Lesson 12

Contents:

         12.a Verbs
         12.b Adjectives
         12.c Nouns
         12.d Sentences

12.a: Verbs

Today we'll learn a new, exceptional, group of verbs; these have only 2 consonants as their root, and they motsly stand for action-verbs:

• the root גר [g.r.] means 'to live'
• the root זז [z.z.] means 'to move'
• the root שב [sh.v.] means 'to come back, return'

Their behaviour in present tense:

sing. masc.:	XaX	הוּא גַר	he lives
sing. fem.:	XaXa	הִיא גַרַה	she lives
plural masc.:	XaXim	הֵם גַרִים	they (masc.) live
plural fem.:	XaXot	הֵן גַרוֹת	they (fem.) live

Let's learn 2 more verbs and start practicing:

• the root קם [k.m.] means 'to get up'
• the root רץ [r.ts.] means 'to run'

Exercise – write the following in hebrew:

Every morning i'm (masc.) swimming, and every evening i'm running.	כל בוֹקֵר אַנִי שׂוֹחֵה, וֵכל עֵרֵב אַנִי רַץ.	listen
Every day i (masc.) get up at (lit. in) seven.	כל יוֹם אַנִי קַם בֵשֵבַע.	listen
She returned to her country after 3 years in England.	הִיא שַבַה לֵמֵדִינַה שֵלַה אַחַרֵי שַלוֹש שַנִים בֵאַנגלִיַה.	listen
My dog moves a lot at night, he dreams he's running after a cat.	הַכֵלֵב שֵלִי זַז הַרבֵה בֵלַילַה, הוּא חוֹלֵם שֵהוּא רַץ אַחרֵי חַתוּל.	listen
I have 2 close friends, and they live in Germany.	יֵש לִי שנֵי חַבֵרִים קרוֹבִים, וֵהֵם גַרִים בֵגֵרמַנִיַה.	listen
When he's laughing, his ears are moving.	כשֵהוּא צוֹחֵק, הַאוֹזנַיִים שֵלוֹ זַזות.	listen

12.b Adjectives

Let's learn some more adjectives, keeping the pattern from previous lesson:

בַרוּר	[barur]	clear, obvious
פַשוּט	[pashut]	simple
בַטוּחַ	[batuakh]	sure
חַשוּב	[khashuv] (*)	important

(*) Do you recognise the root?

All right, we learned almost all shortened forms of בֵ,לֵ,שֵל,אֵת (like בוֹ, שֵלִי..), let's learn the last one – the 'plural you' form. For that, one adds [khem] or [khen], depending on gender:

בַכֵם/בַכֵן	bakhem/bakhen	in you (plural)
לַכֵם/לַכֵן	lakhem/lakhen	to you
שֵלַכֵם/שֵלַכֵן	shelakhem/shelakhen	your
אוֹתכֵם/אוֹתכֵן	otkhem/otkhen	you (as subject)
אִיתכֵם/אִיתכֵן	itkhem/itkhen	with you

There are two important, and easy to use words - 'forbidden' and 'allowed'. Both are followed by verbs in infinitive form, and are not subject to declension:

מוּתַר	[mutar]	allowed
אַסוּר	[asur]	forbidden

For example:

(It's) forbidden to steal and cheat.	אַסוּר לִגנוֹב וֵלִבגוֹד	listen
I'm allowed (lit. - allowed to me) to think what(ever) that i want (fem.).	מוּתַר לִי לַחשוֹב מַה שֵאַנִי רוֹצַה	listen

It's practice time:

I (masc.) think that it's important to be simple and clear.	אַנִי חוֹשֵב שֵזֵה חַשוּב, לִהיוֹת פַשוּט וֵבַרוּר	listen
I told you (plural) - it's forbidden to drink alcohol before you are 20!	אַמַרתִי לַכֵם - אַסוּר לִשתוֹת אַלכוֹהוֹל לִפנֵי שֵאַתֵם בנֵי עֵשׂרִים!	listen
Yesterday was a difficult lesson, but today the lesson (is) very simple.	אֵתמוֹל הַיַה שִיעוּר קַשֵה, אַבַל הַיוֹם הַשִיעוּר מֵאוֹד פַשוּט	listen
Already a week that he's not running, not swimming, not doing sports; maybe he's sick?	כבַר שַבוּעַ שֵהוּא לא רַץ, לא שׂוֹחֵה, לא עוֹשֵה ספוֹרט; אוּלַי הוּא חוֹלֵה?	listen

12.c Nouns

Let's learn some furniture names:

קִיר	[kir]	wall
אַרוֹן	[aron]	closet
לוּחַ	[luakh]	blackboard

All right, today we'll learn a new grammatic construction - a pair of nouns, usually chained by posession link. The new idiom often has a somewhat different meaning. We already saw several examples of these:

בֵית סֵפֵר	[beyt sefer]	school, lit. - house (of) book, bookhouse
גַן יֵלַדִים	[gan yeladim]	kindergarten, lit. - garden (of) children
מִיץ תַפוּחִים	[mitz tapukhim]	apple juice, lit. - juice (of) apples

Here are some more examples:

לוּחַ שַנַה	[luakh shana]	calendar, lit. - blackboard (of) year
אַרוֹן קִיר	[aron kir]	built-in closet, lit. - closet (of) wall
אוֹפנֵי עִיר	[ofney ir]	city bike, lit. - bike (of) city
סִיפוּר אַהַבַה	[sipur ahava]	love story, lit. - story (of) love
שִׂמלַת עֵרֵב	[simlat erev]	evening dress

Now, as part of the construction, the first of the two nouns may alter its ending. Typically, when the first noun is sing.masc. - it stays as it is; if it's sing.fem., ending with ה, that changes into ת. When it's plural masc., the ִים ending becomes ֵי. For example:

And back to some more furniture items:

שוּלחַן	[shulkhan]	table, desk
חַלוֹן	[khalon]	window
כִיסֵא	[kise]	chair

A special thing about the 6 furniture nouns we learned now is that, although they seem to be, and indeed are masculin - the plural is formed by a fem. pattern - adding וֹת, such as:

קִירוֹת	[kirot]
חַלוֹנוֹת	[khalonot]

Exercise – write in hebrew, pronounce and compare to the recorded version:

In my room, i have one table, three chairs and two closets.	בֵחֵדֵר שֵלִי, יֵש לִי שוּלחַן אֵחַד, שלוֹשַה כִיסַאוֹת וֵשנֵי אַרוֹנוֹת	listen
It's important to me that i have a big built-in closet, because i have many clothes.	זֵה חַשוּב לִי שֵיֵש לִי אַרוֹן קִיר גַדוֹל, כִי יֵש לִי הַרבֵה בגַדִים	listen
I'm running with my dog twice a week, but my cat is even not moving when i'm going out of home!	אַנִי רַץ עִם הַכֵלֵב שֵלִי פַעַמַיִים בֵשַבוּעַ, אַבַל הַחַתוּל שֵלִי אַפִילוּ לא זז כשֵאַנִי יוֹצֵא מֵהַבַית!	listen
"To be or not to be?", asked Hamlet. It's really not obvious!	"לִהיוֹת אוֹ לא לִהיוֹת?" שַאַל הַמלֵט. זֵה מַמַש לא בַרוּר!	listen
They live in Jerusalem, and their children live in Tel Aviv.	הֵם גַרִים בֵיֵרוּשַלַיִם, וֵהַיֵלַדִים שֵלַהֵם גַרִים בֵתֵל אַבִיב.	listen

12.d Sentences

It was a long lesson, so let's finish it with several useful words:

כל, הַכל (*)	[kol, hakol]	all
כלוּם	[klum]	nothing
סלִיחַה	[slikha]	sorry
אֵיזֵה	[eyze]	which (masc.)
אֵיזוֹ	[eyzo]	which (fem.)

(*) we already learned this word means "every"; it can also mean "all" - it's usually evident by context whiever is the case.

Final exercise of the day!! Translate the dialogues without writing, and listen:
In class

- Hello children, today we're learning lesson (of) history.	listen
Who knows who was Julius?	listen
- I know (fem.)!	listen
- Yes Tamar, please.	listen
- He was king of empire (of) Rome.	listen
- Yes. But i think Dan didn't hear you. Dan, what did Tamar say?	listen
- Ahh.. Sorry.. I didn't hear her.. I'm sitting very far..	listen
- Obviously! You're not with us. Well, Tamar, please, again.	listen
- He was king of empire (of) Rome. And his best friend, Brutus, betrayed in him.	listen