lessons 49 and 50 mah ata amarta?

 

lessons 49 and 50

 

mah ata amarta? 

 

?מה אתה אמרת


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more 2nd p. sg. past tense today: XaXaX-ta (masc.)  and XaXaX-t (fem.)

 

 

and I 'd also like to mention something else regarding the three root consonants I've been mentioning so often over the last few posts:

 



the three consonants do not only appear in verbs but also in nouns and often enough the same consonants signal a relationship in meaning between the word containing them:

katav = he wrote
כתב
michtav = a letter (something written)

מכתב 

 

in the transcription it may appear confusing at first because the letter כ  stands for k and ch.

 

this relationship exists for great numbers of verbs and nouns and I'll mention a lot of them later and you'll see that it makes learning new words easier at some point.  For now just remember that this relationship exists.  

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אתה אמרת                     ata amarta                               you said (masc.)

את אמרת                       at amart                                   you said (fem.)

?מה אתה אמרת              mah ata amarta?                      what did you say? (masc.)

כלום                              kloum                                      nothing

?את אמרת משהו             at amart mashehu?                  did you say something? (fem.)

אתה כתבת                     ata katavta                               you wrote (masc.)

את כתבת                       at katavt                                  you wrote (fem.)

?אתה כתבת המכתב        ata katavta hamichtav?          did you write the letter? (masc.)

?מה את כתבת                 mah at katavt?                        what did you write? (fem.)

אתה רצית                       ata ratzita                                you wanted (masc.)

              

את רצית                         at ratzit                                    you wanted (fem.)

?מה אתה רצית                mah ata ratzita?                       what did you want? (masc.)

?את רצית משהו               at ratzit mashehu                      did you want something? (fem.)

ו                                    ve                                              and

?בן כמה אתה                 ben kamah ata?

אני בן עשרים ואחד         anee ben essrim ve'achat            I am 21 

?בת כמה את                  bat kamah at?

אני בת שלולים                anee bat shloshim                     I am 30

and your memory is already waiting for its session on memrise:

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

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)

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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/

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/

 

Israeli film: The Band's Visit

 

 

Just a link to yet another Israeli film. It's absolutely delightful!

 

The Band's Visit

Bikur Ha-Tizmoret

ביקור התזמורת

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQPVDTlyEsc

 

 

this is a version with Hebrew subtitles, which means that one has to guess at the Arabic and Hebrew bits. Even though the film is mostly in English the first 10 minutes are in Arabic but the English subtitled version of the film is not available on YouTube. 

 

    ביקור          bikur               visit    

 

    תזמורת       tizmoret          orchestra            

 

 

 

lessons 43 and 44

le'an ata halachta?



        ?לאן אתה הלחת               

this lesson introduces the second person singular past tense. It is deliberately short because I want to take it slowly: Just three verbs with examples. The grammar however is easy because the basics of the past tense have been covered in lessons 41 + 42. All you have to remember is, the second person singular masculine takes a -ta ending and the second person singular feminine a -t ending.
Seh ha kol - This is all.

 

XaXaX - ta

XaXaX - t

אתה היית                    ata hayita                         you were (masc.)

את היית                      at hayit                             you were (fem.)

אתה הית בלונדון         ata hayita beLondon?       have you been to London (masc.)

את היית בתל אביב      at hayit beTel Aviv?         have you been to Tel Aviv (fem.)

אתה ראית                  ata ra'ita                           you saw (masc.)

את ראית                    at ra'it                                you saw (fem.)

אתה ראית הים            ata ra'ita hayam?                did you see the sea? (masc.)

את ראית העיר             at ra'it ha'ir?                      did you see the city? (fem.)

אתה הלכת                 ata halachta                        you went (masc.)

את הלכת                    at halacht                           you went (fem.)

לאן אתה הלחת           le'an ata halachta ?             where to did you go? (masc.)

את הלחת לקולנוע       at halacht lekolno'a?           did you go to the cinema? (fem.)

and to practice it all go to my free course unit on memrise

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

Israeli film: Walk on Water

no lesson this time, just a link to one of my favorite Israeli films:

 

Walk on Water :    ללכת על המים

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20N1LBUgOk8

 

and an interview with Eytan Fox:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yJxUG_sq_s 

 

 

 

the film is mostly in English and has Hebrew subtitles, the Hebrew and the German bits are unfortunately also subtitled in Hebrew so one has to guess or read the wikipedia entry, but it's still absolutely worth watching. 

lessons 41 + 42: past tense

lessons 41 + 42

 

shalom

ירושלים

This is the first lesson of the third memrise course unit:

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

A big step foreward: we're now entering the realms of the past tense and I am afraid that means quite a bit of grammar at first. But everything will be repeated over and over again until you don't find it difficult  any more but only boring ;-)



the past tense

the past tense in Hebrew is formed by adding specific endings to the basic form of the verb in question. The basic form however is already a past tense form, the one that does not have an ending: the third person masculine past tense. i.e. he said, he worked, he was, he ate, he loved.... . This form is the one you will find in a dictionary when looking up a new word and that's why it's so incredibly important. In the average European language traditions you'll have to look for the infinitive when searching in a dictionnary, in Hebrew you will have to know the third person singular masculine form. And for that you have to know your consonants:



the root consonants

a well behaved Hebrew verb has three root consonants, here a few examples:

k - t - b    for  to write
l - m - d   for  to learn
' - h  - v    for to love

these three root consonants can be found in every tense:  past, present and future. What changes are the vowels and the pre- and suffixes but the three root consonants, they stay put. This is something I'll be coming back to again and again in future posts so don't worry if you find it strange at first.

it can be visualised like this: first take a regular verb and then subtitute the consonants with an X and you get the basic structure, the basic principle, of how verb conjugation works:

root                        present tense                   past tense
consonants            masculine sg.                  3rd p.sg. masculine

l - m - d         :        l - o - m - e - d       :          l - a - m - a - d
X - X - X                X - o - X - e - X                 X - a - X - a - X



the first person singular past tense

it's simple now, you take the third person singular past tense and add a -ti

'ahavti, katavti, halachti, ra'iti., lamadti...  and so on
I loved, I wrote, I walked, I saw, I learned...
here, for once Hebrew doesn't distinguish between masculine and feminine.


in Hebrew it is not necessary to add the personal pronoun singular to the past tense because, contrary to the present tense, it is already evident in the verb ending. But to make things easier for beginners I think it doesn't hurt to keep the personal pronouns for a while.


the verb 'to be'

The verb to be, omitted in the present tense comes out into the daylight in the past tense.
And of course, like in most languages, 'to be' is not regular. The 3rd p. sg. masc. is hayah and the first person sg. is hayiti so this is something you'll have to learn individually since the rules won't help much.


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and here the list of new words and new forms for the memrise exercises:

אתמול                                 etmol                                            yesterday

לקרות                                 likrot                                              to happen

?מה קרה                             mah karah                                    what happened?

?מה קרה אתמול                   mah karah etmol                           what happened yesterday?

להיות                                  lihiot                                               to be

מה אתה רוצה להיות              mah ata rotzeh lihiot ?                  what do you want to be?           

אני הייתי                              anee hayiti                                     I was

אני הייתי בלונדון                    anee hayiti belondon                     I was in London

אני ראיתי                             anee raiti                                        I saw

אני ראיתי הים                       anee raiti hayam                            I saw the sea

אני הלכתי                            anee halachti                                  I went

אתמול אני הלכתי לקולנוע       etmol anee halachti lekolno'a        yesterday I went to the cinema