lessons 21 and 22 yesh lechem?

lessons 21 and 22  

 yesh lechem?


לחם

shalom

 

The second course unit on memrise, starting with lesson 21 is now ready:

http://www.memrise.com/course/80807/modern-hebrew-for-beginners-2-2/

יש                          yesh                              there is

?יש                         yesh?                            is there?

לחם                        lechem                          bread

יש לחם?                       yesh lechem?                is there bread

חמאה                      chemah                         butter

יש חמאה                  yesh chemah?              is there butter?

כן                            ken                                yes

כן יש                        ken yesh                       yes there is

שלוש                        shalosh                          three

חמש                         chamesh                        five

שירותים                    sheroutim                       bathroom

איפה השירותים          aifo ha sheroutim?         where is the bathroom?
 

yesh is a really important word. It means there is. Like the il y a in French.
it's a question: yesh lechem? (is there bread?) and it's an answer: ken yesh (yes there is).

numbers
two new numbers today:
3 = shalosh
5= chamesh
and the ones from the last lesson
8= shmoneh
10= esser

sheroutim
aifo ha sheroutim is arguably one of the most important questions ever ;-) so it needs to be memorised early on even though the grammar is a bit ahead of this course.
the ending -im is a masculine plural ending. Compare it to the mah omrim be 'ivrit we had earlier. Plural endings are really easy (just -im for masculine and -ot for feminine)  and they will be discussed in depth in lesson 53+54 onwards. For now just remember that we have mentioned it and memorise the word sheroutim. That's it for today. Lehitra'ot

lessons 19 and 20 mah hasha'ah?

lessons 19 and 20 

 

mah hasha'a?

 

 

 

?מה השעה

 

what time is it???

 don't forget to practice at

 

http://www.memrise.com/course/78569/modern-hebrew-for-beginners-2/

סליחה                          slichah                                     excuse me

מה השעה                      mah hasha'a?                          what time is it? (what is the hour?)

שעה                             sha'ah                                       hour

השעה                           hasha'ah                                   the hour

שמונה                           shmoneh                                  eight

עשר                              esser                                        ten

ערב                               erev                                         evening

בוקר                              boker                                        morning

השעה שמונה בערב         ha sha'a shmoneh ba'erev        it is eight in the evening 
                                                                                              ( the hour (is) eight in the evening )

השעה עשר בבוקר           ha sha'a esser baboker             it is ten in the morning 
                                                                                               ( the hour (is) tenin the morning ) 

what time is it?

this is very straight foreward:
mah hasha'ah? = what the hour? = what time is it?


numbers

we meet the first numbers in this lesson. Numbers can be a bit tricky because 1 -10 come in a feminine and a masculine form according to the noun they count. For simple simple counting one uses the feminine form. But not to worry we'll do it slowly. So, for today just two feminine numbers because sha'ah (hour) is feminine:
shmoneh = eight
esser = ten 
(I am transcribing the s in  עשר with two s because the pronounciation is not soft but rather sharp. A questionable compromise but hopefully it indicates the pronunciation well.)



the preposition be

we learned that be means in and at
now, when it combines with the definite article ha it becomes ba

be + ha = ba

be + ha + boker = baboker
be + ha + erev = ba'erev

be + ha + universitah = ba'universitah = at the university
 

lessons 17 and 18 

hee ovedet be'universitah





?מה את כותבת    
mah at kotevet? 
 

don't forget the exercises at:

 

http://www.memrise.com/course/78569/modern-hebrew-for-beginners-2/

אני כותב                         anee kotev                              I write (masc.)

היא כותבת                      anee kotevet                           I write (fem.)

מכתב                             michtav                                   letter

אני כותב מכתב                anee kotev michtav                I write a letter

?מה אתה כותב                  mah ata kotev?                       what do you write? (masc.)

?מה את כותבת                  mah at kotevet?                      what do you write? (fem.)

ספר                                sefer                                        book

אני כותבת ספר                 anee kotevet sefer                  I write a book (fem.)

איפה אתה                        aifo ata                                   where are you?

אוניברסיטה                      universitah                              university

אני באוניברסיטה               anee be universitah                 I am at the university

היא עובדת                        hee 'ovedet                               she works

הוא עובד                           hu 'oved                                   he works

איפה היא עובדת                aifo hee 'ovedet?                      where does she work?

איפה הוא עובד                   aifo hu 'oved?                          where does he work?

הוא עועובד  בקולנוע               hu 'oved be kolno'a he             works at the cinema

היא עובדת באוניברסיטה     hee 'ovedet be universitah        she works at the university


prepositions
be is very useful it means in and at and it is joined to the following noun like the article. This is a bit irritating at first because it blurs the beginning of the noun when learning to read. Other prepositions and the conjunction and do the same. So when reading a Hebrew text it's always important to remember that nouns often only start with the second letter.

verbs
just two verbs today and they are pretty easy too, meaning they are quite regular in the present tense.
kotev - kotevet  and oved - ovedet  both taking the -et ending for the feminine forms.

three root consonants
now, there is a thing you might have heard about, that's pretty special for the verbs in semitic languages. They can be analysed and described with regard to the consonants they contain.
the average verb can be reduced to its three root consonants which always stay the same while vowels and prefixes change according to tenses. This concept is really important to understand conjugation and I will come back to it regularly, but for the moment I just wanted to introduce it for the first time:

so, if you look at kotev or lomed it is easy to find the three consonants:

kotev :                k t v              כ ת ב

lomed :               l m d            ל מ ד     
 
for oved  it's:      ' v d             ע ב ד

 with practice it gets easier.

All this is really important if you want to find a verb in a dictionary because they are classified according to the 3rd person singular past tense. This tense is the easiest and most regular and generally only involves the three root consonants plus the vowel a :
the past tense for    he wrote :        katav
                               he learned:      lamad
                               he worked :     'avad
of course not all verbs have three consonants and there are some quirks but it's not too bad and it'll be explained later in little increments.
The past tense in this course is not coming until lesson 41/42 so there's plenty of time to get used to all these ideas.



 

lessons 15 and 16 

 

 anee ochelet ugat shokolad

 

 

 

אני אוכלת עוגתשוקולד

 

 

Shalom, today's lesson is all about eating and drinking:

 

אני אוכל                        anee ochel                                    I eat (masc.)

אני אוכלת                      anee ochelet                                 I eat (fem.)

עוגה                              ugah                                              cake

עוגת גבינה                      ugat gvinah                                  cheese cake

עוגת שוקולד                   ugat shokolad                               chocolate cake

מה אתה אוכל                  mah ata ochel?                             what do you eat? (masc.)

אני אוכל עוגת גבינה         anee ochel ugah                            I eat cheese cake (masc.)

מה את אוכלת                   mah at ochelet?                           what do you eat? (fem.)

אני אוכלת עוגת שוקולד     anee ochelet ugat shokolad          I eat chokolate cake (fem.)

אני שותה                          anee shoteh                                  I drink (masc.)

  

אני שותה                         anee shotah                                   I drink (fem.)

מה היא שותה                   mah hee shotah                             what does she drink?

מה הוא שותה                   mah hu shoteh                              what does he drink?

היא שותה קפה                 hee shotah kafeh                          she drinks coffee

הוא שותה מים                   hu shoteh ma'im                          he drinks water

and the exercises can be found here:

http://www.memrise.com/course/78569/modern-hebrew-for-beginners-2/

new verbs:

ochel - ochelet (eat)
shoteh - shotah (drink)


composit words:

we already had bait kafeh where the two nouns are just put next to each other.
Other combinations are a little more complex:
ougat gvinah is one example, here the ougah needs a -t to combine with the gvinah
In Hebrew the stand alone form ougah is called the absolute state and the form needed
for combinations is called constructed state.

The rules on this are not so hard and fast as we would like them to be. The easiest way
out is to learn the composite words as they come along and not to try and construct them
on your own. But hey, even if you did, people would certainly understand what you're
trying to say, so don't worry too much about it. It's the kind of thing that usually solves
itself over time. Once you're more familiar with the language it'll be easy.

lessons 13 and 14 mah at ossah?

lessons 13 and 14

 mah at ossah?



אני קוראה העיתון

anee koret ha'iton

 

shalom a brand new lesson and lots of exercises here at:

http://www.memrise.com/course/78569/modern-hebrew-for-beginners-2/

איפה                       aifo                             where

איפה אתה                aifo ata                         where are you? (masc.)

איפה את                  aifo at                           where are you? (fem.)

בית                          bait                               house

בית קפה                   bait kafeh                     cafe

אני בבית הקפה          anee bebait kafeh         I am at the cafe

מה אתה עושה            mah ata osseh?            what are you doing? (masc.)

מה את עושה              mah at ossah?              what are you doing? (fem.)

אני קוראה                  anee koreh                   I read (masc.)

אני קוראה                  anee koret                     I read (fem.)

העיתון                        ha iton                         the newspaper

אני קוראה העיתון        anee koret ha'iton       I am reading the newspaper (fem.)

אני קוראה העיתון        anee koreh ha'iton         I am reading the newspaper (masc.)

interrogative determiner (yet again)

the new one:
aifo? = where?

the old ones:
mee? = who?
mah? = what?
le'an? = where to?


articles:

there's only one definite article in Hebrew, just as in English
ha = the      and it is joined to the following noun just as the prepositions:
ha + iton = ha'iton
this makes reading a bit confusing at first because so many words seem to begin with an h. 
You'll soon learn to skip it to get to the first letter of the 'real' word.


The indefinite article does not have a word, it is implied in the absence of the definite article:
ha'iton = the newspaper
iton = a newspaper


composite nouns:

a very straight foreward way of combining nouns is the following one:
bait + kafeh = bait kafeh : house + coffee =  coffeehouse or coffee shop or café
a more interesting combination (cheese cake) will be discussed in the next lesson.


conjugtion:

yet another way of conjugating verbs in the present tense:
koreh = I, you, he read(s)  (masc.)
koret = I, you, she read(s) (fem.)

lessons 11 and 12

anee holechet lekolno'a





קולנוע 

  
shalom and don't forget to practice it all on:

http://www.memrise.com/course/78569/modern-hebrew-for-beginners-2/

הוא                          hu                                        he

היא                          hee                                      she

היא הולכת                hee holechet                       she goes

הוא הולך                  hu holech                            he goes

אני הולך                   anee holech                         I go (masc.)

אני הולכת                 anee holech                         I go (fem.)

קולנוע                      kolno'a                                 cinema

ל                              le                                         to

לאן                           le'an                                    where to

לאן אתה הולך           le'an ata holech?                 where to do you go?

לאן אתה הולכת         le'an at holechet?                where to do you go?

אני הולך לקולנוע       anee holech lekolno'a           I go to the cinema

אני הולכת לקולנוע     anee holechet lekolno'a        I go to the cinema

verbs:
holech - holechet is an easy one, it follows the lomed - lomedet pattern
in terms of meaning it is a little more complex, it covers 'to go' and 'to walk'.
In the memrise excercises I only used it as 'to go' because otherwise it would
become too complicated but it's important to know that it also means 'to walk'.

prepositions:
our first preposition le- means to or toward
it is a prefix, which means it is glued to the following noun: le + kolno'a = lekolno'a
in Hebrew prepositions are always joined to the following noun which makes it a bit tricky
at first when learning to read because we are used to haviing gaps between words and in Hebrew prepositions are not considered to be individual words. The same happens with conjunctions and articles. So, just as an example: when a word begins with l- or b- or h- it might not be the first letter of the word at all but a preposition or something else and only the second letter will be the 'real' beginning of the word. That's tricky at first but one gets used to it with practice.


interrogative determiner (sorry for the horrid technical term)
they are very useful little words for asking lots of questions and more of them are coming soon

we've learned three so far:
mee? = who?
mah? = what?
le'an? =  where to?

personal pronouns
we've got all the singular forms now:
anee = I
ata = you (masc.)
at = you (fem.)
hu = he
hee = she

lessons 9+10 mah omrim be'ivrit

lessons 9+10  

 

mah omrim be'ivrit?

 

 



קפה עם חלב 
kafeh 'im chalav

 

 

Shalom! Today we're going to learn a very important question: how do we say in Hebrew? Mah omrim be'ivrit? and how to order coffee and water. And a few other things as well:

?מה נשמע                        mah nishma'                        how are you? (what will we hear?)

לא רע תודה                     lo ra todah                            not bad thank you

אני אומר                          anee omer                              I say

אני אומרת                        anee omeret                           I say

מה את אומרת                   mah at omeret                        what do you say (fem.)

מה אתה אומר                   mah ata omer                         what do you say (masc.)

מה אומרים בעברית           mah omrim be'ivrit               what do we say in Hebrew?
                                                                                             

אני רוצה                          anee rotzeh                             I want (masc.)

אני רוצה                          anee rotzah                             I want (fem.)

קפה                                kafeh                                       coffee

עם                                  im                                            with

חלב                                chalav                                       milk

מים                                 maim                                        water

כוס                                 kos                                            glass

קפה עם חלב                   kafeh im chalav                         coffee with milk

כוס מים                          kos ma'im                                   a glass of water

אני רוצה כוס מים             anee rotzah kos ma'im                I want a glass of water (fem.)

אני רוצה קפה עם חלב     anee rotzeh kafeh im chalav        I want coffee with milk (masc.)

Quite a big lesson today. and lots of training at:

http://www.memrise.com/course/78569/modern-hebrew-for-beginners-2/

 

verbs
omer - omeret (say) works exactly like lomed - lomedet (learn)

the first auxilliary verb:
rotzeh - rotzah (want)
important now and even more once the infinitives will come into play

an important question
look closely at the 'mah omrim beivrit', the -im in omrim is a plural ending. The word by word translation is 'how do we say in Hebrew'. Plurals will be discussed much later in this course but I think that the sentence 'mah omrim beivrit' is so extremly useful that I didn't want to wait. 

the first conjunction: im = with
conjunctions are words like: and, or, with, without, but...
more conjunctions will follow soo of course because they are so frequent and important


mah nishma?
'Mah nishma' literally translated means 'what will we hear?'
The 'nishma' is the first person plural in the future tense of the verb 'lishmo'a' =  'to hear'
nishma = we will hear   And the expression is used as an equivalent to the English 'How are you?'.

It is easier in the beginning because you don't have to distinguish the gender as in:
mah shlomcha (masc.) ?  
mah shlomech (fem.) ?
which literally means : what (is) your wellbeing / peace?
and is again an equivalent to the English 'How are you?'
We'll learn mah shlomcha? / mah shlomech? somewhere later in this course.
As for the future tense it'll probably appear around lesson 75 or later.