Learn how to use personal pronouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sherah: Hello and welcome to hebrewpod101.com. This is Lower Beginner Series Season 1, Lesson 12 - How to Use Hebrew Feminine Grammar. I’m your host, Sherah! |
| Amir: And I’m Amir. |
| Sherah: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use feminine grammar. |
| Amir: The conversation takes place in Anna’s dorm room in the evening. |
| Sherah: The conversation is between Anna, Ofir and Anna’s roommates. |
| Amir: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal Hebrew. |
| Sherah: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| אופיר: מה אתן עשיתן היום? |
| Ofir: Mah aten asiten ha-yom? |
| אנה: אנחנו עבדנו ולמדנו. |
| Anna: Anaħ’nu avad’nu ve-lamad’nu. |
| אפיר: אתן עובדות באותו מקום בקיבוץ? |
| Ofir: Aten ov’dot be-oto makom ba-kibbutz? |
| אנה: לא, אני עובדת במכבסה והן ברפת. |
| Anna: Lo, Ani ovedet ba-mikh’basah ve-hen ba-refet. |
| אופיר: ברפת? מסכנות! |
| Ofir: Ba-refet? Mis’kenot! |
| אנה: איפה אתה עובד? |
| Anna: Eifo atah oved? |
| אופיר: אני לא עובד, אני לומד באוניברסיטה. |
| Ofir: Ani lo oved, ani lomed ba-universitah. |
| Sherah: Let’s listen to the conversation one more time, slowly. |
| אופיר: מה אתן עשיתן היום? |
| Ofir: Mah aten asiten ha-yom? |
| אנה: אנחנו עבדנו ולמדנו. |
| Anna: Anaħ’nu avad’nu ve-lamad’nu. |
| אפיר: אתן עובדות באותו מקום בקיבוץ? |
| Ofir: Aten ov’dot be-oto makom ba-kibbutz? |
| אנה: לא, אני עובדת במכבסה והן ברפת. |
| Anna: Lo, Ani ovedet ba-mikh’basah ve-hen ba-refet. |
| אופיר: ברפת? מסכנות! |
| Ofir: Ba-refet? Mis’kenot! |
| אנה: איפה אתה עובד? |
| Anna: Eifo atah oved? |
| אופיר: אני לא עובד, אני לומד באוניברסיטה. |
| Ofir: Ani lo oved, ani lomed ba-universitah. |
| Sherah: Now, let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| אופיר: מה אתן עשיתן היום? |
| Ofir: Mah aten asiten ha-yom? |
| Ofir: What did you (plural) do today? |
| אנה: אנחנו עבדנו ולמדנו. |
| Anna: Anaħ’nu avad’nu ve-lamad’nu. |
| Anna: We worked and studied. |
| אפיר: אתן עובדות באותו מקום בקיבוץ? |
| Ofir: Aten ov’dot be-oto makom ba-kibbutz? |
| Ofir: Do you work in the same place in the kibbutz? |
| אנה: לא, אני עובדת במכבסה והן ברפת. |
| Anna: Lo, Ani ovedet ba-mikh’basah ve-hen ba-refet. |
| Anna: No, I work in the laundry, and they work in the dairy. |
| אופיר: ברפת? מסכנות! |
| Ofir: Ba-refet? Mis’kenot! |
| Ofir: The dairy? Poor girls! |
| אנה: איפה אתה עובד? |
| Anna: Eifo atah oved? |
| Anna: Where do you work? |
| אופיר: אני לא עובד, אני לומד באוניברסיטה. |
| Ofir: Ani lo oved, ani lomed ba-universitah. |
| Ofir: I don't work. I study at university. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sherah: Well, I thought we should talk about timing in Israel... |
| Amir: I’m not sure I follow, what do you mean by that? |
| Sherah: Well, the timing of major life events is a little different than in other countries. |
| Amir: Oh, you mean like University and the army and such? |
| Sherah: Exactly, when Israelis finish high school, they go on to do their army service, or their national service. Men serve for 3 years and women for two. |
| Amir: The army or national service is something that is required for most of the population of Israel. |
| Sherah: But because you have these 2-3 years in the army, the timing of life events like going to University is a little different from other countries. |
| Amir: Right, in other countries you go to University when you are 18 or 19. In Israel, you go when you’re around 21 or 22. |
| Sherah: Most people take a half year or year break to travel the world after the army, so this makes the timing even later. |
| Amir: We usually don’t finish University until we are in our mid-20s, so we tend to marry later as well. |
| Sherah: I think another thing is that almost all Israelis go to University or a college after the army, so later timing is pretty universal. |
| Amir: Well, it’s extremely difficult to find a job without a degree in Israel, so most people choose to go to university. |
| Sherah: And it’s not too expensive. It’s quite a bit cheaper than studying in the States, but it is more expensive than in some European countries. |
| Amir: I think the result is that we have a very different atmosphere in our Universities. |
| Sherah: That’s true, the difference from 18 to 22 is usually pretty big. Well, now let’s move on to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Sherah: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Sherah: The first word we shall see is... |
| Amir: היום [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: today |
| Amir: היום [slowly - broken down by syllable] היום [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: אנחנו [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: we |
| Amir: אנחנו [slowly - broken down by syllable] אנחנו [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: אתן [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: you (pl.,fem.) |
| Amir: אתן [slowly - broken down by syllable] אתן [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: איפה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: where |
| Amir: איפה [slowly - broken down by syllable] איפה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: אותו [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: the same |
| Amir: אותו [slowly - broken down by syllable] אותו [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: מקום [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: place |
| Amir: מקום [slowly - broken down by syllable] מקום [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: רפת [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: dairy farm |
| Amir: רפת [slowly - broken down by syllable] רפת [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: מסכן [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: unfortunate/miserable |
| Amir: מסכן [slowly - broken down by syllable] מסכן [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: אוניברסיטה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: university |
| Amir: אוניברסיטה [slowly - broken down by syllable] אוניברסיטה [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Sherah: Let’s take a closer look at some of the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is אותו. |
| Amir: This word is found in the sentence אתן עובדות באותו מקום בקיבוץ and it means “the same” |
| Sherah: There are two words with this spelling, so you have to find the meaning from the context of the sentence. In this lesson, we are only talking about the אותו that means “the same”. |
| Amir: This word needs to agree in gender with the noun is it modifying. מקום is masculine, so you use אותו. |
| Sherah: There are 4 versions - אותו, אותה, אותם and אותן. What you use depends on the gender and number of what you are comparing. |
| Amir: One phrase that we use a lot with this word is זה אותו דבר or “it’s the same thing”. |
| Sherah: The next word we want to talk about is רפת. |
| Amir: A ‘refet’ is a dairy where they keep cows for milking. |
| Sherah: In Israel, there are small ‘refets’ all over the country and they all sell their milk to the big dairy producers. |
| Amir: In one village, you could have 2 or 3 ‘refets’ and on a kibbutz you would have one large one. |
| Sherah: Our last word is מסכן and it means “miserable” or “wretched”. |
| Amir: Israelis use this a lot when they feel sorry for someone, and then they will call that person מסכן. |
| Sherah: You can also use this ironically if you are jealous that someone gets to do something fun that you don’t get to do. מסכן! Okay, now let’s move on to the Grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Sherah: In this lesson, we will review using feminine grammar. This was one of the tougher things for me to pick up, just because I wasn’t used to having to separate everyone into male and female. |
| Amir: Right, in English you don’t have that at all. |
| Sherah: And in many European languages, you separate the nouns into genders, but when you’re talking to someone, you don’t have to think about whether they are male or female. |
| Amir: That’s what makes Hebrew different, but it is similar in other semitic languages. Arabic also has similar grammar. |
| Sherah: So, what we want to review in this lesson is feminine grammar, or the grammar that you use when you are talking to one or more girls or women. |
| Amir: Let’s start out with what Ofir asks the girls, מה אתן עשיתן היום? |
| Sherah: Because Ofir is talking to all women, he uses the pronoun אתן and the feminine plural ending -תן on עשיתן. Let’s take this sentence and change it to a singular “you” את. |
| Amir: Then the sentence would be מה את עשית היום? |
| Sherah: And if we wanted to ask what “they” did, when “they” is all women... |
| Amir: מה הן עשו היום?. |
| Sherah: With this last sentence, you use the pronoun הן, but the verb עשו is used for both הן and הם. So, for the masculine and the feminine. |
| Amir: Right, the hardest one to remember is the second person “you” plural in the feminine because that’s the version you’ll use the least. |
| Sherah: Right, it only takes one man to change the grammar, and then you have to use אתם. |
| Amir: That’s exactly why you use it so little. |
| Sherah: So let’s listen to some examples to get used to the feminine plural pattern. We’ll give you sentences for אתן and then sentences for הן. We’ll give you one sample sentence for the present, the past, and then the future for each. Take it away Amir. |
| Amir: Okay, first sentence - אתן חייבות לבוא לשיעור בזמן |
| Sherah: You have to come to class on time. |
| Amir: אתן הייתן בשיעור שלי אתמול. |
| Sherah: You were in my class yesterday. |
| Amir: אתן תבשלו ארוחת ערב היום. |
| Sherah: You will cook dinner today. |
| Amir: הן רצות במרוץ. |
| Sherah: They are running in the race. |
| Amir: הן הייו בקניון. |
| Sherah: They were at the mall. |
| Amir: הן יאמינו לו |
| Sherah: “They will believe him.” There are so many little things in the grammar that change from past, to present, to future. Sometimes the verbs are the same as with other pronouns and sometimes the verbs are different from all other pronouns. |
| Amir: My tip is to write down all the different conjugations of a verb to see the patterns throughout the language. |
| Sherah: I know that that really helped me. I’m the type of person who benefits from seeing the structure of things. |
Outro |
|---|
| Sherah: Okay, well, that’s it for this lesson. Thanks for listening, everyone! |
| Amir: Make sure you check the lesson notes, and we’ll see you for the next lesson. |
| Sherah: Bye! |
14 Comments
HideHi everyone, what did you do today?
Dear Vicki H and דוד,
@Vicki H - as you wrote,the word 'אותו' can be used for 2 purposes in Hebrew, the first one "same" appears in this lesson, as in the example of "אותו מקום" (the same place) or אותו דבר (same thing).
The second meaning is the conjugated pronoun for singular 3rd person "him", as in "I saw him yesterday" - ראיתי אותו אתמול.
@a דוד - Great work! these are very nice Hebrew phrases and an excellent answer to our question!
please note some typos in the following words:
think = חושב (with a ח, not a ה)
of course = כמובן (with כ, not ב)
Happy to assist! keep up the good work!
Yours,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
מה עשיתי היום
אני הושב שזה משעמם
רק הקשבתי למוזיקה, ולמדתי עברית.
במובן גם בבישלתי אוכל וכיבסתי את הבגדים שלי
.
the lesson notes refer to אותו having two words with this spelling. What two words are you referring to? I have found several meanings for this word "oto" when I look it up.
Hi קמילה,
Thanks for posting and for sharing! sounds like a nice chilled day 😉😅
Note that "we are resting" is "אנחנו נחות" (from the verb "לנוח"ת you've translated ןא as "מתרעגות" - which unfortunately isn't a word...😜)
Note also that "אנחנו צריכות לזכור לקחת משקפי השמש." can be either "אנחנו צריכות לזכור לקחת משקפי שמש." without an article (and without "את") OR "אנחנו צריכות לזכור לקחת את משקפי השמש." (with and with). The first option "לקחת משקפי שמש" is the more natural one, as you're not necessarily talking about a specific pair...
Great work! It's a pleasure to see you improving with every comment! ❤️️👍😇
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
היום לא עשיתי כלום כי מזג האוויר חם מדי. כל החברות שלי נשארות בבית שלהן, הן לא רצו לצאת בגלל גל החום . אמא שלי ואני אכלנו ועכשיו אנחנו מתרעגות. אולי אחר כך נצא. אנחנו צריכות לזכור לקחת משקפי השמש. 😎
Hi Darren,
Thanks for posting!
Well, you're not hearing things, this is actually the case. This is an example for a Hebrew word that's often not pronounced according to how it 'really' should... This happens in Hebrew sometimes, and it raises a question that's relevant for Hebrew speakers, learners, and teachers - what is eventually 'correct'? what people say or the way words should be said according to the rules?
We teach the 'correct way', of course, but it may happen once in a while that some mismatches with the audio would occur, as our speakers in the recordings are so used to the 'street' pronunciation...
I hope this is not too confusing, please let me know if further clarification is needed.
Yours,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
I feel like most of the time, when I hear the word אוניברסיטה , the first syllable sounds more like "oh" then "oo": Oh-niversita. Am I just hearing things?
Hi Brian,
good job! I only have a few corrections for your sentence:
היום אני ישנתי עד שמונה בבוקר. אני אכלתי ארוחת בוקר ולמדתי עברית
Sounds like a nice productive day. Keep on enjoying Hebrew!
Idit
Team Hebrewpod101.com
היום אני ישןתי עד שמונה בבוקר. אני אוכלתי ארוחת בוקר ולומדתי עברית
Today I slept until 8am. I ate breakfast and studied Hebrew.
Hi Fatma Elias,
Thank you for posting :smile:
יוצא דופן means "exceptional" or "extraordinary", so the phrase בצורה יוצאת דופן means "in an extraordinary way".
יוצא דופן literally means "comes out the side", and it came from ancient Rabbinic literature, where it referred to people who were born in a c-section. You didn't see that coming, did you? :wink:
Keep enjoying Hebrew!
Sincerely,
Yaara,
Team HebrewPod101.com