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Lesson Transcript

Sherah: Hebrew Pronunciation Season 1, Lesson 5 - Don't Be Stressed about Hebrew Accents.
Amir: Shalom! Bruchim habaim.
Sherah: Sherah here. Pronunciation Series, lesson 5 - Accents in Hebrew. Hello and welcome to HebrewPod101.com, the fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Hebrew.
Amir: And thanks again for being here with us for this pronunciation lesson.
Sherah: What is our focus in this lesson, Amir?
Amir: In this lesson, we’ll be talking about accents in Hebrew.
Sherah: Luckily for you, it’s one of the easiest aspects of Hebrew. There are just a few concepts to learn and it soon becomes second nature.
Amir: That’s right. It may sound difficult in the beginning when you don’t know much about Hebrew grammar, but once you learn the patterns that are involved in the grammar, you won’t think twice about where to put the stress.
Sherah: So what exactly are we focusing on then?
Amir: Before we get into the stress rules, let’s do a short summary of syllables in Hebrew.
Sherah: Okay. It’s pretty easy to determine the number of syllables in Hebrew because it directly corresponds to the number of vowels.
Amir: And there are only two types of syllables in Hebrew, open syllables and closed ones.
Sherah: A syllable usually won’t start with a vowel because of the way words are structured in Hebrew. So an open syllable starts with a consonant or consonants and ends in a vowel.
Amir: Whereas, a closed syllable opens with a consonant or several consonants and ends with a consonant or a group of consonants.
Sherah: Can you give us a word that has both an open syllable and a closed syllable?
Amir: Sure, ye-led.
Sherah: This means “boy.” Ye is an open syllable and led is a closed syllable. Simple enough. Now that we’ve covered that, let’s move on to the issue of stress or accent in the words.
Amir: The first thing to learn is that in Hebrew, the stress most often comes at the end of the word.
Sherah: And if the stress is not at the end of the word, it will be in the second to last syllable.
Amir: So let’s jump right in with some examples of stress in the last syllable.
Sherah: Okay, hit me!
Amir: First word, shotér.
Sherah: “police officer”
Amir: menahél
Sherah: That’s “manager.”
Amir: So now that you’ve heard some words with stress in the last syllable, let’s cover the circumstances where the stress is in the second to last syllable.
Sherah: I’m ready.
Amir: Okay. Let’s start with an easy word, géver.
Sherah: Meaning “man.” Did you notice the stress on the first syllable?
Amir: Yeah. This is our first group of words where the stress is not at the end. They’re called the segolate nouns because they contain two segol vowels, one after another.
Sherah: The stress is on the first syllable in this word, but it is also at the second to last syllable.
Amir: Indeed. Here’s another example, régel meaning “foot” or “leg.”
Sherah: Another example is béten.
Amir: Which means “stomach” or “belly.”
Sherah: There are other words with the segolate pattern as well, right?
Amir: Yes, there are. There’s a whole group of verbs with the same vowel pattern. Verbs in the present singular feminine form often have it.
Sherah: Right, like lomédet.
Amir: That’s a good example. That means “study” as in “She studies,” hi lomédet. Another example is medabéret.
Sherah: ani medabéret “I speak.”
Amir: Our last example is mitִ'labéshet.
Sherah: I, you, or she “get’s dressed.” Are there other instances of the stress change?
Amir: Oh, we’re not done yet. We have a few more to go over.
Sherah: Okay. I won’t leave then.
Amir: Please, don’t leave yet. I need your help. We need to move on to the next word group.
Sherah: Okay. What’s the next circumstance where the stress is on the second to last syllable?
Amir: In the past tense, words in the first and second person are stressed on the second to last syllable.
Sherah: Any examples?
Amir: Of course. How could we teach you something without giving you any examples.
Sherah: Right.
Amir: So, the first one is lamád'ti.
Sherah: Meaning “I studied.”
Amir: Indeed. Here’s another one dibár'nu.
Sherah: “we spoke”
Amir: And the final example, hitִ'labásh'ti.
Sherah: “I got dressed.” Those are great examples.
Amir: Thanks! This next group is a little more complicated. You need to put on your thinking cap.
Sherah: Oh wow! You just brought me back to the first grade. I think I can handle it. I got my thinking cap on!
Amir: Great! So when a verb has a vav or yod in the root, it receives the stress on the second to last syllable when the word has a suffix in the past or future tense.
Sherah: Okay. You’re right that it does take a bit of thinking, but I think I have an example for you, yavó'u meaning “they will come.”
Amir: Bravo! That’s exactly the type of word I was talking about. How about this one? Yapílu.
Sherah: It means “they will drop something.”
Amir: Correct! You want to introduce our last group, Sherah?
Sherah: Actually, I really do. This is my favorite group of words.
Amir: Really?
Sherah: Absolutely! We dont’ have anything so cool in English.
Amir: Okay, so go ahead! What is the last group that receives the stress on the second to last syllable?
Sherah: That would be the double nouns! In Hebrew, there is a very special group of words that have a special ending. It’s because the nouns come in pairs like arms or legs.
Amir: These special nouns end in a special plural ending, -áyim.
Sherah: And the accent comes on the -áy of the -áyim.
Amir: So let’s get to the examples. Firs stop is regַ'láyim.
Sherah: “Legs.” And what do you put those legs in?
Amir: “Pants,” of course, mikhִ'nasáyim.
Sherah: And how many times should you listen to this lesson?
Amir: At least, pa'amáyim.
Sherah: And that would be “twice,” for those of you who don’t know that word yet.
Amir: So as you see, it’s not so difficult. The stress comes at the end unless the word falls into one of these groups.
Sherah: Wait a minute, we’re forgetting something.
Amir: What? That’s everything, no?
Sherah: Everything in Hebrew, maybe. But what about foreign words?
Amir: You’re right. Good thinking, Sherah. Foreign words are also easy. The stress pattern of a foreign word is usually retained as it is in the original language.
Sherah: There, I think we got them all now.
Amir: So let’s wrap up this lesson.
Sherah: I hope you enjoyed it.
Amir: Remember, practice makes perfect.
Sherah: And good luck. Don’t forget that you can leave us a comment on this lesson.
Amir: So if you have a question or some feedback, please let us know.
Sherah: It’s very easy to do. Just stop by HebrewPod101.com.
Amir: Click on comments…
Sherah: Enter your comment and name…
Amir: And that’s it!
Sherah: No excuses! We’re looking forward to hearing from you.
Amir: Shalom!
Sherah: Bye!

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