Grammar Reference

The consonants

Letters that behave alike

• Begadkephat

  בּ גּ דּ כּ פּ תּ

  Take a dagesh lene at the start of a word or after a closed syllable, marking the hard sound. After a vowel the dot is absent and the sound softens.

• Gutturals

  א ה ח ע

  Cannot be doubled, so they refuse a dagesh forte; prefer a-class vowels; and take a hateph vowel where another letter would take a vocal sheva. ר is not a guttural but also refuses the dagesh.

• Final forms

  ך ם ן ף ץ

  Five letters change shape at the end of a word. Four of the five drop below the line; ם closes into a square.

• Sibilants

  ז ס צ שׂ שׁ

  The s-sounds. In the Hithpael a sibilant first radical trades places with the ת of the prefix.

• Labials

  ב מ פ

  Made with the lips. Before one of these the conjunction וְ becomes וּ.

The dagesh

The vowel chart

qamets hatuf. Written exactly like qamets. It is the short o when the syllable is closed and unaccented.

Sheva — vocal or silent

The endings

Endings on an unchanging stem

A long vowel written with a vowel letter does not reduce, so nothing moves but the ending. The masculine singular construct looks exactly like the absolute.

Stems whose vowels reduce

A qamets or tsere two syllables before the stress reduces to a sheva. The construct gives its stress to the next word, so it reduces further: its last vowel shortens, and two shevas at the head of a word resolve into a hireq.

Segolates

Two syllables, stressed on the first, with a helping vowel in the second — a segol, or a patah beside a guttural. The singular construct does not change. The plural takes the pattern of דְּבָרִים, and the original vowel returns in the plural construct.

The dual

Used for things that come in pairs, above all parts of the body, and for a few measures of time. The dual construct is identical to the masculine plural construct.

Worth remembering

• Gender is a property of the word, not of its ending: אָב (father) takes a feminine-looking plural, אָבוֹת, and stays masculine, while נָשִׁים (women) is feminine with a masculine ending.
• The absolute is the free-standing form. The construct is bound to the noun that follows it and is translated with "of": דְּבַר הַמֶּלֶךְ, "the word of the king".
• A construct never takes the article. The whole chain is definite when its last noun is.

Forms of the article

• Before most consonants

  הַ + dagesh forte

  The normal form. The first letter of the noun is doubled.

  מֶלֶךְ→becomesהַמֶּלֶךְ the kingדָּבָר→becomesהַדָּבָר the word

• Before א, ע and ר

  הָ

  These cannot double, so the patah lengthens to a qamets to make up for it.

  אִישׁ→becomesהָאִישׁ the manעִיר→becomesהָעִיר the cityרֹאשׁ→becomesהָרֹאשׁ the head

• Before ה and ח

  הַ

  No dagesh and no lengthening: the guttural is treated as if it had doubled.

  הֵיכָל→becomesהַהֵיכָל the templeחֹדֶשׁ→becomesהַחֹדֶשׁ the month

• Before an unstressed הָ or עָ, and before any חָ

  הֶ

  The vowel shifts to a segol so that two a-vowels do not stand together.

  הָרִים→becomesהֶהָרִים the mountainsעָרִים→becomesהֶעָרִים the citiesחָכָם→becomesהֶחָכָם the wise man

• Before a stressed הָ or עָ

  הָ

  With the stress on the first syllable the article lengthens instead.

  הַר→becomesהָהָר the mountainעַם→becomesהָעָם the people

Nouns that change with the article

אֶרֶץ→becomesהָאָרֶץ the landהַר→becomesהָהָר the mountainעַם→becomesהָעָם the peopleחַג→becomesהֶחָג the feastפַּר→becomesהַפָּר the bullאֲרוֹן→becomesהָאָרוֹן the ark

Worth remembering

• Hebrew has no indefinite article. מֶלֶךְ is "a king" or just "king", as the sentence requires.
• A word beginning with יְ or מְ often drops the dagesh: הַיְלָדִים, "the children".
• After בְּ, לְ or כְּ the ה of the article drops out and the preposition takes its vowel: לַמֶּלֶךְ, "to the king".

The inseparable prepositions

בְּ

in, at, with, by

לְ

to, for

כְּ

like, as, according to

• Before most words

  בְּ

  The normal form, with a vocal sheva.

  בְּיוֹם in a dayלְמֶלֶךְ to a kingכְּאִישׁ like a man

• Before a sheva

  בִּ

  Two vocal shevas cannot begin a word, so the first becomes a hireq.

  בְּרִית→becomesבִּבְרִית in a covenantדְּבַר→becomesכִּדְבַר according to the word of

• Before יְ

  בִּי

  The hireq swallows the sheva under the yod, which becomes part of the vowel.

  יְהוּדָה→becomesבִּיהוּדָה in Judahיְהוּדָה→becomesלִיהוּדָה to Judah

• Before a hateph vowel

  בַּ / בֶּ / בָּ

  The preposition takes the short vowel that matches the hateph.

  אֲשֶׁר→becomesכַּאֲשֶׁר just asאֱכֹל→becomesלֶאֱכֹל to eatאֳנִיּוֹת→becomesבָּאֳנִיּוֹת in ships

• With the article

  בַּ + dagesh forte

  The ה drops and the preposition takes the vowel the article would have had, dagesh and all.

  הַמֶּלֶךְ→becomesלַמֶּלֶךְ to the kingהַיּוֹם→becomesבַּיּוֹם in the dayהָעִיר→becomesבָּעִיר in the city

• Before אֱלֹהִים

  בֵּ

  The א goes silent and the vowel lengthens to a tsere.

  אֱלֹהִים→becomesלֵאלֹהִים to Godאֱלֹהִים→becomesבֵּאלֹהִים in God

מִן — from

• Standing apart

  מִן־

  Joined by a maqqef. This is the usual form before the article.

  מִן־הָאָרֶץ from the land

• Prefixed, before most consonants

  מִ + dagesh forte

  The נ assimilates into the next consonant and doubles it.

  מֶלֶךְ→becomesמִמֶּלֶךְ from a kingבַּיִת→becomesמִבַּיִת from a house

• Prefixed, before a guttural or ר

  מֵ

  These cannot double, so the hireq lengthens to a tsere.

  אֶרֶץ→becomesמֵאֶרֶץ from a landעִיר→becomesמֵעִיר from a cityרֹאשׁ→becomesמֵרֹאשׁ from the top

• Prefixed, before the article

  מֵהַ

  The article keeps its ה — unlike after בְּ, לְ and כְּ.

  הָאָרֶץ→becomesמֵהָאָרֶץ from the land

Independent prepositions

אֶל

to, toward

עַל

on, upon, over, against

עַד

until, as far as

עִם

with

אֵת

with

לִפְנֵי

before, in front of

אַחֲרֵי

after, behind

תַּחַת

under, instead of

בֵּין

between

בְּתוֹךְ

in the midst of

אֵצֶל

beside

נֶגֶד

opposite, in front of

סָבִיב

around

לְמַעַן

for the sake of, in order that

Worth remembering

• אֵת "with" is spelled like the marker of the definite direct object. With a suffix they part ways: אִתִּי is "with me", אֹתִי is "me".
• The short prepositions are usually joined to the next word by a maqqef — אֶל־, עַל־, עַד־ — and אֵת shortens before it, to אֶת־.