Learn how to ask about your possessions
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| Shalom, ani Yana. Hi everybody! I’m Yana. | |
| Welcome to HebrewPod101.com’s “Ivrit be-shalosh dakot”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Hebrew. | |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to talk about age. I hope you remember that! | |
| This lesson we are going to learn how to talk about things you own. | |
| Yesh leha mehonit? Or, Yesh lah mehonit? “Do you have a car?” | |
| [slowly] Yesh leha mehonit (man) | |
| [slowly] Yesh lah mehonit? (woman) | |
| Let’s take a closer look at this question. | |
| Yesh leha/lah “Do you have”. | |
| Yesh literally means “there is” or “there are”. | |
| Leha/lah is a 2nd person singular pronoun used to indicate possession: like, “belongs to you”. And finally, mehonit means “car” | |
| So if you *do* have a car, how can you answer this question? | |
| All you have to do is simply say; | |
| Yesh li mehonit | |
| [slowly] Yesh li mehonit. | |
| Yesh- is “there is” or “there are” | |
| Li- is the 1st person version of Leha/lah. But you can use whether you are a male or female, so it’s easy! | |
| Li- always stays the same when you are talking about your possessions. Just add the noun (mehonit, sefer, etc) | |
| So say for example, that a classmate wants to borrow a pen from you. He might ask, Yesh leha/lah et? Which is “Do you have a pen?” | |
| If you only have a red pen, you can answer Yesh li et adom. “I have a red pen.” | |
| et- pen | |
| adom- red | |
| Let’s try few more examples of the words you already know; | |
| yesh leha esrim shekel? | |
| [slowly] yesh leha esrim shekel? | |
| Yesh lah esrim shekel? | |
| [slowly] Yesh lah esrim shekel? | |
| How do you answer? | |
| Yesh li esrim shekel. | |
| [slowly] Yesh li esrim shekel. | |
| If you want to make it more natural, just answer; Yesh li. (in case you have of course). | |
| Now it’s time for Yana’s tips. | |
| Beside the meaning of “there is” and “there are”, Yesh is also used in daily slang in Israel. | |
| It means something like “Yes! we did it!” or “Oh yeah!”. So don’t hesitate to use it next time when your favorite sports team wins! | |
| In previous lessons, we have learned simple affirmative sentences. | |
| Next time we’ll learn how to make the same sentences negative in order to say “I’m not” and “I don’t have” in Hebrew. | |
| It is very easy actually! | |
| I'll be waiting for you in the next Ivrit be-shalosh dakot lesson!. | |
| Lehitraot!! | |
| bye!! |
23 Comments
Hide'יש לֵךָ מכונית?'
Yesh leha mehonit?
"Do you have a car?"
Dear Linda,
Thank you for commenting on this issue!
Yes, the romanization of "Yesh leha mehonit?" would be better written "Yesh lekha mekhonit?" - it seems that the romanization here was done according to the 'old' method, where "כ" is simply replaced with "h", which is misleading and not correct.
Similarly, the female version should have been "Yesh lakh mekhonit" instead of "Yesh lah mehonit? (man)"
We will make sure to fix these issues his asap 👍
Sincerely,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
For the female version, when you say "lah", wouldn't it be "לה" or does the "ך" have a different nikud than לֵךָ, it's confusing if they are spelled the same without the nikud, "ך" doesn't make the "ah" sound.
Hi Victoria and Isabel Pupo,
Thanks for posting!
Of course, one could just say "yes" or "no", but for learning purposes and to train using possessions, we present here the full versions of sentences 😄
Enjoy learning Hebrew!
Best,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
Shalom, Can’t you simply just say ken or lo?
Thank you Yana for teaching Hebrew!
Regards,
Victoria and Isabel!
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for posting this question!
Yes, answering this question with "Ken, Yesh li mekhonit." (כן, יש לי מכונית) is entirely correct and natural. An alternative is to simply say "ken", as the full answer could be a little redundant (unless wanting to stress it for some reason).
Keep up the good work!
Best,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
Is it natural/okay to respond to the question ("Do you have a car?"), "Ken, Yesh li mehonit."?
Shalom Lauren,
Toda raba for taking the time to leave us your kind comment! 😇
If you have any questions, let us know. 😉
Kind regards,
Levente (לבנטה)
Team HebrewPod101.com
I really love these Hebrew in 3 Minute lessons--informative and manageable! I especially appreciate how they build upon one another, which gives confidence and extra practise--thanks Yana! :D
Hi Glauco,
Thanks for posting!
I will be happy to assist, but I'm not sure I understand exactly what you mean by "the expression"... could you please specify a little?
Thanks,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
Hi, I would like to see the expression in hebrew text