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Lesson Transcript

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 ask "Where" questions in Hebrew.
This time, we are going to ask questions with the interrogative word "When?".
Let’s go! Bou nathil!
Imagine you want to ask when your roommate is coming back home. You will ask him Matai ata hozer? Or, Matai at hozeret?.
[slowly] Matai ata hozer?
[slowly] Matai at hozeret?
So let’s break down this answer:
First we had:
Matai, which is the basic translation of "When" in Hebrew.
Ata/at- you
Lahzor is the verb "to come back", Hozer in Hebrew is the form for masculine singular. And Hozeret is the same verb in the form of feminine singular.
So, all together it is Matai ata hozer?
Matai at hozeret?
"When will you come back/return?".
So in Hebrew, "When" is generally translated as the word Matai. For example, if you want to ask "When were you born?" It’s Matai noladeta? in masculine form. And
Matai noladet? in feminine form.
Also here, the question word is the first in the sentence.
So let’s have a look at another example:
How can you say "When did you arrive?"
It is really simple since it is exactly the same pattern: Matai higata? in masculine form.
Matai higat? in feminine form.
First we have Matai which is "When"
The verb Higata/higat indicates past tense second person.
By the way, the verb in the previous question for `when were you born` is also in past tense.
Can you notice some patterns on second person past-tense verbs in Hebrew?
Regardless of time- present, future or past, you can use Matai in any tense.
If you want to ask a question about duration as in "Since when have you been teacher?" Then you will have to say Mi-matai ata melamed? Or, Mi-matai at melamedet?
Direct translation of mi-matai- is `from when`.
It is the same Mi-- as Me-eifo- from where.
As in- me-eifo ata? me-eifo at?
Ani mi-america.
Let’s see how to ask "Until when?" in Hebrew. It is very easy as you can translate it directly. It becomes: Ad matai?
So for example, if you want to ask a friend "Until when are you going to stay here?" It will be Ad matai ata nish`ar po? Ad matai at nish`eret po?
You can detect easily by now which one refers to a female speaker and which one to a male.
But of course there are other ways to ask about time. You can even be more specific by asking about the year, the date or the hour.
For example, you can ask:
- "Which year did you start working?" -
Be-eizo shana hithalta laavod?
Be-eizo shana hithalt laavod?
- "Which day is better for you?"
will be
Be-eize yom noah leha?
Be-eize yom noah lah?
- "What hour can we meet?"
is
Be-eizo shaa nuhal lehipagesh?
Here, `we` can be used both for masculine or feminine.
Now it’s time for Yana’s Insights.
lets try to review all variations of “when” in Hebrew so far;
Matai- “When” Matai ata hozer? matai at hozeret?
Mi-matai- “Since when” Mimatai ata melamed? Mi-matai at melamedet?
Ad Matai- “Until when” Ad matai atem ptuhim?
(Until when are you open? For example, at a shop).
Ok, so in this lesson, we learned how to correctly use the interrogative Hebrew word for "When", Matai- but also its different variations.
Next lesson we’ll learn more about asking questions with "Who" in Hebrew.
I`ll give you a hint! I already introduced it to you couple lessons ago!!
I’ll be waiting for you in the next Ivrit be-shalosh dakot
Lehitraot!!

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