lessons 45 and 46: hou ra'ah habait

 

lessons 45 and 46

 

hou ra'ah habait 

 

 

 

הוא ראה הבית

 

 this is one of over 4000 Bauhaus-style buildings in Tel Aviv. read more about this at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_City_(Tel_Aviv)

 

Today again, only three verbs in the third person singular past tense. As discussed earlier, the third person singular masculine is the simplest and gramatically most important form of the verb. It is the form to which the other endings are added (-ti, -ta, -t etc.). But while the other persons just add endings, the feminine form changes the basic structure a little bit.

Just to repeat it again, the most regular verbs in the 3rd p. sg. masc. are constructed like this:
They have three root consonants (X - X - X) and the 'a' as the marker for the past tense:

X - a - X - a - X

H - a - L - a - CH

 

 

for the feminine form many verbs adopt the following pattern:  

they swallow the second vowel and add an -ah ending:

X - a - X - X - ah

H - a - L - CH- ah

 

halach - he went - is a really good example for this pattern:

הוא הלך                           hou halach                                   he went

היא הלכה                         hee halchah                                 she went

הוא הלך לקולנוע               hou halach lekolno'a                    he went to the cinema

היא הלכה לאוניברסיטה     hee halchah le'univeersitah        she went to university

 

other verbs however follow a different pattern:

they use a -tah ending to form the feminine form and swallow the third root consonant

 

X - a - X - a - X

R - a - ' - a - H

 

X - a - X - a - t -ah

 R - a - ' - a - t - ah

here, and that's a bit fiendish really, the 'h' in the ending is not the third root consonant, but only part of the the feminine ending. But we'll talk more about all fhis in future posts and it will all fall into place with more practice.

הוא ראה                          hou ra'ah                                       he saw

היא ראתה                        hee ra'atah                                    she saw

הוא ראה הבית                  hou ra'ah habait                            he saw the house

היא ראתה האוניברסיטה    hee ra'atah ha'universitah             she saw the university

הוא היה                          hou hayah                                    he was

היא היתה                        hee haytah                                   she was

הוא היה בתל אביב           hou hayah beTelAviv                  he was in Tel Aviv

היא היתה בלונדון             hee haytah be London                she was in London

and the easiest way to practise is my memrise course:

http://www.memrise.com/course/82286/modern-hebrew-for-beginners-3/