‬.
Notice the difference between the sentence in 1 with an indefinite direct object ‫‘ ּפ ָָרה‬a cow,’ and
the sentence in 3 with a definite direct object ‫הּפ ָָרה‬
ַ ‫‘ אֶת־‬the cow.’
‘Put a cow behind the house.’ ‫ ׂשִים ּפ ָָרה ַאח ֲֵרי ַה ַּבי ִת׃‬1
‘No, this cow is on the house.’ ‫ ַהּפ ָָרה הַּז ֹאת עַל־ ַה ַּבי ִת׃‬,‫ ֹלא‬2
‘Put the cow behind the house.’ ‫ ׂשִים אֶת־ ַהּפ ָָרה ַאח ֲֵרי ַה ַּבי ִת׃‬3
7
The form ‫ ׂשִים‬is masculine singular, so it is only used when addressing a single male (like Avram in the
video). For addressing a single female, it would be ‫ׂשמִי‬
ִ .
This lesson teaches seven letters of the Hebrew alphabet and four vowel points (called niqqud).
Hebrew is written right to left and originally was written with only the consonant letters. The
system of writing vowels below and above the main line of consonants was added sometime
during the last centuries of the first millenium A.D.
In discussions of the alphabet and elsewhere we’ll often explain pronunciations with the
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). If you’re not familiar with the IPA, you can hear how
each symbol sounds at internationalphoneticalphabet.org.
7.1 Consonants
Aleph ‫( א‬usually transliterated as ’ ) is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and is pronounced
as a glottal stop [ʔ]: the light sound of the throat closing between the vowels in “uh-oh.” To
English speakers, words that start with aleph sound like they start with a vowel, but aleph is
considered a consonant.
Bet ‫( ב‬usually transliterated as b or v) is the second letter of the alphabet, and it has two
pronunciations: with a dagesh ‫ ּב‬it is pronounced b and without a dagesh ‫ב‬, it is pronounced v.
Yod ‫( י‬usually transliterated as y) is the tenth letter of the alphabet. It has two functions, one
consonantal and one vocalic:
1) Yod may be a consonant with its own vowel, pronounced like y (like ָ ‫ י‬ya), .
2) Yod may accompany a vowel on the preceding letter (like ‫ אִי‬as a vowel indicator or part
of a diphthong).
Tav ‫( ת‬usually transliterated as t or th) is the twenty-second and last letter of the alphabet. In the
pronunciation we use in the videos, it is always pronounced t, with or without a dagesh.8
Shin ‫( ׁש‬usually transliterated as š or sh) is the twenty-first letter of the alphabet. It is always
pronounced sh [ʃ] with or without a dagesh. This letter can be confusing, because it’s so similar
to ‫ׂש‬, which will be introduced later. Really, we could say that the twenty-first letter of the
alphabet is ‫ש‬, and ‫ ׁש‬and ‫ ׂש‬are distinct letters under that umbrella. The reason they are
considered distinct letters and given their own place in the aleph-bet song is because the
meanings of word roots can completely change depending on which of them you use. So in one
sense they are the same letter (in terms of the writing system), but in another sense they are not
the same (when counting root consonants). The dot that makes them different is not like the
dagesh dot in the begadkefat letters like ‫ּב‬, which simply changes the pronunciation of the letter,
but not the meaning of the word. So ‫ ּב‬and ‫ ב‬are not considered different letters of the alphabet.
He ‫( ה‬usually transliterated as h) is the fifth letter of the alphabet. Like yod, it has two functions:
1) He may be a consonant with its own vowel, pronounced h (like ‫ה‬

ָ ha).
2) He may accompany a vowel on the preceding letter (like ‫ ּבָה‬bah) at the end of a word.
As a vowel indicator, he does not add any sound: ‫ּב‬
ָ and ‫ ּבָה‬are pronounced the same:
[ba].
Vav ‫( ו‬usually transliterated as w or v) is the sixth letter of the alphabet. Like yod and he, vav has
both consonantal and vocalic functions, but in this lesson, we only encounter consonantal vav as
the prefix conjunction -ְ‫ו‬. In the third alphabet lesson (Lesson 13), we will see vav as a vowel
indicator. As a consonant, vav is pronounced v, just like ‫ב‬.9
7.2 Vowels
Qamets ָ (usually transliterated as ā) is pronounced [a] “ah” as in “father.”
8
Some classical pronunciations will pronounce tav without a dagesh ‫ ת‬as th [θ]. Under this system, the name of
the letter ‫ ב‬sounds like the name Beth.
9
Historically, vav was pronounced like a w, so you may hear it pronounced like that in classical pronunciations
of Hebrew, or hear the letter called waw.
Hireq ִ (usually transliterated as i) is pronounced [i] “ee” as in “see.”
Pataħ ַ (usually transliterated as a) is pronounced [a] “ah” as in “father.” We pronounce qamets

and patah the same, but historically qamets was a “long vowel” and pataħ a “short vowel.”
Shewa ְ (usually transliterated as ǝ) is pronounced [ǝ], a short relaxed central vowel like the first
and last vowels of “banana” in American English [bǝˈnænǝ]. 10
7.3 Definite article variants
The definite article “the” prefix -ַ‫ ה‬consists of the he and pataħ and it also “doubles” the first
consonant of the following letter (marking it with a dot called a dagesh).
‫ ִמדְ ּבָר = ַה ִּמדְ ּבָר‬+ -ַ‫ה‬

‫ּׁשם‬
ֵ ‫ׁשם = ַה‬
ֵ + -ַ‫ה‬
However, when -ַ‫ ה‬comes before a word that begins with ‫ א ע‬or ‫ר‬,11 three letters that cannot
take a dagesh, the pataħ vowel “lengthens” to qamets. Therefore, you will see words beginning
with aleph take the article with qamets -ָ‫ ה‬as in ‫האִיׁש‬
ָ . This doesn’t affect the pronunciation,
it’s just a spelling rule. We recommend not worrying about memorizing the rules right now, just
be able to recognize both -ַ‫ ה‬and -ָ‫ ה‬as the definite article “the” when you see them.
As discussed in 6.1, the one-letter prepositions combine with the vowel of the definite article -ַ‫ה‬
when they occur together on the same word. So -ְ‫ ּב‬plus -ַ‫ ה‬becomes -ַ‫ּב‬. We see this in the word
‫ ַּב ַּבי ִת‬.
‫ ַּבי ִת = ַּב ַּבי ִת‬+ -‫ ַה‬+ -‫ְּב‬
‘in the house’
10
Shewa is pronounced as shva in Modern Hebrew, and in the field of Linguistics is written as schwa (Hebrew:
‫ְׁש וָא‬‎).
These belong to the group of letters ‫ ר ע א ה‬and ‫ח‬, that cannot take a dagesh and therefore cause many other
11
vowel changes throughout the language. In future lessons you will also see the definite article take the form -ֶ‫ה‬
before some of these letters.
Lesson 8 - Parts of the Body
8.1 Dual forms

Most nouns have forms for two numbers: singular (1) and plural (2 or more). However, some
words in Hebrew have a dual form (2) instead of or in addition to a plural form (3 or more).
Things that come in pairs, like many body parts, often take dual forms.12 The dual form is
marked with the suffix -ayim ‫ ַ י ִם‬-.
Dual Singular
two eyes ‫עֵינַי ִם‬ 👁️👁️ eye ‫ַעי ִן‬ 👁️

two ears 13
‫ָאזְנַי ִם‬ 👂🏽👂🏽 ear ‫אֹזֶן‬ 👂🏽
two hands ‫י ָדַ י ִם‬ 🤚🏽🤚🏽 hand ‫י ָד‬ 🤚🏽
two feet/legs ‫ַרגְ ַלי ִם‬ 🦵🏽🦵🏽 foot/leg ‫ֶרגֶל‬ 🦵🏽
two palms ‫ַּכ ַּפי ִם‬ 🤲🏽 palm ‫ּכַף‬ ✋🏽
12
For body parts that come in pairs, the dual form may sometimes be used to refer to more than two: ‫ַארּבַע‬
ְ
‫‘ ַרגְ ַלי ִם‬four feet.’
Qamets ָ that appears in a closed unaccented syllable is a qamets hatuf and is pronounced [o] instead of [a],
13
so this word is correctly pronounced ‘oznayim.’
Some nouns occur only in plural form with no singular form. The word panim ‫ּפנִים‬
ָ ‘face’ in
this lesson is one of these. Therefore ‫ּפנִים‬
ָ may be translated ‘face’ or ‘faces,’ depending on the
context.
8.3 Nouns in construct form

In the last section of the video, all the body parts that appear with a possessor, such as regel sus
‫‘ ֶרגֶל סּוס‬a horse’s foot/leg’ or beten ishah ‫‘ ֶּבטֶן ִאּׁשָה‬a woman’s belly,’ are in construct
form, but they sound the same and are spelled the same in construct form as in their free absolute
form (except yad ‫‘ י ָד‬hand,’ which changes its spelling to ‫ י ַד‬in the construct form, but still
sounds the same). In lesson 11, we will learn more about construct forms.
Lesson 9 - Things good and bad
9.1 Possessive suffixes review

In this lesson we review the possessive suffixes on the word ‘name’ that were introduced in 5.1.
Remember that the conjunction -ְ‫ ו‬becomes -‫ ּו‬before words whose first letter has a shewa vowel ְ
as in the example below.
‫נָ ֳעמִי‬14 ‫ׁש ָמּה‬

ְ ‫ׁש ָמּה רּות ּו‬
ְ ‫מִי ֵהּנָה׃‬
Her name (is) Ruth and her name (is) Naomi. Who (are) they (fem.)?
9.2 The word ‫ּדָ בָר‬
‫ ּדָ בָר‬means generally ‘thing’ or ‘word.’ In this lesson it is used in the sense of a physical ‘thing’
(1), in the sense of ‘word’ (2) and in the sense of a non-physical ‘thing,’ referring to a
matter/situation/affair (3). Senses 2 and 3 are the most common in Biblical Hebrew.
What (is) this thing? This thing (is) a jar. ‫ מָה־ ַהּדָ בָר ַהּזֶה׃ הַּדָ בָר ַהּזֶה ּכַד׃‬1
House, the man, father, these (are)

words. ‫ ֵאּלֶה ּדְ ב ִָרים׃‬,‫ ָאב‬,‫ ָהאִיׁש‬,‫ ַּבי ִת‬2
[men fighting in anger] Is this thing ‫הֲטֹוב ַהּדָ בָר ַהּזֶה׃‬

good?
3
No, this thing is very bad. ‫ ַהּדָ בָר ַהּזֶה ַרע מְא ֹד׃‬,‫ֹלא‬
14
In a later lesson, we will cover the vowel rule that reads a qamets hatuf ָ in a closed unaccented syllable and a
ḥaṭef qamets ֳ both as [o] sounds. Because of this rule, the name Naomi ‫ נָ ֳעמִי‬is correctly pronounced in Biblical
Hebrew No’omi [noʕoˈmi]. This same rule about qamets ָ in a closed unaccented syllable is also why ‫ ָּג ְלי ָת‬is
pronounced Goliat [ɡolˈjat].
9.3 Adjectives ‘good’ and ‘bad’
We learned two adjectives in this lesson: ‫‘ טֹוב‬good,’ and ‫‘ ַרע‬bad.’ Note that they take the
same suffixes that we learned in 2.3, agreeing with the noun they modify in gender and number.
Feminine Masculine
a good woman ‫ִאּׁשָה טֹו ָבה‬ a good man ‫אִיׁש טֹוב‬

Sg.
a bad land ‫א ֶֶרץ ָר ָעה‬ a bad thing ‫ּדָ בָר ַרע‬
good women ‫נָׁשִים טֹובֹות‬ good things ‫ּדְ ב ִָרים טֹו ִבים‬
Pl.
bad women ‫נָׁשִים ָרעֹות‬ bad things ‫ּדְ ב ִָרים ָר ִעים‬
9.4 The yes-no question marker prefix
So far, we have seen many content questions with interrogative pronouns, such as ‫הֵם‬ ‫“ מִי‬who
(are) they?” and ‫“ מַה־ּז ֶה‬what (is) this?” On the other hand, a “yes-no” or “polar” question
(whose answer is a simple yes or no), is usually signaled with the prefix -ֲ‫ ה‬on the first word of
the question:
‫ֲהטֹובִים ַהּדְ ב ִָרים ָה ֵאּלֶה׃ טֹובִים הֵם׃‬

(Are) these things good? They (are) good.
The question marker -ֲ‫ ה‬sounds just like the definite article -ַ‫ה‬, but in writing it usually looks
different because of the ħaṭef pataħ vowel ֲ . The two prefixes can usually be distinguished
without difficulty from context since the yes-no question marker always attaches to the first word
of the question.
9.5 Hinneh ‫ִהּנֵה‬
The word ‫הּנֵה‬ִ is used to draw the hearer’s attention to, present, or point to what follows. It has
traditionally been translated in older English versions as ‘behold’ but a more modern idiom
would be ‘Look, …’
Look, (here are) these people ‫ִהּנֵה ָה ֲאנָׁשִים ָה ֵאּלֶה‬
This lesson introduces three more letters of the alphabet and three more vowel points
(niqqud).
10.1 Consonants
Resh ‫( ר‬usually transliterated as r) is the twentieth letter of the alphabet and is

pronounced in our videos as an alveolar flap or trill (like the Spanish or Arabic r sound).
Most Modern Hebrew speakers pronounce this letter as a voiced uvular fricative (like
the French or German r sound).
Dalet ‫( ד‬usually transliterated as d or ḏ) is the fourth letter of the alphabet and is

pronounced d, with or without a dagesh.
Mem ‫( מ ם‬usually transliterated as m) is the thirteenth letter of the alphabet. Mem is one
of five Hebrew letters that have two forms: one when it occurs at the beginning or in the
middle of a word, and another (the sofit form: sofit means ‘final’) when it occurs at the
end of a word. Mem ‫ מ‬comes at the beginning or in the middle of a word, and mem sofit
‫ ם‬at the end. Both are always pronounced m.
10.2 Vowels
Holem ֹ , (usually transliterated as ō) written as a single dot above and to the left of a
letter, is pronounced like the vowel [o].
Tsere ֵ , (usually transliterated as ē) written as two horizontal dots under a letter, is

pronounced like the vowel sound [e] “ey” as in “pay” or [ɛ] “eh” as in “pet,” depending
on the context.15
Shewa ְ , written as two vertical dots under a letter (introduced briefly in lesson 7), has
two pronunciations:
1) [ə], a short relaxed central vowel like the first and last vowels of “banana” in
English [bəˈnænə]. This is called a vocal shewa or audible shewa in grammars.
15
Some pronunciation systems will consistently pronounce tsere as [e], distinguishing it from tsere + yod ‫ֵ י‬
, which is then pronounced as a diphthong [ej]. In our videos, we follow Modern Hebrew, which does not
distinguish between ֵ and ‫ ֵ י‬and in which tsere can vary between [e] and [ɛ] depending on context.
When ְ is the core vowel of a syllable, such as when it occurs on the first letter
of a word (like ‫ׁשמִי‬
ְ ), it is pronounced [ə].16
2) Silent. When ְ comes after a closed syllable (such as in ‫ מִדְ ּבָר‬and ‫ב ָרם‬
ְ ‫)ַא‬, it is
not pronounced, and it merely indicates the absence of a vowel. This is called
silent shewa in grammars. It does not occur on the final closing consonant of a
word (e.g. not ‫)מִדְ ּב ְָר‬, except for in the word ְ‫אַּת‬, some second person sg.
feminine verb forms, and the letter kaf which we will see in later lessons.
At this point in your learning, we recommend not worrying about memorizing all the
rules for when a shewa is pronounced and when it is silent. You can read about them in
detail in any good Hebrew grammar if you like, but for now, we recommend just
imitating the sound of the words you hear in the videos.
10.3 Maqqef (review from 5.4)
You will see some words written connected with a bar ‫־‬, called a maqqef, like in ‫ּׁשמִי‬
ְ ‫מַה־‬. This
connects a short word to the word that follows it and marks them as forming one phonological
word with one accented syllable. It does not appreciably affect the meaning or pronunciation. It
is often optional in the Hebrew Bible, so in these lessons we try to follow the form that you will
see most frequently.
16
Modern Hebrew speakers will often not pronounce vocal shewas, so for example, you may hear ‫ׁשמִי‬ ְ
pronounced as 1-syllable [ʃmi] instead of 2-syllable [ʃəmi]. Don’t let small differences of pronunciation throw you
off, just focus on understanding what you hear!
Lesson 11 - Construct Forms
11.1 Plural forms of son and daughter
The plural forms of the family terms ‫‘ ּבֵן‬son’ and ‫‘ ּבַת‬daughter,’ are:
👦🏽👦🏽👦🏽
‫ ָּבנִים‬banim ‘sons’
‫ ּבָנֹות‬banot ‘daughters’👧🏽👧🏽👧🏽
11.2 Construct forms
As briefly introduced in 5.2, in Hebrew the relationship between two nouns that is usually
expressed with the preposition “of” in English (often called genitive in classical languages), is
expressed in Hebrew with what is called a “construct chain.” A chain may consist of just two
nouns as in (1) and (2) or three or more nouns as in (3) and (4).
‫ָאב ← ֲאבִי‬ ‫ֲאבִי ַהּנַעַר‬ 1
the father of the boy
English joins the nouns with

‫ּבֵן ← ּבֶן־‬ ‫ּבֶן־יֹוסֵף‬ 2
“of”...
_____ of _____ the son of Joseph
___of___of___
‫ַּבי ִת ← ּבֵית‬ ‫ּבֵית ֵאׁשֶת ָהאִיׁש‬ 3
‫ִאּׁשָה ← ֵאׁשֶת‬ the house of the wife of the man

Hebrew marks a noun as
“possessed” (the following
noun is its possessor) by
putting it in construct form ‫ַּבי ִת ← ּבֵית‬ ‫ּבֵית ֵאׁשֶת ּבֶן־יֹוסֵף‬ 4
‫ִאּׁשָה ← ֵאׁשֶת‬ the house of the wife of the son of

Joseph
‫ּבֵן ← ּבֶן־‬
Plural forms ending in ‫ ִ ים‬- or dual forms ending in ‫ַ י ִם‬ - both change to end in ‫ ֵ י‬- in
construct form:
‫ָּבנִים ← ְּבנֵי‬ ‫נָׁשִים ← נְׁשֵי‬ ‫א ֹ ָהלִים ← ָא ֳהלֵי‬ ‫עֵינַי ִם← עֵינֵי‬

‫ְּבנֵי יֹוסֵף‬ ‫נְׁשֵי יַעֲק ֹב‬ ‫ָא ֳהלֵי ַאב ְָרהָם‬17 ‫עֵינֵי ַאב ְָרם‬
The sons of Joseph The wives of Jacob The tents of Abraham The eyes of Avram
Nouns that end in ‫ ָ ה‬- change to end in ‫ ַ ת‬- in construct form:

‫ּפ ָָרה ← ּפ ַָרת‬
‫ּפ ַָרת יֹוסֵף‬
Joseph’s cow
Plural nouns that end in ‫ֹות‬- usually have their vowels constricted or shortened in construct form:
‫ּבָנֹות ← ּבְנֹות‬
‫ּבְנֹות יֹוסֵף‬
The daughters of Joseph
An important feature of the construct chain structure is that the definiteness of the final noun in
the chain determines the definiteness of the entire chain. An indefinite final noun as in (1) means
the whole chain is indefinite. A definite final noun as in (2) and (3) means the whole chain is
definite.
17
The rule that reads a qamets hatuf ָ in a closed unaccented syllable and a ḥaṭef qamets ֳ both as [o] sounds
means the word ‫ ָא ֳהלֵי‬is correctly pronounced ‘oholey [ʔohoˈle], just like the name Naomi ‫ נָ ֳעמִי‬is pronounced
no’omi [noʕoˈmi]. This can be a complicated issue that even a lot of Hebrew experts struggle with, so don’t worry if
you don’t understand it right away!
a house of a man ‫ּבֵית אִיׁש‬ 1
the house of the man ‫ּבֵית ָהאִיׁש‬ 2

🧍
🏠
the house of Abraham ‫ּבֵית ַאב ְָרהָם‬ 3
Note that proper nouns (names of people and places) are considered definite by default, so (3)
above is a definite construct chain because the final word in the chain is a proper noun.
Only the final noun is marked for definiteness, so it is incorrect to mark a noun in construct form
with the definite article -ַ‫ ה‬as in (4). Instead, it should be like (2) above.
the house of the man ‫* ַהּבֵית ָהאִיׁש‬ 4

incorrect
11.3 Good or bad in the eyes of...

In Hebrew, a person’s approval or disapproval is expressed with the idiom “good/bad in their
eyes.”
Is this thing good in the eyes of Avram? :‫הֲטֹוב הַּדָ בָר ַהּזֶה ְּבעֵינֵי ַאב ְָרם‬
The thing is not good in the eyes of Avram. :‫ֹלא טֹוב הַּדָ בָר ְּבעֵינֵי ַאב ְָרם‬
👁
👁
The thing is bad in the eyes of Avram. :‫ָרע הַּדָ בָר ְּבעֵינֵי ַאב ְָרם‬
Notice that “eyes” in construct form does not have the vowel of the definite article on the
preposition -‫ּב‬
ְ .
‫ ְּבעֵינֵי‬and not ‫ָּבעֵינֵי‬
Instead, the definiteness of “the eyes of Avram” comes from the definiteness of the final noun in
the construct chain: the proper name Avram.
12.1 Numbers 1-5
This lesson introduces the cardinal numbers one through five. Like adjectives, numbers have
distinct forms for masculine and feminine nouns. When counting, the feminine forms are used.
With masculine With feminine

nouns nouns
1◦ ‫ֶאחָד‬ ‫ַאחַת‬
2 ◦◦ ‫ׁשנַי ִם‬
ְ ‫ׁשְּתַ י ִם‬
3 ◦◦◦ ‫ׁשְֹלשָה‬ ‫ׁשָלֹוׁש‬
4 ◦◦◦◦ ‫ַאר ָּבעָה‬

ְ ‫ַארּבַע‬
ְ
5 ◦◦◦◦◦ ‫ֲח ִמּׁשָה‬ ‫ָחמֵׁש‬

Numbers can appear before or after the noun they modify, but the most common pattern is for the
number one ‫ ֶאחָד‬/ ‫ ַאחַת‬to appear after its noun, and the rest of the numbers to appear before.
🧍 one man ‫אִיׁש ֶאחָד‬
🧍🧍🧍 three men/people ‫ׁשְֹלׁשָה ֲאנָׁשִים‬
🧍🧍🧍🧍
🧍 five men/people ‫ֲח ִמּׁשָה ֲאנָׁשִים‬
Not surprisingly, the number two, ‫ׁשְּתַ י ִם‬, has a dual form. It is often shortened to its construct
form before the noun it modifies.
two young women ‫ׁשְּתֵ י נְעָרֹות‬ ‫ׁשְּתַ י ִם ← ׁשְּתֵ י‬
two young men ‫ׁשנֵי נְע ִָרים‬

ְ ‫ׁשנֵי‬
ְ ← ‫ׁשנַי ִם‬
ְ
Hebrew numbers are odd in that the form that appears to be feminine (ending in ‫ ָ ה‬-) is
actually used with masculine nouns (like ‫)סּוס‬, while the numbers that appear to be masculine
(not ending in ‫ ָ ה‬-) are used with feminine nouns.
‫סּוס ֶאחָד‬ 🐎 ‫ּפ ָָרה ַאחַת‬ 🐄

‫ׁשנֵי סּוסִים‬
ְ 🐎🐎 ‫ׁשְּתֵ י פָרֹות‬ 🐄🐄
‫ׁשְֹלׁשָה סּוסִים‬ 🐎🐎🐎 ‫ׁשָלֹוׁש ּפָרֹות‬ 🐄🐄🐄
‫ַאר ָּבעָה סּוסִים‬
ְ 🐎🐎🐎🐎 ‫ַארּבַע ּפָרֹות‬
ְ 🐄🐄🐄🐄
‫ֲחמִָּׁשה סּוסִים‬ 🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎 ‫ָחמֵׁש ּפָרֹות‬ 🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄
12.2 Imperative verb ‫קַח‬
In this lesson we learn another verb, in the imperative (command) form, ‫ קַח‬qaħ, ‘take!’18 Beth
tells Avram to take various numbers of cows, horses or people.
18
The form ‫ קַח‬is masculine singular, so it is only used when addressing a single male (like Avram in the video).
For addressing a single female, it would be ‫ ְקחִי‬.
12.3 All - ‫ ּכ ֹל‬/ ‫ּכָל־‬
‫( ּכ ֹל‬usually written ‫ּכָל־‬, both pronounced kol19) means “all,” “every” or “entire.”
In this lesson we only hear it in the sense of “all” when Beth tells Avram to take all the horses,
all the people, etc.
all the horses ‫ּכָל־הַּסּוסִים‬
every man ‫ּכָל־אִיׁש‬
the entire house ‫ּכָל־ ַה ַּבי ִת‬
19
This is pronounced [kol] because of the rule about qamets hatuf pronounced [o] in a closed unaccented
syllable.
13.1 Consonants
Lamed ‫( ל‬usually transliterated as l) is the twelfth letter of the alphabet. It is always pronounced
like the letter l, with or without a dagesh.
Nun ‫ן‬ ‫( נ‬usually transliterated as n) is the fourteenth letter of the alphabet. Nun is like
mem, having two forms: nun ‫נ‬when it occurs at the beginning or in the middle of a
word, and nun sofit ‫( ן‬the sofit form: sofit means ‘final’) when it occurs at the end of a
word. Both are always pronounced n.
13.2 Vowels
Segol ֶ , (usually transliterated as e) written as three dots in a triangle under the letter, is
pronounced like the vowel sound [ɛ] “eh” as in ‘pet’ or [e] “ey” as in ‘pay’ depending on the
context.20
Vav in its consonantal use occurs in lessons 7 and 10, pronounced [v] as in the conjunction -ְ‫ו‬.
Now we learn the two vocalic uses of vav:
● Holem vav ‫( ֹו‬usually transliterated as ô) is pronounced [o] as in ‘core.’

● Shureq ‫( ּו‬usually transliterated as û) is pronounced [u] as in flute.’21
There is an another [u] vowel called qibbuts ֻ that is written as three dots in a diagonal line
under the letter, and is pronounced exactly the same as shureq ‫( ּו‬usually transliterated as u).
This vowel is infrequent. We don’t teach it in the first five alphabet videos because it will still be
20
Some pronunciation systems will consistently pronounce segol ֶ as [ɛ], distinguishing it from tsere ֵ [e].
In our videos, we follow Modern Hebrew, which pronounces segol and tsere both as either [ɛ] or [e],
depending on context. For example both ‫ ּבֵן‬and its construct form ‫ ּבֶן‬are pronounced [bɛn] with an [ɛ] vowel,
while the words ‫ ׂשָדֶ ה‬and its construct form ‫ ׂשְדֵ ה‬both end in an [e] vowel.
21
Occasionally consonantal vav appears with a dagesh ‫ּו‬, and thus looks exactly the same as shureq ‫ּו‬. You can
distinguish consonantal vav with dagesh (pronounced [v]) from shureq (pronounced [u]) because vav with dagesh
will have another vowel with it, such as: ‫ ֶּו ַּו ֵּו‬.
a long time before we learn any words that are spelled with qibbuts.22 Just be aware that it exists,
and that you will see it in lists of Hebrew niqqud, or vowel pointings.

As introduced in 3.2 and 5.3, the begadkefat letters lose their dagesh in certain contexts. The
general pattern is that they lose the dagesh when they appear between two vowels, such as after
the conjunction -‫ ְו‬or -‫ּו‬, as in ‫ ּובַת‬u-vat ‘and a daughter.’
Another of these contexts that frequently (but not always) triggers a loss of dagesh in a
begadkefat letter is when the preceding word ends with an accented vowel. In this lesson we see
how the letter bet ‫ ּב‬loses its dagesh after ‫ ׁשְֹלׁשָה‬and ‫ׁשנֵי‬
ְ /‫ׁשְּתֵ י‬, words that end in an accented
vowel (shəlosháh, shətéy, shənéy).
‫ָּבּתִ ים ← ָבּתִ ים‬ ‫ָּבנֹות ← ָבנֹות‬
‫ׁשה בָּתִ ים‬

ָ ֫ ‫ׁשְֹל‬ ‫ׁשְּתֵ֫ י בָנֹות‬
three houses two daughters
🏠🏠🏠 👧🏽👧🏽
The word ‫ ֵ֫אּלֶה‬also ends with a vowel, but because it is the first syllable that is accented instead
of the last one (‘élleh), it does not trigger the change.23
‫ֵ֫אּלֶה ָּבנִים‬
These (are) sons
22
Very few basic vocabulary words are spelled with qibbuts. It usually occurs in morphologically complex
words: When a suffix is added to a verb ending in shureq ‫ּו‬, that shureq that is now in the middle of the word is
frequently changed into a qibbuts ֻ .
23
The patterns for begadkefat letters losing the dagesh across word boundaries are general tendencies more than
strict rules. It is not hard to find exceptions in the Hebrew Bible.
Lesson 14 - Nature and existence clauses
Like the word ‫ ָּפנִים‬that we learned in lesson 8, ‫ׁש ַמי ִם‬

ָ ‘sky/skies’ and ‫‘ ַמי ִם‬water/waters’ are both
always plural. They have no singular form. Therefore, any adjectives, demonstratives or verbs
that agree with them will also be plural.
‫ ַה ַּמי ִם ָה ֵאּלֶה‬- this water (lit. these waters)

‫ ַמי ִם ַרּבִים‬- much water (lit. many waters)
14.2 Metaphorical uses of body parts
Hebrew is rich with metaphorical uses of body parts. In this lesson we see the word ‫ׂשפָה‬
ָ ‘lip’
used metaphorically to mean ‘shore’ or ‘edge’, and the word ‫ּפנִים‬
ָ ‘face’ to mean ‘surface.’
‫ׂשפַת ַהּי ָם‬

ְ - the seashore (lit. the lip of the
sea)
‫ ְּפנֵי ַה ַּמי ִם‬- the surface of the water (lit.

the face of the water)
14.3 Day and night adverbs
The words ‫ יֹום‬yom ‘day’ and ‫ליְלָה‬

ַ lailah ‘night,’ have different adverbial forms when
expressing the idea ‘by day/during the day’ and ‘by/at night’. ‫ יֹום‬takes a suffix and becomes
‫ יֹומָם‬yomam ‘by day,’ while ‫ ַליְלָה‬is often unchanged when is means ‘by night.’ ‫ ַליְלָה‬may also
sometimes take the preposition -ְ‫ ּב‬and become ‫ּליְלָה‬
ַ ‫ ַּב‬, ‘by night’ or literally ‘in the night.’
‫ָהאִיׁש ַּבּמִדְ ּבָר יֹומָם‬
The man (is) in the wilderness by day.
‫יֹום‬
day
☀️
‫ָהאִיׁש ַּבּמִדְ ּבָר ַליְלָה‬
The man (is) in the wilderness by night.
‫ַליְלָה‬
night
🌒
Hebrew has many collective nouns that are singular in form but usually refer to a plurality. Many
of these collective nouns refer to different groups of animals. ‫ ּדָ גָה‬dagah ‘fish’ is one of these.
There are two versions of the word for ‘fish’: ‫ ּדָ גָה‬is feminine and collective (uncountable: no
plural form), and ‫ ּדָ ג‬is masculine and is not collective (countable: has a plural form: ‫)ּדָ גִים‬.
Though they are different in their grammatical features, there is no apparent difference in
meaning between the two words for fish. In fact, both ‫ ּדָ ג‬and ‫ ּדָ גָה‬are used to refer to the same
single large fish in the book of Jonah.
‫ עֹוף‬is another collective noun, always singular in form, but referring almost always to a
plurality of birds.
‫ ּדְ גַת ַהּי ָם‬- the fish of the sea

‫ּׁש ַמי ִם‬
ָ ‫ עֹוף ַה‬- the birds of the skies
14.5 Existence clauses
There are two short words that indicate the existence or non-existence of something. The positive
is ‫ י ֵׁש‬yesh ‘there is’ and the negative is ‫’ ַאי ִן‬ayin ‘there is not.’ ‫’ ַאי ִן‬ayin has a construct form
‫’ אֵין‬eyn that is used when something follows. ‫ י ֵׁש‬yesh is often written ‫י ֶׁש־‬, and sometimes ‫י ֵׁש־‬.
There is a man in the field ‫י ֵׁש אִיׁש ַּבּׂשָדֶ ה‬ there is ‫י ֵׁש‬
There is no man in the field ‫אֵין אִיׁש ַּבּׂשָדֶ ה‬ there is not ‫ַאי ִן‬
When asking a question about the existence of something, the question marker -ֲ‫ ה‬prefixes to
‫ י ֵׁש‬to make ‫‘ ֲהי ֵׁש‬is there…?’ or to ‫ אֵין‬to make ‫‘ ַהאֵין‬is there not…?’ (the latter does not
appear in the lesson 14 video). Biblical Hebrew had no general word for ‘yes,’ so to answer a
question affirmatively, a Hebrew speaker would repeat the relevant verb or other part of the
question in the affirmative. So, ‫ י ֵׁש‬and ‫ ַאי ִן‬can indicate ‘yes’ and ‘no’ respectively when used to
answer a question of existence.
‫י ֵׁש‬
Yes (lit. there is)
‫ אֵין ַמי ִם ַּבּכַד‬,‫ַאי ִן‬ ‫ֲהי ֵׁש ַמי ִם ַּבּכַד‬

No, there is no water in the jar. Is there water in the jar?
(lit. there is none, there is no water in the
jar)
Notice the difference in the vowels under the ‫ ּב‬in the following two sentences:
‫ י ֵׁש ְּבי ַד ַאב ְָרם ּדָ בָר׃‬- there is something in Avram’s hand
‫ י ֵׁש ּדָ בָר ַּבּי ָד הַּז ֹאת׃‬- there is something in this hand
Remember that a noun in construct form will not take the definite article -ַ‫( ה‬section 11.2), so
there is no definite article on ‘hand’ in the phrase ‫ּבי ַד ַאב ְָרם‬
ְ ‘the hand of Avram’. Instead,
‘hand’ is definite because the final word in the construct chain, ‘Avram,’ is definite. By contrast,
in the phrase ‫הַּז ֹאת‬
‫‘ ַּבּי ָד‬this hand’, ‘hand’ is not in construct form and does take the definite
article, which we see in the pataħ vowel under the -‫ ּב‬preposition (section 6.1).
Lesson 15 - Geography and more
15.1 Much/many
The word ‫‘ ַרב‬much/many’ is an adjective that agrees with the noun in gender and number, so it
has four possible forms. Collective nouns, because they are singular in form, take singular
adjectives.
Pl. Sg.
‫ְּכ ָבׂשִים ַרּבִים‬ ‫ָּבקָר ַרב‬ Masc.

many sheep much cattle
‫ּפָרֹות ַרּבֹות‬ ‫ּדָ גָה ַרּבָה‬ Fem.

many cows much/many fish
We learn two more collective nouns in this lesson, again referring to groups of animals. ‫צ ֹאן‬
tso’n and ‫ּבקָר‬
ָ baqar are singular in form, though almost always referring to a plural group.
‫ צ ֹאן‬is typically translated into English as ‘flock(s),’ and it includes sheep, goats, rams, etc.
‫ ָּבקָר‬is usually translated ‘cattle’ or ‘herd(s),’ and includes cows, bulls, oxen, etc.
15.3 Rivers and wadis
There are two words for waterways in Hebrew that sound a bit similar but
refer to different types of waterways. ‫ נָ ָ֫הר‬nahár refers to a larger river like
the Jordan, and ‫ ַ֫נחַל‬náħal to a torrent of rushing water, a stream or a wadi.
A wadi, like in the picture on the right, is a stream that flows deep in desert
ravines and may dry up and disappear seasonally. ‫ נַחַל‬can refer to the
stream of water, or to the dry streambed at the bottom of the ravine. Wadis
are common in the desert mountains to either side of the Jordan River
Valley.
16.1 Consonants
Gimel ‫ ג‬is the third letter of the alphabet, and is always pronounced ɡ, with or without dagesh.
Sin ‫ ׂש‬is the twenty-first letter of the alphabet, and is always pronounced s, with or without
dagesh. Check out section 7.1 to understand how ‫ ׂש‬and ‫ ׁש‬are different.
Kaf ‫ּכ‬ ‫ ך כ‬is the eleventh letter of the alphabet, and is pronounced k when it has a dagesh ‫ּך ּכ‬,
and χ (a uvular trill like German Bach or in the English sound of disgust “yeach”) when it has no
dagesh ‫כ‬ ‫ְך‬.
● Kaf also has a sofit (final) form ‫ך‬. Kaf sofit is unique in that, unlike other sofit forms that
almost never take vowels, it must take either the qamets vowel ‫ ָך‬for the ending χa or
“kha” or the silent shewa vowel ‫ ְך‬when it has no vowel after it.24
Pe ‫ּפ‬ ‫ ף פ‬is the seventeenth letter of the alphabet and is pronounced p when it has a dagesh ‫ּפ‬,
and f when it has no dagesh ‫ף פ‬. Pe sofit ‫ ף‬is always pronounced f.
24
Very rarely kaf sofit may take a dagesh ‫ ּך‬and be pronounced k at the end of a word.
Lesson 17 - Lamed and Possession
17.1 Expressing possession
Hebrew has no verb that corresponds to the English verb ‘to have.’ Instead, Hebrew expresses
possession by saying a thing is ‘to me,’ or ‘to him,’ using the preposition -ְ‫ל‬. Like -ְ‫( ּב‬section
6.1), -ְ‫ ל‬is always adjoined to the noun after it, or else it takes a pronominal suffix, as below:
Sg. Pl.
Person Masc. Fem.
Masc. Fem.
‫לִי‬ ‫לָנּו‬
1 to me to us
‫לְָך‬ ‫לְָך‬ ‫ָלכֶם‬ ‫ָלכֶן‬

2 to you (masc.sg.) to you (fem.sg.) to you (masc.pl.) to you (fem.pl.)
‫לֹו‬ 25
‫לָּה‬ ‫ָלהֶם‬ ‫ָלהֶן‬
3 to him to her to them (masc.) to them (fem.)
This is often combined with the existence words ‫ י ֵׁש‬and ‫( אֵין‬section 14.5), forming a phrase
like __‫‘ י ֶׁש־לִי‬I have __,’ or literally ‘there is __ to me’ and __ ‫‘ אֵין־לֹו‬he does not have __’ or
‘there is no __ to him.’
‫י ֶׁש־לִי דְ ב ִַרים ַרּבִים‬

I have many things.
‫אֵין־לִי ֶּכבֶׂש‬
I don’t have a sheep.
‫י ֶׁש־ ָלהֶם סּוס‬
They have a horse.
25
The letter he marked with a dagesh ‫ּה‬- -ahh distinguishes it from a qamets he ending ‫ָ ה‬ -a.
‫ ָ ּה‬- is pronounced with an h sound at the end instead of a pure a vowel like ‫ ָ ה‬.
Likewise, combining the existence words with the yes-no question prefix, we can ask ‘do you
have ___?’
‫ֲהי ֵׁש לְָך ּכַד‬

Do you (fem.sg.) have a jar?
17.2 Adjectives as nouns
In the Bible verse Genesis 29:16, we encounter adjectives that take the definite article prefix and
are being used as nouns, which is common in Biblical Hebrew.
‫ּו ְל ָלבָן ׁשְּתֵ י בָנֹות ׁשֵם ַהּגְדֹלָה לֵָאה ְוׁשֵם ַה ְּק ַטּנָה ָרחֵל׃‬
And Laban had two daughters, the name of the older one (was) Leah and the name of the
younger one (was) Rachel.
‫‘ – ַהּגְדֹלָה‬the big/older one (fem.)’
‫‘ – ַה ְּק ַטּנָה‬the small/younger one (fem.)’

Key helps
I don’t have anything ← ‫אֵין לִי מְאּומָה‬
Lesson 18 - Children and Elders
18.1 Vocabulary Notes
There are no new grammar points in this video, but here are a few notes on the new vocabulary
introduced in this lesson. We learn singular and plural nouns, plus their construct forms (when
followed by a possessor, see lesson 11).
Pl Constr. Sg. Constr. Plural Singular
‫יַלְדֵ י ָהאִיׁש‬
The boys of the man
👦🏽👦🏽👦🏽 yəladim ‫יְלָדִ ים‬ yeled ‫יֶלֶד‬ 👦🏽
‫יַלְּדַ ת ָה ִאּׁשָה‬
The girl of the woman
👧🏽👧🏽👧🏽 yəladot ‫יְלָדֹות‬ yaldah ‫יַלְּדָ ה‬ 👧🏽
‫זִ ְקנֵי יִׂש ְָראֵל‬
The elders of Israel
👴🏽👴🏽👴🏽 zəqenim ‫זְ ֵקנִים‬ zaqen ‫זָקֵן‬ 👴🏽
‫עַם‬ ‘am is a collective noun for ‘people.’
‫ ַויְהִי‬vayyəhi is a form of the verb ‘to be’ that starts a story sequence, like “There was…”
19.1 Consonants
‫ ז‬zayin is the seventh letter of the alphabet, and is always pronounced z, with or without a
dagesh.
‫‘ ע‬ayin is the sixteenth letter of the alphabet, and it is pronounced in our videos as a voiced
pharyngeal fricative [ʕ]. This sound, also found in Arabic, is made by tightening the muscles of
the throat to constrict the pharynx while vibrating the vocal cords. You can practice this sound 1)
by first pronouncing ‫ ח‬ħet and then adding the vibration of the vocal cords, or 2) by making the
sound of a German, French or Modern Hebrew r, and then moving the same constricting
movement as far back in the throat as possible.26
‫ ץ צ‬tsade is the eighteenth letter of the alphabet, and it is pronounced ts, with or without a
dagesh. Tsade sofit ‫ ץ‬is also always pronounced ts.
‫ ח‬ħet is the eighth letter of the alphabet, and it is pronounced in our videos as a voiceless
pharyngeal fricative [ħ]. Just like ‘ayin, this sound is found in Arabic, and is made by
constricting the muscles of the throat to tighten the pharynx. The difference from ‘ayin is that the
vocal cords are not vibrated when pronouncing ħet, producing a deep and rough h sound. You
can practice this sound 1) by first pronouncing ‫‘ ע‬ayin and then stopping the vibration of the
vocal cords, or 2) by starting with the χ sound of kaf with no dagesh (like German Bach, or the
sound at the end of the word ‫מלְֶך‬
ֶ ) and moving the same constricting movement as far back in
the throat as possible (once you get back into the throat, you will no longer be able to vibrate the
uvula like you do with χ).27
26
In Modern Hebrew, ‘ayin is usually pronounced the same as aleph - the pharyngeal fricative pronunciation is more
historical, though still preserved in some dialects of Hebrew today.
27
In Modern Hebrew, ħet is usually pronounced the same as kaf with no dagesh, [χ]. The pharyngeal fricative
pronunciation is more historical, though still preserved in some dialects of Hebrew today.
‫ ק‬qof is the nineteenth letter of the alphabet, and in Modern Hebrew and in our videos, it is
pronounced k, with or without a dagesh. This means that it sounds the same as ‫ ּכ‬kaf with a
dagesh.28
‫ ט‬tet is the ninth letter of the alphabet, and in Modern Hebrew and in our videos, it is
pronounced t, with or without a dagesh. This means that it sounds the same as ‫ ת‬tav.
‫ ס‬samekh is the fifteenth letter of the alphabet, and in Modern Hebrew and in our videos, it is
pronounced s, with or without a dagesh. This means that is sounds the same as ‫ ׂש‬sin.
19.2 Reduced pataħ
ֲ ħatef pataħ or reduced pataħ is a shortened version of pataħ ַ , and is pronounced a, just like
pataħ but a little shorter.
It only occurs on letters that cannot take a vocal/audible shewa vowel ְ : the guttural letters ,‫ ח‬,‫א‬
‫ע‬, and ‫ה‬. This means that you will usually see this vowel under one of these four letters at the
beginning of words that would normally begin with shewa because of the vowel pattern.
Compare the two plural forms:
‫ – ְּכ ָבׂשִים‬sheep ‫ ֲאנָׁשִים‬- people
According to the pattern, the first vowel would normally be a shewa, as in ‫בׂשִים‬
ָ ‫ ְּכ‬, but because
‫ ֲאנָׁשִים‬starts with aleph, the first vowel is ħatef pataħ instead.
19.3 Furtive pataħ
When pataħ ַ appears on ‫ ע‬,‫ח‬, or ‫ ּה‬at the end of a word, it is pronounced before the consonant
instead of after. This is represented by the fact that it is written slightly more to the right than a
normal pataħ. This is called a “furtive pataħ” or a “transitional pataħ.”
28
Historically it was pronounced further back in the throat than k, so it is usually transliterated as q, which represents
a voiceless uvular stop.
‫ַח‬
furtive normal pataħ pronounced ħa
pataħ pronounced aħ
The furtive pataħ is an a sound inserted to make the transition between the previous vowel and
the guttural consonant easier to pronounce. So far, the only word we have learned that contains a
furtive pataħ is ‫ח‬
ַ ‫ י ֵָר‬yareaħ ‘moon’ (Note that most Modern Hebrew fonts do not include a
special furtive pataħ character that is on the right side instead of centered, including the Times
New Roman font in this document).
Lesson 20 - Asher & Relative Clauses
20.1 Morphology of prepositions
Some prepositions were derived from parts of the body in their construct forms.
‫‘ ְלי ַד‬next to’ from ‫‘ י ָד‬hand’ → lit. ‘to the hand of…’
‫‘ ִל ְפנֵי‬in front of’ from ‫ָּפנִים‬ ‘face’ → lit. ‘to the face of…’
(Recall that the construct form of ‫ּפנִים‬

ָ is ‫ ְּפנֵי‬, as in ‫ַאב ְָרם‬ ‫ְּפנֵי‬
‘Avram’s face.’)
20.2 Inseparable prepositions with the definite article
There are three prepositions in Hebrew that consist of only one letter, and always affix to the
word that follows. These are -‫ל‬
ְ , -ְ‫ ּב‬and -ְ‫( ּכ‬the last one will be introduced in lesson 41). When
these affix to a noun that has a definite article -ַ‫ ה‬or -ָ‫ ה‬ha- ‘the,’ the letter ‫ ה‬he disappears and
the preposition takes the vowel of the article (We saw this briefly in 7.3).
‘in the wilderness’ ‫ מִדְ ּבָר ← ַּבּמִדְ ּבָר‬+ ‫ ַה‬+ ‫ְּב‬

‘in the field’ ‫ ׂשָדֶ ה = ַּבּׂשָדֶ ה‬+ ‫ ַה‬+ ‫ְּב‬
Contrast the two words below, with and without the definite article:
‘to a woman’ ‫ ִאּׁשָה ← ְל ִאּׁשָה‬+ ‫ְל‬

‘to the woman’ ‫ ִאּׁשָה ← ָל ִאּׁשָה‬+ ‫ ָה‬+ ‫ְל‬
20.3 When -ְ‫( ו‬vǝ-) becomes -‫( ּו‬u-) (Review from 3.1)
In some contexts, -ְ‫( ו‬vǝ-) becomes -‫( ּו‬u-), depending on the word it is attached to. This sound
change happens:
1) before the labial (involving the lips) letters ‫מ‬,‫ב‬,‫פ‬ (and ‫ ו‬when it is pronounced as
consonant v)
2) before a word with shewa vowel ְ under the first letter, as in ‫ּונְעָרֹות‬ ,‫ ּוגְ ַמּלִים‬etc.
20.4 Relative Pronoun ‫’ ֲאׁשֶר‬asher
The word ‫אׁשֶר‬ ֲ ’asher functions as a relative pronoun like ‘that,’ ‘who,’ or ‘which’ in English. It
introduces a relative clause such as “the man that is in the field” or “the woman who came to the
house.”
Where is the boy that is on a donkey? ?‫ַאּי ֵה ַהּיֶלֶד ֲאׁשֶר עַל־חֲמֹור‬

He is the boy that is on a donkey. ‫הּוא ַהּיֶלֶד ֲאׁשֶר עַל־חֲמֹור׃‬
Where is the man who has a boy? ?‫ַאּי ֵה ָהאִיׁש ֲאׁשֶר י ֶׁש־לֹו יֶלֶד‬
He is the man who has a boy.
‫הּוא ָהאִיׁש ֲאׁשֶר י ֶׁש־לֹו יֶלֶד׃‬
Lesson 20b - Writing the Hebrew Alphabet
20b.1 The Hebrew Alphabet or Aleph-Bet
The Hebrew alphabet didn’t always look like you see it today. Sometime before 1500 B.C.
Semites somewhere between Phoenicia and Sinai devised an alphabet that used symbols that
looked like little pictures of animals and objects. You can read more about the most ancient
versions of the Hebrew alphabet here.
Today the Hebrew alphabet we use is also known as the “aramaic square script.” It has
twenty-two consonants, and was written with only consonants for thousands of years. Eventually
four of the letters (‫ ה‬and ‫ ו‬for example) were sometimes used to represent vowels, as we can see
in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The scrolls used in Jewish synagogues are still written without vowels and modern Hebrew also
does not usually represent the vowels (except in poetry and children’s books). A system of vowel
symbols was gradually added to the Hebrew Old Testament in order to preserve the traditional
pronunciation of the language. The process of adding vowels (also known as niqqud) began
about A.D. 700 and was finished by around A.D. 950. These vowels we see in our Hebrew bibles
today were added by scribes called Masoretes.
It’s important to memorize

the letters in order, so that
you can use a
lexicon/dictionary. You can
use the alphabet song to do
that.
When you learn to write the

alphabet, practice following the video and write each letter at least ten times. Keep writing until
you feel comfortable writing the letters at a good speed. Write the alphabet in order twenty times,
including the final (sofit) forms of the letters that have them (for example ‫)ן נ‬. For those of you
who want to learn to type Hebrew, this page will give some options.
Lesson 21- Verbs come & go (qatal singular)
21.1 Introduction to the Hebrew Verb
Hebrew verbs are made up of three letter roots. By adding suffixes and prefixes to that root, or
by changing vowel patterns, you can change what the verb communicates. For example, in this
video we see that a man walked/went (‫הלְַך‬ ָ ). This verb is what we could classify as a
third-person-masculine-singular (3MS) verb. That means that the third person (he or she) is
doing the action, a man is doing the action, and only one man is doing the action (singular): he
walked. In a lot of Hebrew grammars and commentaries you’ll see authors talking about which
person is doing the action: first, second, or third. Here are what those numbers refer to for future
reference:
1st person: me, we

2nd person: you or y’all
3rd person: he, she, they
So if we change the root ‫הלְַך‬

ָ (which means “he walked/went”) to ‫( ָה ְלכָה‬by adding ‫ ־ָה‬to the
end as a suffix) then the meaning changes to “she walked.” Here’s another example from the
video:
‫ ּבָא‬- He came
‫ ּבָָאה‬- She came
‫ ּבָאתִ י‬- I came
It’s important to understand that in our videos we are first focusing on verb forms that
communicate an action that was completed, that already happened, or happened in the past. You
won’t see infinitives or participles or other forms of verbs for a while. This is because most of
the Hebrew Bible is narrative, describing things that happened in the past, so naturally these
kinds of verbs are the most common. They will equip you to read more of the Bible sooner.
21.2 Aspect
Hebrew doesn’t have verb tenses like English. Instead it has aspects. Verbal aspect is a way of
talking about an action that depends on the speaker’s point of view. Hebrew has two basic
aspects: imperfective and perfective. Perfective aspect communicates something that has been
completed (often in the past), and imperfective aspect communicates something that hasn’t been
completed (often in the future). One conjugation of the perfective aspect is called qatal, which is
introduced in this video. Qatal gets its name from the Hebrew verb ‫קטַל‬
ָ to kill, which is often
used in charts showing how to conjugate verbs in Hebrew. You can think of the qatal verb forms
as the most basic ones that communicate completed actions.
21.3 Weak & Strong Verbs
In Hebrew, as with other languages, there are regular and irregular verbs. Irregular verbs change
in irregular ways when you add affixes (prefixes or suffixes), whereas regular verbs are more
predictable in how they will look and sound when you change them. For example, in English
walk is a regular verb because walk is always there when you conjugate it: I walk, he walks, I
walked, he walked, etc. But the verb go is irregular in English, because you can’t simply say, “I
goed” to communicate what you did in the past. Instead you have to say, “I went.” Irregular verbs
tend to be verbs that are used a lot, so that means that you will be learning many irregular verbs
first in Hebrew, because they are so common.
Irregular Hebrew verbs are often called weak verbs because they contain a letter or two that can
easily be swallowed up by another one. For example, ‫ ה‬is a weak letter because it’s just a breath
and can easily get replaced by other sounds when they are added. We’ll explain more about this
later. On the other hand, regular Hebrew verbs are usually called strong verbs.
21.4 Binyanim & Qal
Hebrew not only has different aspects, but it also has stems or binyanim. There are seven main
binyanim, and our videos introduce you first to the one called qal. So you can assume that all the
verbs you’ll be seeing for a while will be qal, which is the simplest stem. If you’re going to look
up a verb in a biblical Hebrew dictionary or lexicon, the entry will always appear as the qal form
of the verb, third person, masculine, singular (3MS). So, for example, if you saw the verb ‫לכָה‬ ְ ‫ָה‬
and needed to look it up in a lexicon, you would want to look for the basic three-letter root form
‫הלך‬.
Lesson 22 - Say & Imperatives
22.1 ‫ ָאמַר‬- He Said
In this lesson we introduce the verb “say,” ‫ָאמַר‬. Remember that we are focusing first on
perfective aspect verbs, which are verbs that describe an action that has been completed. In the
case of this lesson we are describing things that happened in the past. So ‫ ָאמַר‬means “he said,”
and is the form that you’ll find in the dictionary. Here are the rest of the forms of ‫ ָאמַר‬presented
in the video:
‫ָאמ ְָרה‬ She said (qatal 3FS)
ְ‫ָאמ ְַרּת‬ You (feminine) said (qatal

2FS)
ָ‫ָאמ ְַרּת‬ You (masculine) said (qatal

2MS)
‫ָאמ ְַרּתִ י‬ I said (qatal 1CS)
22.2 Imperatives
An imperative is a command. The first command we see in this lesson is ‫ לְֵך‬which is what you
would say to a man/boy if you want him to go. If you say “Go!” to a woman, the word is ‫לכִי‬
ְ.
The root of this command is the verb we learned in the last lesson: ‫הלַך‬
ָ which is the form you
would look up in the dictionary/lexicon. Notice that the ‫ ה‬at the beginning got chopped off. This
kind of chopping will happen often with Hebrew imperatives when the verb root has weak letters
like ‫( ה‬see the last lesson). But a verb like ‫ ּבָא‬won’t lose its first letter when pronounced as a
command. Instead it will simply change vowels. In the video Beth commands Avram: ‫ּבֹוא‬. This
is the masculine imperative form of ‫ּבָא‬. But if Avram commands Beth to come, he must use the
feminine form: ‫ּבֹואִי‬.
Imperative verbs only occur for the second person: you/y’all. The imperative forms in Hebrew
are only used for positive commands, not for negative ones. If you want to say, “Don’t go,”
Hebrew has another form for that which we will learn later. So, for example, the ten
commandments are not imperative Hebrew forms, because they are negative commands.
22.3 The vayyiqtol or vav-consecutive-imperfect
Unlike English, Hebrew has a special verb form for telling stories. This is called the
vav-consecutive-imperfect or vayyiqtol (also known as waw-consecutive-imperfect, or wayyiqtol
in other textbooks). Biblical Hebrew uses this verb form to string verbs together like a chain to
form a narrative. This may be hard to wrap your mind around, but you’re going to see thousands
of these forms in the Hebrew Bible, so it’s important to take the time to grasp it.
As we’ve already explained, ‫( ָאמַר‬he said) is a verb with perfective aspect (completed action),
which often communicates past events. This may seem like it’s precisely the kind of verb to tell a
story with in Hebrew, but that’s not how Hebrew works. There’s another conjugation that you
use when you’re telling a sequence of events in a story: the vayyiqtol form. In the video you see
the first example of this: ‫ ַוּי̇אמֶר‬. In simplified terms, when you add the ‫ וַּי‬prefix to a verb, you
get the vayyiqtol form, which is used for narratives. Qatal and vayyiqtol verbs have the same
perfective aspect, usually communicating past actions. So both ‫ ָאמַר‬and ‫ וַּ̇יאמֶר‬essentially
communicate the same thing: “he said.” But many English translations will often translate the ‫ו‬
as and: “and he said.” And if you think about it, most native English speakers find it natural to
use and a lot when they’re telling stories: “this happened... and this happened... and this
happened….” Hebrew does the same kind of thing.
So in the video, when Beth is recounting a sequence or chain of events that happened, she says:
‫ָאמ ְַרּתִ י אֶל־ַאב ְָרם ׁשָלוֺם׃ ַוּי̇אמֶר ַאב ְָרם ׁשָלוֺם׃‬

I said to Avram, “Shalom.” And Avram said, “Shalom.”
Here’s one more example:
‫ָאמ ְַרּתִ י אֶל־יַעֲק ֹב ּבֶן־מִי אַּתָ ה׃ וַּ̇יאמֶר ּבֶן־י ִ ְצחָק ָאנֹכִי׃‬

I said to Jacob, “Whose son are you?” And he said, “I’m the son of Isaac.”
Lesson 23 - Possessive Suffixes part 1 & Body Parts
23.1 Possessive Suffixes
In Hebrew, if you want to say that something belongs to someone, you can add a suffix onto the
end of a word. These are called possessive or pronominal suffixes. For example, to say, “My
head,” simply take the word ‫ ר ֹאׁש‬and put a hireq-yod ‫ ִ י‬on the end of it, and you get ‫ר ֹאׁשִי‬.
With a word like mouth ‫ ּפֶה‬you lose the weak letter ‫ ה‬when you add the possessive suffix: ‫ּפִי‬
“my mouth.”
Here are some more examples:
‫ַאף ← ַאּפִי‬ ‫ּכַף ← ַּכּפִי‬

my nose ← nose my palm ← palm
The ֺ‫ו‬- suffix is the 3MS (third-masculine-singular) suffix: his. So “his name” would be ֺ‫ׁשְמו‬. If
a vowel comes before the 3MS suffix, then it will turn into a simple vav: ‫“ ּפִי ← ּפִיו‬his
mouth.” To say “her name” you use the ‫ּה‬ ָ - suffix: ‫ׁשמָּה‬
ְ . Keep in mind that ‫ ּה‬has an
aspirated/rough sound to distinguish it from a simple ‫ ה‬ending.
The following chart provides all the possessive suffixes presented in the video:
His (3MS) 👳 ‫ֹו‬

Her (3FS) 👩 ‫ָּה‬
Your (2MS) 👳 ‫ְ ָך‬
Your (2FS) 👩 ‫ֵ ְך‬
My (1CS) 👩/👳 ‫ִי‬

Lesson 24 - Possessive Suffixes part 2 & Family Terms
24.1 Family Terms
In this lesson a new term is introduced: ‫“ ּבֵית ָאב‬A father’s

house.” This refers to a family. So Beth introduces her own
family, saying “This is my father’s house” ‫ז ֶה ּבֵית ָאבִי‬.
The next segment helps reinforce the 1CS possessive suffix
(my) from the previous lesson, when she says: “He is my
father” ‫ָאבִי‬ ‫הּוא‬ and “She is my mother” ‫אִִּמי‬ ‫הִיא‬ and
“he is my brother” ‫ָאחִי‬ ‫הּוא‬, “she is my sister” ‫הִיא אֲח ֹתִ י‬, etc.
When Avram’s father is introduced you’ll hear: ‫ַאב ְָרם‬ ‫הּוא ֲאבִי‬. Even though ‫ ֲאבִי‬sounds
exactly the same as ‫ָאבִי‬, they aren’t the same. ‫אבִי‬
ֲ means “father of” and ‫ ָאבִי‬means “my
father.” Notice the subtle difference in the vowels under the ‫א‬. In technical terms, ‫אבִי‬
ֲ is the
construct form of ‫ָאב‬. Remember that when something is in a construct relationship with a
proper name (e.g. _____ of Name), it is understood as definite (which means it has the word
“the” in front of it). So the phrase ‫ַאב ְָרם‬ ‫ הּוא ֲאבִי‬means “He is the father of Avram” and not
“He is a father of Avram.”
Another tricky thing to keep in mind when adding

possessive suffixes to family terms is when saying, “I
am her husband/man” ‫אנִי אִיׁשָּה‬
ֲ . When Avram says this
about Beth, it sounds very much like he’s saying “I am a
woman” ‫אּׁשָה‬
ִ ‫ ֲאנִי‬. This is why it’s important to aspirate
the ‫ ּה‬at the end, to distinguish it as the possessive “her”
(as in “her husband”).
Later in the video we see that when the 3FS possessive suffix ‫ָ ּה‬ comes after ‫ ִ י‬it turns into
‫ ִ י ָה‬. This happens in phrases like “her brother” ‫ ָאחִי ָה‬and “her father” ‫ָאבִי ָה‬.
In this lesson we are introduced to more possessive suffixes and how they attach to singular
nouns. The first is “our” (1CP = first-person-common-plural). So to say “our horse” you would
take the word ‫ סּוס‬and add the suffix ‫ ֵ נּו‬to it: ‫סנּו‬
ֵ ‫סּו‬. “Our house (‫ ”) ַּבי ִת‬would be ‫ּבֵיתֵ נּו‬.
The ‫כֶם‬- suffix communicates “your” = possessed by y’all (you plural). In technical terms it is
the 2MP (second-masculine-plural) pronominal suffix. Beth’s first example is: ‫ּבי ִת‬
ַ ‫י ֵׁש ָלכֶם‬,
which means literally “There is to you a house,” which is better translated as “You have a
house.” To say, “This is your house,” you would say: ‫ּבֵיתְ כֶם‬
‫זֶה‬. If you want to say that
something belongs to a group of women, then the suffix changes to ‫כֶן‬-. For example, “He is your
father” ‫אבִיכֶן‬
ֲ ‫הּוא‬, or “He is your brother” ‫ ֲאחִיכֶן‬.
The following chart provides all the possessive suffixes presented in the video:
Their (3MP) 👳👳 ‫ָם‬
Their (3FP) 👩👩 ‫ָן‬
(2MP) 👳👳
Your/y’all’s
‫כֶם‬
(2FP) 👩👩
Your/y’all’s
‫כֶן‬
👩👳
Our (1CP) ‫ֵ נּו‬
Lesson 25 - Hear & Obey
25.1 Voice/Sound - ‫קוֺל‬
The word for voice or sound is introduced in this lesson: ‫קוֺל‬. Make sure not to confuse ‫ קוֺל‬with
‫ ּכ ֹל‬or ‫ּכָל־‬, which means all/every. The construct form of ‫ קוֺל‬is the same as it’s normal or
absolute form, so to say “voice of a man” or “a man’s voice” you would simply say ‫קוֺל אִיׁש‬.
“The sound of feet” would simply be ‫לי ִם‬ ַ ְ‫קוֺל ַרג‬.
25.2 Hear & Obey
In biblical Hebrew the same verb is used to communicate both hearing and obeying: ‫ׁשמַע‬ ָ . Once
again, all the uses of the verb in this video are in perfective aspect, communicating completed or
past action. ‫ׁשמַע‬
ָ is the root of the verb, the lexical/dictionary form, and means “he heard.” Here
are some examples of its conjugation:
‫ׁשמַע‬
ָ ‫ַאב ְָרם‬
Avram heard (3MS)
‫ׁש ְמעָה‬
ָ ‫ּבֵת‬
Beth heard (3FS)
‫ׁש ַ֫מעְּתִ י‬
ָ ‫ֲאנִי‬
I heard (1CS)
So how do you know when ‫ׁשמַע‬

ָ means hear or obey? Answer: when it is used in combination
with ‫ּבְקוֺל‬. In the word ‫ ּבְקוֺל‬the ‫ּב‬
ְ is acting as a kind of direct object marker on ‫קוֺל‬. Many
Hebrew grammars include a section on “special uses of ‫ּב‬
ְ ”. For example, ‫ ְּב‬can be used in an
“adversative” sense, communicating that something was against something else. And there are
many other “special uses.” In the case where it is used after ‫ׁשמַע‬
ָ it wouldn’t make sense to
translate ֺ‫ּבְקוֺלו‬
‫ׁש ַמעְּתִ י‬
ָ as “I listened in/with his voice,” which would be the most common use
of ‫ּב‬
ְ . Instead, we understand the phrase ֺ‫ׁש ַמעְּתִ י ּבְקוֺלו‬
ָ to mean “I obeyed him” or, more
literally, “I obeyed his voice.”
So in the video, after watching a flashback, we hear Beth say:
‫ׁש ַמעְּתִ י ּבְקוֺלְָך‬
ָ ‫ַאב ְָרם‬
“Avram, I obeyed you.”
And Avram responds: ‫ּבְקוֺלִי‬ ְ‫ׁש ַמעַּת‬

ָ “You obeyed me.”
25.3 The Name of God
The personal name of God (‫)אֱֹלהִים‬, as introduced in Exodus 3:15, is ‫יהוה‬. We do not usually
write it with vowels in our videos because its exact historical pronunciation has unfortunately
been lost. There is a longstanding tradition within Judaism of using a substitute title to speak of
God: ‫אֲדֹנָי‬. This tradition was preserved by the Masoretes who developed the vowel system for
Hebrew. They did this by inserting the vowels for ‫ אֲדֹנָי‬into ‫ יהוה‬which gives you ‫ י ְהֹוָה‬. Many
times they drop the holem and simply write it as ‫י ְהוָה‬.
If you’re wondering why we choose to pronounce God’s personal name as Yahweh in our videos,
please visit http://freehebrew.online/pronunciation and scroll to the bottom of the page where
you’ll find links to help you understand our reasons, including a video we’ve created. The book
we’ve written on the issue explains everything you may want to know about why some people
avoid pronouncing God’s name, as well as what the Bible teaches about the subject.
Lesson 26 - Be & Beauty
26.1 To Be - ‫היָה‬
ָ
The verb root ‫הי ָה‬

ָ means “he was” or “there was” or “it was.” As in past videos, the perfective
aspect of the verb is demonstrated, which refers to a past state. Let’s look at the following
example:
‫ַאב ְָרם ָהי ָה יֶלֶד׃ הּוא ָהי ָה יֶלֶד׃ עַּתָ ה ַאב ְָרם אִיׁש׃‬
“Avram was a child. He was a child. Now Avram is a man.”
Notice that ‫הי ָה‬

ָ is not used when talking about the present, as we see in this sentence:
“Now Avram is a man” ‫אִיׁש‬ ‫עַּתָ ה ַאב ְָרם‬. Biblical Hebrew usually uses verbless clauses to talk
about the present state or existence of something, as we’ve seen in past videos. For example,
every time Beth says, ‫ּבֵת‬ ‫“ ֲאנִי‬I’m Beth” at the beginning of a video, she doesn’t use some other
aspect or form of ‫הי ָה‬
ָ . She simply uses the verbless clause “I Beth.”
This is the conjugation for ‫הי ָה‬

ָ :
He was (3MS) 👳 ‫ָהי ָה‬
She was (3FS) 👩 ‫ָהי ְתָ ה‬
You were (2MS) 👳 ָ‫ָהי ִית‬
You were (2FS) 👩 ‫ָהי ִית‬
I was (1CS)
‫ָהי ִיתִ י‬
It’s important to distinguish between ‫ אַּתָ ה‬and ‫ עַּתָ ה‬which sound very similar. The first is the
masculine pronoun “you” and the second is the word for “now.”
‫ ָהי ָה‬is often used in telling stories, but in the vayyiqtol (or vav-consecutive-imperfect) form,
which is ‫ ַויְהִי‬. Remember that the vayyiqtol form communicates the same perfective aspect as the
qatal form, so ‫ ַויְהִי‬can usually simply be translated as “And there was…” or simply “There
was....” It’s often used to begin a new narrative or a new part of a story. For example, when
introducing Elkanah for the first time in 1 Samuel we could say something like this:
‫ַויְהִי אִיׁש ֶאחָד ּוׁשְמוֺ ֶא ְל ָקנָה׃‬

“There was a man and his name was Elkanah.” Or “Now there was a certain man whose name
was Elkanah.”
26.2 Beauty - ‫ יָפֶה‬and ‫יָפָה‬
‫ יָפֶה‬is an adjective that means “beautiful.” You may remember that Beth also used the word to
praise Avram for correct answers in some of the early lessons, but in the Bible it usually refers to
beauty. Although ‫ יָפֶה‬is used to refer to a man as handsome (like in Genesis 39:6), the feminine
form of the adjective is more common, used to describe women: ‫יָפָה‬. Often the word is
combined with ‫ מ ְַראֶה‬which means “appearance.” For example, “She is a woman beautiful of
appearance” would be: ‫אּׁשָה יְפַת מ ְַראֶה׃‬
ִ ‫הִיא‬. Some might translate this as “She is a woman
who is beautiful to look upon,” but most modern versions of the Bible would simply say, “She is
a beautiful woman.” ‫ יְפַת‬is the construct form of ‫יָפָה‬. Another way of saying a woman is
beautiful is by using the phrase “good of appearance” ‫מ ְַראֶה‬ ‫טוֺבַת‬.
Lesson 27 - Give & Take, Silver & Gold
27.1 Give ‫ & נָתַ ן‬Take ‫ָלקַח‬
In earlier lessons we’ve already seen the imperative form of “take”: ‫קַח‬. In this lesson we’re
learning how to use it to communicate what happened in the past. Here is the singular
conjugation of the qatal forms of ‫לקַח‬
ָ:
He took (3MS) 👳 ‫ָלקַח‬
She took (3FS) 👩 ‫ָל ְקחָה‬
You took (2MS) 👳 ָ‫ָל ַקחְּת‬
You took (2FS) 👩 ְ‫ָל ַקחְּת‬
I took (1CS)
‫ָל ַקחְּתִ י‬
We also introduce the command “give!” ‫( ּתֵ ן‬which is what you would say a man, not a woman)
as well as the perfective aspect of the verb ‫“( נָתַ ן‬he gave”). This is the singular conjugation of
the qatal forms of ‫נָתַ ן‬:
He gave (3MS) 👳 ‫נָתַ ן‬
She gave (3FS) 👩 ‫נָתְ נָה‬
You gave (2MS) 👳 ָ‫נָתַ֫ ּת‬
You gave (2FS) 👩 ְ‫נָתַ ּת‬
I gave (1CS)
‫נָתַ֫ ּתִ י‬
The verb ‫ נָתַ ן‬is what some textbooks call a doubly weak verb. This is because it has two weak
letters in its root: ‫נ‬. This letter is said to be weak because it has a tendency to be assimilated,
which is the technical way of saying that it often gets absorbed or swallowed by stronger letters
next to it. You can see this happen with “I gave” ‫ּתִ י‬
ַ֫‫נָת‬. Notice that the final nun of the root
completely disappears when it comes into contact with the 1CS ‫ תִ י‬ending. The loss of this letter
is marked by the dagesh dot in the ‫ּת‬. It might help to imagine this as the ‫ ת‬swallowing the ‫נ‬,
which then ends up as a little dot in its stomach. So that’s how you know that the original root of
that verb is ‫נָתַ ן‬, which is the form you would look up in a dictionary/lexicon.
When you look up ‫ נָתַ ן‬in a lexicon you’ll find that it can also mean “to put/set.”
27.2 Conjugating more verbs in the plural
The second part of the video shows how to talk about what we and they and y’all did. For
example:
‫ַאב ְָרם ְו ַהּנְעָרוֺת ָלקְחּו ֲא ָבנִים׃‬
“Avram and the young ladies took stones.”
‫ֲאנַחְנּו ָל ַקחְנּו ֲא ָבנִים׃‬
“We took stones.”
‫ְל ַקחְּתֶ ם ֲא ָבנִים‬

“Y’all took stones.”
Remember that the masculine form of the verb is used if there is a man in the group, even if the
majority are women. So in “y’all took stones” ‫בנִים‬
ָ ‫ֲא‬ ‫ ְל ַקחְּתֶ ם‬the form is
second-masculine-plural from the root ‫לקַח‬
ָ because Avram was part of the group. If it had been
all women then it would conjugated as ‫קחְּתֶ ן‬
ַ ‫ ְל‬.
The following should help you navigate some of the plural conjugations in this video:
Root
‫ָהלַך‬ ‫ּבֹוא‬ ‫נָתַ ן‬ ‫ָהי ָה‬
Conjugation
‫ָה ַלכְנּו‬ ‫ָּ֫באנּו‬ ‫נָתַ֫ ּנּו‬ ‫ָהי ִינּו‬
we went/walked we came we gave we were
Lesson 28 - Marriage
28.1 New Vocabulary
It’s important to understand that ‫ח‬

ַ ‫ רּו‬can mean spirit, breath, or wind. If you need to, go back to
19.3 to review the furtive pataħ, which appears in ‫ח‬ ַ ‫רּו‬. Also, keep in mind that this font doesn’t
allow the pataħ to be offset as it should be (see the image below).
28.2 Vayyiqtol Review
As we already saw in 22.3, Hebrew uses a special form of verb for narrating a sequence of
events: the vayyiqtol or vav-consecutive-imperfect. The historical books of the Hebrew Bible use
these kinds of verbs regularly. While we’ve already seen ‫“ וַּ̇יאמֶר‬and he said,” we’re introduced
to the vayyiqtol form of “and she said” ‫( וַּת ֹאמֶר‬otherwise known as the 3FS form:
third-person-feminine-singular). Remember that the default word order when using these forms
is to have the verb come first, followed by the subject. So, for example:
‫ וַּת ֹאמֶר ָה ִאּׁשָה‬...‫…וַּ̇יאמֶר ָהאִיׁש‬

“...And the man said...And the woman said”
Literally: “...And he said (verb) the man (subject)...And she said (verb) the woman (subject)”
We’re also introduced to the 3FS vayyiqtol form of the verb root ‫הי ָה‬
ָ (“to be”) which is ‫וַּתְ הִי‬.
For example:
‫ׁשמָּה ַחּנָה׃‬
ְ ‫ַויְהִי אִיׁש ּוׁשְמוֺ ֶא ְל ָקנָה׃ וַּתְ הִי ִאּׁשָה ּו‬
“And there was a man, and his name was Elkanah. And there was a woman, and her name was
Hannah.”
28.3 Taking & Giving Wives
In Hebrew the typical way to talk about “getting married” is to say that someone “took for
himself a wife/woman” ‫ ָלקַח לוֺ ִאּׁשָה‬. For example, to say “Avram married Beth,” it would be:
‫ַאב ְָרם ָלקַח אֶת־ּבֵת לוֺ ְל ִאּׁשָה׃‬, literally, “Avram took Beth for himself for a wife.” In the Bible
mothers and fathers can also “take a wife” for their sons (Gen 21:21, 38:6). Fathers can also give
(‫ )נָתַ ן‬their daughters as wives. For example:
‫ָלבָן נָתַ ן ְליַעֲק ֹב אֶת־לֵָאה בִּתוֺ לוֺ ְל ִאּׁשָה׃‬

“Laban gave to Jacob Leah his daughter for a wife.”
Lesson 29 - More Prepositions
29.1 City - ‫עִיר‬
When the word for “city” ‫ עִיר‬is introduced, Beth points out that it is yet another irregular noun
that takes a masculine plural ending, even though it is feminine (‫קבָה‬
ֵ ְ‫)נ‬. That means that any
adjectives that modify it will take the feminine ending. Here are some examples where this
happens with ‫ עִיר‬and other irregular nouns:
‫ע ִָרים ּגְד ֹלוֺת‬ ‫ׁשים ט ֹבוֺת‬

ִ ָ‫נ‬ ‫ֲא ָבנִים ְקטַּנוֺת‬
“big cities” “good women” “small stones”
29.2 To Say - ‫לֵאמ ֹר‬
‫לֵאמ ֹר‬ “to say” is a very common word, which you’ll see over 900 times in the Hebrew Bible, so
it’s important to learn how it’s used. The root verb is ‫ָאמַר‬, and ‫ לֵאמ ֹר‬is what grammars usually
call an infinitive construct. Infinitives in English are verbs like “to eat,” “to sleep,” etc. They’re
called infinitives because they aren’t bound by time; they aren’t past or future or present.
Infinitives often attach the ‫ ל‬preposition as a prefix, which is the case with ‫לֵאמ ֹר‬. This
construction is what is often called a “speech reporting” device in the study of discourse analysis.
In other words, when direct speech or dialogue is about to appear in a narrative, ‫ לֵאמ ֹר‬serves as
a signal to the reader that someone is about to say something. For example, at the beginning of
Jonah, we read:
‫ַויְהִי ּדְ בַר־יהוה אֶל־יוֺנָה לֵאמ ֹר לְֵך אֶל־נִינְוֵה‬

Literally: “And the word of Yahweh was to Jonah to say, ‘Go to Nineveh.’”
In normal English we would translate this example as, “And the word of Yahweh came to Jonah,
saying, ‘Go to Nineveh.’” Modern translations sometimes don’t translate ‫ לֵאמ ֹר‬when it sounds
redundant in natural English. But when you see the word “saying” in traditional translations, it’s
usually because ‫ לֵאמ ֹר‬is in that verse.
29.3 The ‫מִן‬ Preposition
The preposition ‫“ מִן‬from” can be written separately or as a prefix on a word. If it’s written
separately it must be joined to the word with a maqqef (see section 5.4). Here are some
examples:
As a prefix: ‫מצ ְַרי ִם‬

ִ ‫ֵמא ֶֶרץ‬ “from the land of Egypt.”
Separately: ‫הי ְא ֹר‬

ַ ‫“ מִן־‬from the Nile.”
When ‫ מִן‬is attached as a prefix, there are a few rules to keep in mind:
1. Before non-guttural letters (anything besides letters like ‫ א‬and ‫)ע‬, the ‫ ן‬assimilates to the
first consonant of the word it’s attached to and becomes a dagesh forte dot. In other
words, the ‫ ן‬gets swallowed up into the letter following it and is then represented by a
dot. For example: ‫הּי ָם‬

ַ ‫אֶל־‬ ֺ‫ִמּבֵיתו‬ “from his house to the sea.”
2. If you attach ‫ מִן‬to a word beginning with a letter with shewa under it, the dot may not
appear. And if the first letter is ‫י‬, then the shewa will disappear.
For example: ‫מיהּודָ ה‬
ִ “from Judah” = ‫ מִן‬+ ‫י ְהּודָ ה‬
3. When you attach ‫ מִן‬to words that begin with guttural letters (which can’t take a dagesh
forte dot), the vowel turns into a tsere ֵ . This is what many grammars call “compensatory
lengthening” of the vowel to compensate for the loss of the ‫ן‬.
For example: ‫ֵמא ֶֶרץ ִמצ ְַרי ִם‬ “from the land of Egypt.”
‫קַח אֶת־הַּכוֺס ֵמעַל ר ֹאׁשִי‬ “take the cup from upon my head.”
29.3 More Prepositions
‫ ָסבִיב‬usually means “around,” and is sometimes followed by the ‫ ל‬preposition to mark the
object that something is around or going around. This ‫ל‬, like the ‫ אֵת‬direct object marker, is not
translated in English.
For example: ‫ּכּסֵא׃‬

ִ ‫ַל‬ ‫“ ַאב ְָרם ָהלְַך ָסבִיב‬Avram walked around the chair.”
‫ עַד‬is a preposition meaning “toward, as far as, until, while, or during.” Like most prepositions in
Hebrew, it has a lot of uses, depending on the context. In this lesson it’s being used in the sense
of “up to” and “until.” Examples:
‫“ הַּסּוס ָהלְַך עַד־ ַה ַּבי ִת׃‬The horse walked (all the way) up to the house.”
‫“ ֵמעַּתָ ה עַד־עוֺלָם‬from now until eternity.”
‫ עִם־‬is also introduced in this lesson, and can mean “with, by, near, at, beside” depending on the
context.
Lesson 30 - Possessive Suffixes 3 - plural masc. nouns with suffixes
When possessive suffixes attach to plural nouns, they are slightly different from how they appear
attached to singular nouns. And there is also a distinction between how possessive suffixes attach
to masculine plural nouns and feminine plural nouns. But don’t lose heart, because the basic
underlying pattern for the possessive suffixes always stays the same. This lesson provides
exposure to possessive suffixes on masculine plural nouns. The clue to recognizing these
suffixes as plural is that all of them use a yod ‫י‬. The following chart provides all the suffixes:
🧔
3MS his
‫ ָ יו‬- 🧔🧔
3MP their
‫ֵ יהֶם‬-
👩
3FS her
‫ ֶ י ָה‬- 👩👩
3FP their
‫ֵ יהֶן‬-
🧔
2MS your
‫ ֶ יָך‬- 🧔🧔
2MP y’all’s
‫ֵ יכֶם‬-
👩
2FS your
‫ ַ י ְִך‬- 👩👩
2FP y’all’s
‫ֵ יכֶן‬-
👩🧔 👩🧔
1CS my 1CP our
‫ַי‬- ‫ ֵינּו‬-
To see examples of all of these suffixes in action, check out the Lesson 29 script Google Doc, or
review the video lesson.
31.1 Numbers 6-10
This lesson introduces the cardinal numbers six through ten (to review numbers 1-5, go to
section 12.1). Remember that, like adjectives, numbers have distinct forms for masculine and
feminine nouns. When counting, the feminine forms are used.
With masculine With feminine

nouns nouns
6 ◦◦◦◦◦◦ ‫ׁשִָּׁשה‬ ‫ׁשֵׁש‬
7 ◦◦◦◦◦◦◦ ‫ׁש ְבעָה‬

ִ ‫ׁשבַע‬
ֶ֫
8 ◦◦◦◦◦◦◦◦ ‫ׁשְמֹנָה‬ ‫ׁשְמֹנֶה‬
9 ◦◦◦◦◦◦◦◦◦ ‫ׁשעָה‬
ְ ִ‫ּת‬ ‫ּתֵ֫ ׁשַע‬
10 ◦◦◦◦◦◦◦◦◦◦ ‫ֲעׂש ָָרה‬ ‫ֶ֫עֶׂשר‬

Numbers can appear before or after the noun they modify. But remember that the most common
pattern is for the number one ‫ ֶאחָד‬/ ‫ ַאחַת‬to appear after its noun, and the rest of the numbers to
appear before.
🧍 one man ‫אִיׁש ֶאחָד‬
🧍🧍🧍🧍🧍
🧍 six men/people
‫ׁשִָּׁשה ֲאנָׁשִים‬
🧍🧍🧍🧍🧍 eight men/people ‫ׁשְמֹנָה ֲאנָׁשִים‬
🧍🧍🧍
As we’ve already mentioned, Hebrew numbers can be confusing because the forms that
appear to be feminine (ending in ‫ ָ ה‬-) are actually used with masculine nouns (like ‫)סּוס‬, while
the numbers that appear to be masculine (not ending in ‫ ָ ה‬-) are used with feminine nouns. You
can see many examples in the lesson 31 script or video.
Lesson 32 - Prophets & More Verbs
32.1 New Vocabulary
‫ ּדִ ּבֶר‬- he spoke

‫ יָׁשַב‬- he sat, dwelled
‫ קָם‬- he rose, got up
‫ ָרָאה‬- he saw
‫ ק ָָרא‬- he called
32.2 ‫ & ּדִ ּבֶר‬Piel
‫ ּדִ ּבֶר‬follows a different vowel pattern than most verbs we’ve seen so far. This is because it
appears here in the piel form or stem. If you review section 21.4 you’ll remember that we
introduced the binyanim or stems. So far we’ve seen lots of verbs in the qal stem, which is the
most common (about 70% of all verbs in the Hebrew Bible). But with ‫ ּדִ ּבֶר‬we meet a verb in the
piel stem. We’ll talk more at length about the piel later, but all you need to know for now is that
the piel pattern that distinguishes it is:
1. Doubling the second letter of the root with a dagesh forte dot: ‫ּבר‬
ֶ ִ‫ּד‬
2. The i/e vowel pattern in the 3MS perfective form. Usually the vowels are hireq ִ and tsere ֵ
But keep in mind that as a piel verb takes on different conjugations, the vowel patterns will
change.
32.3 ‫ָרָאה‬
In section 21.3 we introduced weak verbs and said that ‫ ה‬is a weak letter. Because of this ‫ ָרָאה‬is
considered a weak verb, and when you start to add endings to it the weak ‫ ה‬gets kicked out. For
example, ֫‫“ ָראּו‬they saw” has lost the ‫ה‬. For the purpose of speaking the language this is not very
important. But if you ever needed to look up the root of ֫‫ ָראּו‬in a dictionary, you’d need to figure
out that the root is ‫ ָרָאה‬. Another example that is a little different than we’re used to is the 3FS
form “she saw” ‫ ָראֲתָ ה‬. Notice that the ‫ ה‬is lost and a ‫ ת‬stands in its place. In the form “I saw”
‫ָר ִ֫איתִ י‬ the ‫ ה‬turns into a ‫י‬.
Lesson 33 - ‫ אֶ ת־‬with definite direct objects
33.1 Review of definiteness & examples
Although we introduced the idea of ‫ אֶת־‬with definite direct objects back in section 6.3, this
video helps further flesh out the use of ‫ אֶת־‬and expose you to more examples. Definite nouns in
Hebrew are either:
1. Nouns that have the ‫ה‬

ָ /ַ‫ ה‬prefix “the” (as in ‫“ ָה ֶאבֶן‬the stone” )
2. Nouns that are possessed (as in ֺ‫עבְּדו‬
ַ “his servant”).
3. Proper names, such as ‫“ מֹׁשֶה‬Moses.”
The sign of the direct object ‫ אֶת־‬only appears with definite nouns. Here are some examples in
each of the three above categories:
1. ‫י ִתְ רוֺ נָתַ ן אֶת־ ַהּבַת לְמֹׁשֶה׃‬ “Jethro gave the daughter to Moses.”
2. ‫“ י ִתְ רוֺ נָתַ ן אֶת־ּבִּתוֺ לְמֹׁשֶה׃‬Jethro gave his daughter to Moses.”

3. ‫“ י ִתְ רוֺ נָתַ ן אֶת־צִּפ ָֹרה לְמֹׁשֶה׃‬Jethro gave Zippora to Moses.”
Lesson 34 - Truth, Lies & Imperative forms
34.1 He’s not, I’m not, but rather
In the first part of this lesson we learn how to say “He is not” and “I am not.”
‫ הּוא ← אֵי ֶ֫נּנּו‬+ ‫“ אֵין‬He’s not”
‫ ֲאנִי ← אֵי ֶ֫נִּני‬+ ‫“ אֵין‬I’m not”

In order to say something contrastive, which is sometimes communicated in English as “but
rather,” ‫אִם־‬ ‫ּכִי‬ is used. For example, to say, “I’m not a cow! I’m a woman!” in Hebrew would
be: ‫ אֵי ֶ֫נִּני ּפ ָָרה ּכִי אִם־ ִאּׁשָה׃‬Another way we could translate the sentence a little more
literally so that ‫ ּכִי אִם־‬is represented would be: “I’m not a cow, but rather a woman!”
Another example: ‫אִם־ּגִּבוֺר׃‬ ‫אֵי ֶ֫נּנּו חֲמוֺר ּכִי‬ “He’s not a donkey, but rather a warrior.”
34.2 Truth & Lie
‫ = ֱא ֶ֫מת‬truth
‫ׁשקֶר‬
ֶ ֫ = lie
‫ ֱא ֶ֫מת‬is a key attribute of God and has a wide range of meaning. In this episode we focus on its
meaning as “truth” but it can also be used to communicate that something is true. It often has the
meaning of faithfulness in other biblical contexts.
‫ׁשקֶר‬
ֶ ֫ refers to a lie, deception, falsehood, fraud.
Examples: ‫הַּדָ בָר‬ ‫ֱאמֶת‬ “The thing is truth.” ‫הַּדָ בָר‬ ‫ׁשקֶר‬
ֶ “The thing is a lie.”
34.3 Imperative forms
Next we learn another verb, in the imperative (command) form ‫“ קּום‬arise!” or “get up!” We see
that the masculine form, used to command a man, is ‫ קּום‬and the feminine form is ‫קּומִי‬, used to
command a woman.
When commanding someone to “sit down!” we use ‫ ׁשֵב‬for a man and ‫ׁשבִי‬
ְ for a woman. (Keep
in mind that commands to a group of people will have a different form.)
The masculine command for “listen!” is ‫ׁשמַע‬

ְ and the masculine command for “speak!” is ‫ַּד ֵּבר‬.
When Beth commands Avram to speak, he responds by saying the equivalent of “bla bla bla” in
Hebrew: ‫ּבבֶל‬
ָ ‫ָּב ֶב ְל ָּב ֶב ְל ָּב ֶב ְל ָּב ֶב ְל ָּב ֶב ְל ָּב ֶב ְל‬ ‫ ָּבבֶל‬.
The masculine command for “call!” or “read!” is ‫ק ְָרא‬. This verb has many uses, including to
call, proclaim, or cry, but in this video we focus on the meaning “to read.” For example:
‫ק ְָרא ַּב ֵּספֶר ַהּזֶה׃ קַח אֶת־ ַה ֵּספֶר ּוק ְָרא ּבְָאזְנַי׃‬
Literally: “Read in this book! Take the book and read in my ears.”
Lesson 35 - Fruit & Prepositions with Suffixes
35.1 Adding suffixes to prepositions
When we add suffixes to prepositions in Hebrew it works as you see in the example charts
below:
3MS - 3rd person, masculine, singular
to him ‫לֹו‬ ‫ הּוא‬+ ‫ְל‬

with him ‫ּבֹו‬ ‫ הּוא‬+ ‫ְּב‬
upon him ‫ָעלָיו‬ ‫ הּוא‬+ ‫עַל‬
to him ‫ֵאלָיו‬ ‫ הּוא‬+ ‫אֶל‬
before him ‫ְל ָפנָיו‬ ‫ הּוא‬+ ‫ִל ְפנֵי‬
after him ‫ַאח ֲָריו‬ ‫ הּוא‬+ ‫ַאח ֲֵרי‬
under him ‫ַּת חְָּת יו‬ ‫ הּוא‬+ ‫ַּת֫ חַת‬
upon him ‫ָעלָיו‬ ‫ הּוא‬+ ‫עַל‬
3FS - third person, feminine, singular
before her ‫ְל ָפנֶי ָה‬ ‫ הִיא‬+ ‫ִל ְפנֵי‬

after her ‫ הִיא ַאח ֲֶרי ָה‬+ ‫ַאח ֲֵרי‬
under her ‫ַּת חְֶּת י ָה‬ ‫ הִיא‬+ ‫ַּת֫ חַת‬
upon her ‫ָעלֶי ָה‬ ‫ הִיא‬+ ‫עַל‬
to her ‫ֵא ֶ֫לי ָה‬ ‫ הִיא‬+ ‫אֶל‬
3MP - third person, masculine, plural
after them ‫ הֵם ַאח ֲֵריהֶם‬+ ‫ַאח ֲֵרי‬

under them ‫ הֵם ּתַ חְֵּת יהֶם‬+ ‫ַּת֫ חַת‬
upon them ‫ֲעלֵיהֶם‬ ‫ הֵם‬+ ‫עַל‬
2MS - second person, masculine, singular
before you ‫ אַָּת ה ְל ָפנֶיָך‬+ ‫ִל ְפנֵי‬

after you ‫ אַָּת ה ַאח ֲֶריָך‬+ ‫ַאח ֲֵרי‬
under you ‫ אַָּת ה ַּת חְֶּת יָך‬+ ‫ַּת֫ חַת‬
upon you ‫ָעלֶיָך‬ ‫ אַָּת ה‬+ ‫עַל‬
1CS - first person, common, singular
upon me ‫ָעלַי‬ ‫ ֲאנִי‬+ ‫עַל‬

to me ‫ֵאלַי‬ ‫ ֲאנִי‬+ ‫אֶל‬
before me ‫ ֲאנִי ְל ָפנַי‬+ ‫ִל ְפנֵי‬
after me ‫ ֲאנִי ַאח ֲַרי‬+ ‫ַאח ֲֵרי‬
under me ‫ ֲאנִי ַּת חְַּת י‬+ ‫ַּת֫ חַת‬
35.2 ‫ַמעֲׂשֶ ה‬
In this lesson we also introduce the word ‫עׂשֶה‬

ֲ ‫ ַמ‬which is a noun meaning work, vocation, or
something made. You can see that it’s based on the root ‫ עׂשה‬which means to do, make. Many
times a noun will be formed in Hebrew by simply adding a ‫ מ‬prefix to a verb root.
Lesson 36 - Flesh & Blood, Altars & Anointing
36.1 New vocabulary
Most of this lesson focuses on teaching the following new vocabulary:
‫ ָּב ׂשָר‬- flesh, meat
‫ ָּד ם‬- blood
‫ ָּד מִים‬- blood that has been shed (note that this is simply the plural of ‫ָּד ם‬, but it refers to blood
that is outside of the body [because of violence]).
‫ זֶבַח‬- a sacrifice
‫ ָמׁשַח‬- he anointed
Lesson 37 - Dead & Alive
37.1 ‫ָּב נָה‬ - “build”

‫ ָּב נָה‬is a verb meaning “he built.” Example: ‫“ ַאב ְָרם ָּב נָה ִמזְ ֵּב ַח‬Avram built an altar.”
37.2 Dead & Alive
In this lesson we introduce “dead” ‫ מֵת‬and “alive” ‫חַי‬. These modify masculine nouns. To
describe feminine nouns Hebrew uses ‫ מֵתָ ה‬and ‫חַָּיה‬. To talk about more than one thing being
alive or dead, you’ll say ‫ חִַּיים‬or ‫מֵתִ ים‬.
Let’s talk about the example from Exodus 14:30:
‫ׂשפַת ַהּי ָם׃‬

ְ ‫ַוּי ְַרא יִׂש ְָראֵל אֶת־ ִמצ ְַרי ִם מֵת עַל־‬
“And Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the edge of the sea.”
The first word ‫ ַוּי ְַרא‬is the vayyiqtol form of the root ‫ ָרָאה‬, which means “And he saw.”
37.3 ‫ַוּי ֵַרע‬
At this point it would be a good idea to review section 11.3 where we discuss things being good
or bad in the eyes of someone. Make sure not to confuse the following words:
‫ ַוּי ֵַרע‬is the vayyiqtol form of the verb root ‫ ָרעַע‬, which means “And he/it was evil/bad.”
‫ ַוּי ְַרא‬is the vayyiqtol form of the root ‫ ָרָאה‬, which means “And he/it saw.”
Remember that we’ve already learned the noun ‫“ ַרע‬evil/bad/disaster.” Now we’re introducing
its verbal form ‫ ָרעַע‬. Because two letters in this root are the same, scholars often call this kind of
verb a geminate verb (since there are twin letters). When geminate verbs are conjugated they
often lose one of the twin letters, which is why ‫ ַוּי ֵַרע‬lost an ‫ ע‬at the end. Our Scripture example
comes from 2 Samuel 11:27b:
‫ַוּי ֵַרע הַּדָ בָר ֲאׁשֶר־ ָעׂשָה דָ וִד ְּבעֵינֵי יהוה׃‬

“And the thing that David did was evil in the eyes of Yahweh.”
37.4 ‫היֶה‬
ְ ִ‫ י‬- he will be
Back in section 21.2 we introduced the idea of imperfective aspect. As we’ve seen, when we
analyze types of verbs we often label imperfective aspect verbs with the shorter word imperfect,
as in vav-consecutive-imperfect (vayyiqtol). Here we introduce ‫הי ֶה‬

ְ ִ ‫ י‬as our first imperfect
(yiqtol) verb form, which comes from the verb root ‫הי ָה‬ ָ (which you can review in section 26.1).
As we’ve said before, imperfective aspect doesn’t always communicate something that will
happen in the future, but in this lesson we are using it that way because it’s the most common use
in the Hebrew Bible. So an example in the video is:
‫ַאב ְָרם י ִ ְהי ֶה אִיׁש זָקֵן‬

“Avram will be an old man.”
The example of the use of ‫הי ֶה‬

ְ ִ ‫ י‬in Scripture comes from 1 Samuel 17:37b:
‫ַוּי̇אמֶר ׁשָאּול אֶל־ּדָ וִד לְֵך וְיהוה י ִ ְהי ֶה עִָּמְך׃‬

“And Saul said to David, ‘Go. And Yahweh will be with you.’”
Before the next lesson, take a moment to look closely at the changes when going from perfective
to imperfective aspect in these two verbs:
impf ← perf
‫ָהי ָה ← י ִ ְהי ֶה‬
‫ָּבנָה ← י ִ ְבנֶה‬
Lesson 38 - Israel asks for a king
Since this lesson doesn’t introduce new grammar, we’ll provide a literal translation of the
simplified story below.
‫ַויְהִי ּכִי־זָקֵן ׁשְמּואֵל וְֹלא־ ָהלְכּו ָבנָיו ּבִדְ ָרכָיו׃‬

And it was that Samuel was old, and his sons did not walk in his
ways.
‫ַוּי ָב ֹאּו ּכ ֹל זִ ְקנֵי יִׂש ְָראֵל‬

‫אֶל־ׁשְמּואֵל וַּי ֹאמְרּו ֵאלָיו ִהּנֵה‬
‫אַּתָ ה זָ ַקנְּתָ ּו ָבנֶיָך ֹלא ָהלְכּו ּבִדְ ָרכֶיָך עַּתָ ה ׂשִים־לָנּו ֶמלְֶך׃‬
And all the elders of Israel came to Samuel, and they said to
him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your
ways. Now put for us a king.”
‫ׁשמַע ּבְקֹול ָהעָם׃‬

ְ ‫ַוּי ֵַרע הַּדָ בָר ְּבעֵינֵי ׁשְמּואֵל׃ וַּי ֹאמֶר יהוה אֶל־ׁשְמּואֵל‬
And the thing was evil in the eyes of Samuel. And Yahweh said to Samuel, “Obey [listen to the
voice of] the people.”
‫וַּי ֹאמֶר ׁשְמּואֵל אֶל־ ָהעָם ַה ֶּמלְֶך יִּקָח אֶת־ ְּבנֵיכֶם ְואֶת־ּבְנֹותֵ יכֶם ְואֶת־ׂשְדֹותֵ יכֶם ְואֶת־ ַעבְדֵ יכֶם‬
‫ׁשפְחֹותֵ יכֶם׃‬
ִ ‫ְואֶת־‬
And Samuel said to the people, “The king will take your sons and
your daughters, and your fields, and your menservants and
maidservants.”
‫ׁשמַע ָהעָם ּבְקֹול ׁשְמּואֵל וַּי ֹאמְרּו ֹּלא ּכִי אִם־ ֶמלְֶך י ִ ְהי ֶה‬
ָ ‫וְֹלא‬
‫ָעלֵינּו׃‬
But the people did not obey [listen to the voice of] Samuel, and they said, “No, but a king shall
be over us.”
‫ׁשמַע ׁשְמּואֵל אֵת ּדִ ב ְֵרי ָהעָם ַוי ְדַ ּבֵר אֶת־ּדִ ב ְֵריהֶם ּבְָאזְנֵי יהוה׃‬
ְ ִ ‫ַוּי‬
And Samuel listened to the words of the people, and he spoke their words in the ears of Yahweh.
‫ׁשמַע ּבְקֹולָם׃‬
ְ ‫וַּי ֹאמֶר יהוה אֶל־ׁשְמּואֵל‬
And Yahweh said to Samuel, “Obey [listen to the voice of] them.”
‫וַּי ֹאמֶר ׁשְמּואֵל אֶל־ַאנְׁשֵי יִׂש ְָראֵל לְכּו אִיׁש ְלעִירֹו׃‬

And Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Go, each man to his city.”
‫ַויְהִי־אִיׁש ִמ ִּבנְיָמִין ּוׁשְמֹו ׁשָאּול׃ ַוּי ָב ֹא ׁשָאּול אֶל־עִיר ׁשְמּואֵל׃‬

And there was a man from Benjamin, and his name was Saul. And
Saul came to the city of Samuel.
‫ּוׁשְמּואֵל ָרָאה אֶת־ׁשָאּול ויהוה ָאמַר־לֹו ָהאִיׁש הֶַּזה י ִ ְהי ֶה ֶמלְֶך‬

‫עַל־ ַעּמִי׃‬
And Samuel saw Saul, and Yahweh said to him, “This man shall be
king over my people.”
‫ַוּי ִ ְמׁשַח ׁשְמּואֵל אֶת־ׁשָאּול ְל ֶמלְֶך׃‬

And Samuel anointed Saul as king.
‫וַּתְ הִי ָעלָיו רּו ַח אֱֹלהִים ַויְהִי ׁשָאּול‬

‫ֶמלְֶך עַל־יִׂש ְָראֵל׃‬
And the Spirit of God was upon
him, and Saul was king over Israel.
Lesson 39 - Strength & Wisdom: Comparisons
39.1 New Vocabulary
‫ ָחזָק‬- strong
‫ ּכ ֹ ַח‬- strength
‫ ָחכָם‬- wise, skillful, shrewd
‫ ָח ְכמָה‬- wisdom, skill, shrewdness
‫ אֲרוֺן ַהּב ְִרית‬- ark of the covenant
‫ ָצבָא‬- army, war, warfare (plural: ‫) ְצבָאוֺת‬
39.2 Comparative ‫מִן‬
The ‫ מִן‬preposition is used to compare things using adjectives. In English we usually use the -er
ending, as in stronger (strong+er), followed by the word than, to communicate comparisons (e.g.
“I’m stronger than you”). But Hebrew uses ‫ מִן‬to do the same thing, as in the following example:
‫הַּסּוס ַהּזֶה ּגָדוֺל מִן־הַּסּוס ַהּזֶה‬

Very literally: “The horse the this (is) big from the horse the this.”
Which means: “This horse is bigger than this horse.”
When ‫ מִן‬connects to a word as a prefix, the ‫ ן‬disappears (assimilates) and we are left with one
of the following: ‫ ִמ‬or ‫ ֵמ‬. For example:
‫ָרחֵל יָפָה ִמֵּלָאה אֲח ֹתָ ּה‬

Very literally: “Rachel (was) beautiful from Leah her sister.”
Which means: “Rachel was prettier than Leah, her sister.”
Just as ‫ אֵין‬can combine with pronouns like ‫ הּוא‬to create one word ‫“ אֵינֶּנּו‬he/it is not,” ‫ מִן‬can
combine with pronouns. Here are some examples:
‫ הּוא ← מִֶּמּנּו‬+ ‫“ מִן‬from/than him/it”

‫ ֲאנִי ← מִֶּמִּני‬+ ‫“ מִן‬from/than me.”
‫ אַּתָ ה = מְִּמָך‬+ ‫“ מִן‬from/than you (masculine)”
‫ אַּתְ = מִֵּמְך‬+ ‫“ מִן‬from/than you (feminine)”
So when Avram says, “Beth, I’m stronger than you,” he says: ‫מֵּמְך‬
ִ ‫ ֲאנִי ָחזָק‬,‫ּבֵת‬.
Lesson 40 - Noah & the Ark: Categories of Creatures
40.1 Creature Categories
The ancient Hebrews did not categorize things as we do in modern science today. For example,
Hebrew does not have a word for reptile as we understand it scientifically. Instead, Hebrew has
the word ‫ ֶ֫רמֶׂש‬which can include reptiles, but also includes other small creatures that move
along the ground, like mice and insects.
‫ ָאדָ ם‬- mankind, humans
‫ ְּב ֵהמָה‬- beasts, larger animals, cattle
‫ ֶ֫רמֶׂש‬- small creatures that move along the ground, “creeping things.”
‫ חַָּיה‬- living thing, animal, wild animal. (Not to be confused with the verb ‫ ַחי ָה‬without the
dagesh, which means “to live.”)
‫ אֱֹלהִים‬- spiritual beings. Even though this is the same word for God, it is also used for created
spiritual beings such as cherubim or angels. These beings are in a category all by themselves, not
considered to be “flesh” ‫ּבׂשָר‬
ָ . (This video series on spiritual beings from the Bible Project may
be helpful.
All of the creatures that are not ‫ אֱֹלהִים‬are considered ‫ּבׂשָר‬

ָ “flesh” or ‫חַָּיה‬ ‫“ ֶ֫נפֶׁש‬living
beings/souls” or simply ‫“ חַָּיה‬a living thing.” ‫חַָּיה‬ ‫ ֶ֫נפֶׁש‬can be translated either as plural or
singular. Adam became a ‫חַָּיה‬ ‫ ֶ֫נפֶׁש‬when God breathed life into him, and the animals did as
well.
‫ ָּד גָה‬,‫ עוֺף‬,‫ ֶ֫רמֶׂש‬,‫ְּב ֵהמָה‬

↖
‫חַָּיה‬ ‫ָאדָ ם‬
↖ ↗
‫ֶ֫נפֶׁש חַָּיה‬
When Hebrew specifies a category or main characteristic of something, it often uses the formula
“son of …” Here are some examples:
‫ ּבֶן־ָאדָ ם‬- son of man = human

‫ ְּב נֵי ָאדָ ם‬- sons of man = humans
‫ ְּבנֵי אֱֹלהִים‬- sons of God = spiritual beings (some examples: Job 1:6, Deut 32:8)
40.2 More vocabulary
‫ ּתֵ בָה‬- ark, box
‫ רּו ַח חִַּיים‬- breath of life
‫ ֲעצֵי־גֹפֶר‬- gopher wood (trees/wood of gopher)
‫ ּמַּבּול‬- flood, deluge
Lesson 41 - Kaf & Similarities
41.1 New Vocabulary
‫ יָׁשָר‬- straight, right, upright (adjective)
‫ ְּכ‬- like, as
‫ ַּכ ֲאׁשֶר‬- just as, as
41.2 The ‫ ְּכ‬Preposition
The preposition ‫ּכ‬

ְ usually functions to compare similar things. It attaches as a suffix in the same
way as the other inseparable prepositions attach, such as ‫ּב‬
ְ . When ‫ ְּכ‬precedes a definite word
(with the definite article ‫ה‬
ַ ), the ‫ ַה‬is gobbled up (or assimilated) by the preposition, and only the
vowel is left.
‫ ַה ← ַּכ‬+ ‫ְּכ‬
Or in the case where the definite article precedes a letter that causes its vowel to lengthen to a
qamets:
‫ ָה ← ָּכ‬+ ‫ְּכ‬
For example, in the lesson Beth says, “I am like the small woman” ‫ּקטַָּנה׃‬
ְ ‫ַה‬ ‫ָאנֹכִי ָּכ ִאּׁשָה‬.
As an example without the definite article, Beth says, “Avram walks like an Egyptian man”
‫ַאב ְָרם ָהלְַך ְּכאִיׁש ִמצ ְִרי׃‬
41.3 ‫ּכַאֲ ׁשֶ ר‬
When comparing actions, ‫אׁשֶר‬

ֲ ‫ ַּכ‬serves as the equivalent of “just as” or “as” in English. For
example, Beth says:
‫ַאב ְָרם ָעׂשָה ַּכ ֲאׁשֶר ּדִ ּב ְַרּתִ י׃‬

“Avram did just as I said.”
Lesson 42 - Light & Darkness, Morning & Evening
42.1 New Vocabulary
‫ אוֺר‬- light
‫ ֫ח ֹׁשְֶך‬- darkness
‫ ּ֫ב ֹקֶר‬- morning
‫ ֶ֫ע ֶרב‬- evening
‫ ֵראׁשִית‬- beginning
‫ קֵץ‬- end
‫ ִראׁשֹון‬- first, chief
Lesson 43 - Creation (no new grammar to discuss)
Lesson 44 - Go out & lift up
44.1 New Vocabulary
‫ יָצָא‬- he went out (the vayyiqtol form is ‫“ ַוּי ֵ ֵ֫צא‬and he went out.”)
‫ נָׂשָא‬- he lifted, raised up (the vayyiqtol form is ‫ּׂשא‬

ָ ֫ ִ ‫“ ַוּי‬and he lifted up.” The ‫ נ‬is assimilated
into the following letter when it is conjugated, because it’s a weak letter, and assimilation is
signaled by the dagesh dot in the ‫ׂש‬.)
44.2 More Conjugations of ‫ָרָאה‬
Once again Beth is introducing more forms of what grammars will call a weak verb. In the case
of ‫ ָרָאה‬the weak part is the last letter ‫ה‬. Since ‫ ה‬is weak, it easily gets lost when the verb is
conjugated. But we want to remind you that these technicalities are not important for
internalizing the language. When you’re reading you shouldn’t be doing mathematical
reconstructions of verbs in your head based on whether they’re weak or not. The best way to
reach fluency is to master the different forms as they are without worrying too much about the
morphological changes. But for those who are curious, we provide these explanations.
So when ‫ ָרָאה‬takes the vayyiqtol form ‫ַַּירא‬

ְ ‫“( ו‬and he saw”) the root is more difficult to
distinguish because the ‫ ה‬gets chopped off the end.
44.3 ‫“ אֵ ת‬with”
It’s important to avoid confusing ‫ אֵת‬as the direct object marker with the preposition “with.”
Context will make this clear, since there is often no other way to know the difference. In the
video Beth explains that there are two prepositions used to communicate “with” in Hebrew: ‫אֵת‬
and ‫עִם‬. When you add pronominal suffixes onto them, you get the following:
‫עִם = אֵת‬
‫“ ִעּמִי = אִּתִ י‬with me”
ֺ‫“ עִּמוֺ = אִּתו‬with him”
‫“ ִעּמְָך = אִּתְ ָך‬with you”
44.4 Sof Pasuq ‫׃‬
The sof pasuq (‫ )סוֺף ּפָסּוק‬is a mark that occurs on the

last word of every verse in the Hebrew Bible passed
down to us from the Masoretes. Basically, the sof pasuq
acts like a period or punctuation at the end of a verse
that tells the reader to pause. This leads to what are
called pausal forms, which often involves vowel
changes in the last word before the sof pasuq. In the
video Beth gives the following examples of how vowels
can change in words because of the sof pasuq. The forms in red are called pausal forms:
‫לְָך‬ becomes ‫ לְָך‬before sof pasuq.
‫ ִעּמְָך‬becomes ‫ ִעּמְָך‬before sof pasuq.
‫ אִּתְ ָך‬becomes ‫ אִּתָ ְך‬before sof pasuq.
Lesson 45 - Verb Sequences: Vayyiqtol Forms 1
45.1 Vayyiqtol
In section 22.3 we discussed verb sequences using vayyiqtol at length.
45.2 Qamets Hatuf
‫ ַו ָּ֫יקָם‬is pronounced as vayyaqom rather than vayyaqam because of the qamets hatuf rule: ָ
in a
closed unaccented syllable is pronounced as [o]. Unfortunately, you’ll see plenty of exceptions to
this rule, but it’ll be helpful to be aware of it.
45.3 Review Weak Verbs
At this point it may be a good idea to review section 27.1 where we discuss how ‫ נָתַ ן‬behaves as
a weak verb, which will help explain why it becomes ‫ן‬ ֵ֫‫ ַוּי ִּת‬when in the vayyiqtol conjugation.
Lesson 46 - Send, Messenger & Object Pronouns
46.1 More on Both Kinds of ‫אֵ ת‬
‫“ אֶת‬with” ‫ אֶת‬sign of the direct object
‫“ אִִּת י‬with me” ‫ ___“ א ֹתִ י‬me”

‫“ אִּתְ ָך‬with you (m.)” ‫ ___“ א ֹתְ ָך‬you (m.)”
‫“ אִּתָ ְך‬with you (f.)” ‫ ___“ א ֹתָ ְך‬you (f.)”
ֺ‫“ אִּתו‬with him” ֺ‫ ___“ א ֹתו‬him”
‫“ אִּתָ ּה‬with her” ‫ ___“ א ֹתָ ּה‬her”
‫“ אִּתָ נּו‬with us” ֺ‫ ___“ א ֹתָ נו‬us”
‫“ אִּתְ כֶם‬with ya’ll” ‫ ___“ אֶתְ כֶם‬ya’ll”
‫“ אִּתָ ם‬with them” ‫ ___“ א ֹתָ ם‬them”
Notice that one of the main differences between the two is the presence or absence of the dagesh
dot when combined with pronouns.
46.2 New Vocabulary
‫ׁשלַח‬
ָ - he sent (in vayyiqtol: ‫ׁשלַח‬
ְ ִ ‫) ַוּי‬
‫ ַמ ְלאְָך‬- messenger
‫ ַמ ֲא ֶ֫כלֶת‬- knife
Lesson 47 - Food & Drink
47.1 New
Vocabulary
‫ יַי ִן‬- wine
‫ ָחלָב‬- milk
‫ ּדְ בַׁש‬- honey
‫ ּתְ ֵאנָה‬- fig
‫ ַ֫זי ִת‬- olive
‫ ֵענָב‬- grape
‫ ֫א ֹכֶל‬or ‫ ַמ ֲאכָל‬- food
‫ ָאכַל‬- he ate
‫ ׁשָתָ ה‬- he drank
Lesson 48 - 40 Days & 40 Nights
Appendix 1 - The Hebrew Names of the Books of the Bible
In our videos we introduce biblical passages with the Hebrew name of the book. The chart below
should help you become familiar with these names, which often have nothing to do with the
English name. This is because the English names come largely from the ancient Greek
translation of the Hebrew Bible, which is called the Septuagint. The names are sometimes
different from the Hebrew, and the order is different. Notice that the names of some books derive
from the first word or phrase in that book (for example, Genesis). In cases where there is a
division of a book into two, such as 1st & 2nd Kings, the 1 and 2 will be designated by ‫ א‬and ‫ב‬.
For example, 1st Kings would be ‫א‬ ‫ ְמ ָלכִים‬.
English Hebrew
Genesis ‫ְּבראִׁשית‬‎
ֵ
Exodus ‫ְׁשמֹות‬‎
Leviticus ‫וִַּיק ְָרא‬‎
Numbers ‫ְּב מִדְ ַּבר‬‎
Deuteronomy ‫ְּד ב ִָרים‬‎‎
Joshua ‫י ְהֹוֻׁש ַע‬
Judges ‫ש ֹ ְפטִים‬
Samuel ‫ְׁשמּואֵל‬
Kings ‫ְמ ָלכִים‬
Isaiah ‫ׁש ְעי ָהּו‬

ַ ְ‫י‬
Jeremiah ‫י ְִר ְמי ָהּו‬
Ezekiel ‫י ְ ֶחזְקֵאל‬
Hosea ‫ה ֹוֵׁש ַע‬
Joel ‫י ֹואֵל‬
Amos ‫עָמֹוס‬
Obadiah ‫עֹבַדְ י ָה‬
Jonah ‫יֹונָה‬
Micah ‫מִיכָה‬
Nahum ‫נַחּום‬
Habakkuk ‫ֲחבַּקּוק‬
Zephaniah ‫ְצ ַפנְי ָה‬
Haggai ‫חַַּגי‬
Zechariah ‫זְכ ְַרי ָה‬
Malachi ‫ַמלְָאכִי‬
Psalms ‫תהלים‬
Proverbs ‫מְִׁש לֵי‬
Job ‫אִּיֹוב‬
Ruth ‫רּות‬
Lamentations ‫אֵיכָה‬
Ecclesiastes ‫ק ֹ ֶהלֶת‬
Esther ‫ֶאסְֵּת ר‬
Daniel ‫ּדָ נִֵּיאל‬
Ezra ‫ֶעז ְָרא‬
Nehemiah ‫נְ ֶח ְמי ָה‬
Chronicles ‫ּדִ ב ְֵרי ַהּיָמִים‬

Grammar Lessons - Aleph With Beth

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1.1 Interrogative pronouns

where? ‫ַאּי ֵה‬ what? ‫מַה‬/‫מָה‬

‫ז ֹאת ִאּׁשָה׃‬ ‫מַה־ּז ֹאת׃‬ ‫זֶה אִיׁש׃‬ ‫מַה־ּזֶה׃‬

This (is) a… ‫ז ֹאת ּפ ָָרה׃‬ ‫מַה־ּז ֹאת׃‬ ‫זֶה ּפַר׃‬ ‫מַה־ּזֶה׃‬

1.2 The definite article

the big bull ‫ַהּפַר ַהּגָדֹול‬

this bull ‫ַהּפַר ַהֶּזה‬

‫גְדֹולָה‬ ‫ּפ ָָרה‬ ‫ּגָדֹול‬ ‫ּפַר‬

A big cow A big bull

‫ָהאִיׁש ּגָדֹול‬ ‫ָהאִיׁש ַהּגָדֹול‬

‘the man (is) big’ ‘the big man’

This (is) the big This (is) the small

This woman (is)

2.1 ‫‘ מְא ֹד‬very’

good ‫טֹוב‬ small ‫קָט ֹן‬

2.2 Plural demonstrative ‘these’

Singular ‫זֶה‬ ‫ז ֹאת‬

Just like ‫ ז ֶה‬and ‫ז ֹאת‬, when ‫אּלֶה‬

2.3 Plural forms

bull ‫ּפַר‬ cow ‫ּפ ָָרה‬

bulls ‫ּפ ִָרים‬ cows ‫ּפָרֹות‬

a big bull ‫ּפַר ּגָדֹול‬ a big cow ‫ּפ ָָרה גְדֹולָה‬

2.4 Irregular plurals

woman ‫ִאּׁשָה‬ goat ‫עֵז‬

3.1 The conjunction -ְ‫ו‬

1) before the labial (involving the lips) letters ‫ו‬,‫מ‬,‫ב‬,‫פ‬

3.2 Letters with two pronunciations

k ‫ּכ‬ p ‫ּפ‬ b ‫ּב‬ Stops with dagesh

χ ‫כ‬ f ‫פ‬ v ‫ב‬ Fricatives without dagesh

‫ּו ְכ ָבׂשִים‬ ‫ְּכ ָבׂשִים‬ ‫ּו ַפר‬ ‫ַּפר‬

u-χǝvasim kǝvasim u-far par

and sheep (pl.) sheep (pl.) and a bull bull

3.3 Gender and epicene nouns

This small (male) camel ‫ַה ָּגמָל ַהָּקט ֹן ַהֶּזה‬

I don’t know ← ‫אֵינֶּנִי י ֹדַ עַת‬

Such is Hebrew! ← ‫ָּככָה ִעבְרית‬

4.1 Subject pronouns

Masculine Feminine Masculine Feminine

‫ ָאנֹכִי‬/ ‫ֲאנִי‬ I ‫ֲאנַחְנּו‬ we

‫אַּתָ ה‬ ְ‫אַּת‬ you ‫אַּתֶ ם‬ ‫אַּתֶ ן‬ you

‫הּוא‬ ‫הִיא‬ he/she ‫הֵם‬ ‫ֵהּנָה‬ they

4.2 Verbless clauses

You (are) small. ‫אַּתָ ה קָט ֹן׃‬ 2

What (is) she? ‫מָה־הִיא׃‬ 1

A small woman (is) she. ‫ִאּׁשָה ְק ַטּנָה הִיא׃‬ 2

Conjunction ‫ּכִי‬. It has many translations in different contexts, but here

it marks a counter-statement after a negative statement, similar to “on the

contrary” or “but rather...”

5.1 Possessive pronoun suffixes

her name his name my name name

5.2 Construct forms

Abraham is Isaac’s father. ‫ַאב ְָרהָם ֲאבִי י ִ ְצחָק‬ ‫ָאב ← ֲאבִי‬

Esau is Jacob’s brother. ‫ֵעׂשָו ֲאחִי יַעֲק ֹב‬ ‫ָאח ← ֲאחִי‬

form, but the pronunciation is not affected.

David is Jesse’s son. ‫ָּד וִד ּבֶן־יִׁשַי‬ ‫ּבֵן ← ּבֶן‬

Rachel is Leah’s sister. ‫ָרחֵל אֲחֹות לֵָאה‬ ‫ָאחֹות ← אֲחֹות‬

Sarah is Isaac’s mother. ‫ׂש ָָרה אֵם י ִ ְצחָק׃‬ ‫אֵם ← אֵם‬

_ of _ the son of Joseph