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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 "When" questions in Hebrew.
This time, we are going to ask questions with the interrogative word "Who?".
Imagine you want to ask your friend who is his favorite singer?
Here, the question you can ask Mi ha-zamar she-ata hahi ohev? Mi ha-zamar she-at hahi ohevet?
[slowly] Mi ha-zamar she-ata hahi ohev?
[slowly] Mi ha-zamar she-at hahi ohevet?
So let’s break down this answer:
First we had:
Mi- which is the basic translation of "Who" in Hebrew.
Ha-zamar- Is simply- `the singer`. (it is in the masculine form but in the question you usually ask in masculine, since it is the default form).
She-ata Or She-at- is `that you` (masculine or feminine).
hahi ohev/hahi ohevet- is `love the most`. Remember the romantic verb Leehov? Here you can use it too.
So in Hebrew, "Who" is mainly translated as Mi to ask about someone's identity.
For example, if you want to ask "Who are these people?" You will say Mi ha-anashim ha-ele? when talking about a group of unknown persons.
As in English, the interrogative word `who` is the first in the sentence.
Mi- only works for people, so you can't use it to ask information about things or places.
Lets see another example;
Mi ba mahar la-mesiba?
Who is coming to the party tomorrow?
[slowly] Mi ba mahar la-mesiba?
Note that Mi- can be used for singular or plural.
In Hebrew, `who` changes slightly depending on the direction, so for example-
`Who has party tomorrow?`, will be-
Le-mi yesh mesiba mahar?
[slowly] Le-mi yesh mesiba mahar?
Le- is the direction of `to`, `towards`.
Do you remember what Yesh means?
Another example-
Le-mi yesh et adom?
Who has a red pan?
[slowly] Le-mi yesh et adom?
In case the direction is `from`, you just add Mi-mi, that translates as `from who`;
Mi-mi shamata al ha-mis`ada ha-zo? (masculine)
Or, Mi-mi shamat al ha-misada ha-zo? (feminine)
Who did you hear from about this restaurant?
[slowly] Mi-mi shamata al ha-misada ha-zo?
[slowly] Mi-mi shamat al ha-misada ha-zo?
Before moving on, lets review the various forms of `who` in Hebrew;
Mi- the simplest interrogative word for `who`.
Le-mi- translates as `to who`.
Mi-mi- `from who`.
Now its time for Yana’s insights;
If someone that you didn't expect is knocking at your door in Israel, the common question you can ask is Mi ze?? before opening the door.
This literally means "Who is it?".
Again, note that Ze-`this` is the masculine form, but as a default you always use the masculine form in Hebrew.
In this lesson, we learned how to correctly use the interrogative word for "Who" which is Mi in Hebrew, but also its variations.
Now you can easily know who is who!
Next lesson will be our last of this absolute beginner series.
We will deal with the last but not least common interrogative word Lama- !I’ll be waiting for you in the next Ivrit be-shalosh dakot lesson!
Lehitraot ve-ad ha-paam ha-baa!!

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