lessons 47 and 48: ben kamah ata?

lessons 47 and 48

anee katavti sefer

אני כתבתי ספר

More past tense today and how to ask someone how old they are.


verb conjugation

the first person singular past tense of to want, to write and to say is pretty simple:
basic form plus -ti, the first person ending. Seh ha kol.

asking someone how old they are:

it seems a bit strange at first but it's really very simple:

ben kamah ata?        son how much you?                 how old are you? (masc.)
bat kamah at?          daughter how much you?        how old are you? (fem.)

(just a little outlook to future joys of grammar: numbers can be a bit tricky:
1-10 has a masculine and a feminine form and the number and the noun it counts have to agree in gender, exactly as with adjectives.
11-19 also has two genders, but in normal everyday language only the feminine form is used.
20 - infinity are simpler and we'll talk about it later.
we'll do all this in detail and many repetitions later in this blog)

***************************************************************************

all the new words and phrases:

משהו                        mashehu                                   something

mashehu, that's how it's transcribed in my books but in normal everyday language it's mashu
 

אני אמרתי                  anee amarti                              I said

אני אמרתי משהו         anee amarti mashehu                I said something

אני כתבתי                   anee katavti                             I wrote

אני כתבתי ספר            anee katavti sefer                     I wrote a book

אני רציתי                     anee ratziti                               I wanted

אני רציתי קפה               anee ratziti kafeh                    I wanted coffee

כמה                             kamah                                      how much

בן                                ben                                            son

בת                                bat                                           daughter

בן כמה אתה                  ben kamah ata                          how old are you (masc.)

בת כמה את                    bat kamah at                            how old are you (fem.)

אני בן עשרים                  anee ben essrim                        I am 20

אני בת שמונה עשרה        anee bat shmoneh essreh          I am 18

and don't forget to practice:

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