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 lekha mekhonit? Or, Yesh lakh mekhonit? “Do you have a car?” |
| [slowly] Yesh lekha mekhonit (man) |
| [slowly] Yesh lakh mekhonit? (woman) |
| Let’s take a closer look at this question. |
| Yesh lekha/lakh “Do you have”. |
| Yesh literally means “there is” or “there are”. |
| lekha/lakh 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 mekhonit |
| [slowly] Yesh li mekhonit. |
| Yesh- is “there is” or “there are” |
| Li- is the 1st person version of lekha/lakh. 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 lekha/lakh 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 lekha esrim shekel? |
| [slowly] Yesh lekha esrim shekel? |
| Yesh lakh esrim shekel? |
| [slowly] Yesh lakh 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!! |
24 Comments
Hide'יש לֵךָ מכונית?'
Yesh leha mehonit?
"Do you have a car?"
Dear Samuel Santos,
Thanks for posting and sharing your work!
Well done, but please see a few notes to your sentences -
יש לי אופניים. 👍
ולאופניים שלי יש שני גלגלים. - note that "wheel" is masculine in Hebrew
יש לי גם שתי רגליים בשביל ללכת ורחובות להתהלך בהם.
אבל יש לי גם מכוֹנית.
- note that "I have" is said in Hebrew literally as "there is to me" - יש לי
עד הפעם הבאה 😉
I hope that's all clear now :)
Keep up the great work!
Yours,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
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
יש לי אופניים.
ואופניים שלי יש שתים גלגלים.
אני יש גם שנים רגליים ללכת ורחובות להתהלך.
אבל אני גם יש מכוֹנית.
עד הפעם הבאה
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