Learning hebrew - The alphabet

Originally Posted by feuersteve

I have another question. Are all words a specific gender, like German, French, Spanish, etc. or do only obvious things like people and animals have male and female?

Each word has a male or female, even if that noun
And there is also exceptions that it also M and F
For example:
knife - Sakin
sun - Shemesh
face - Panim
way - dereh

Male:
Traffic lights - Ramzor
Table -Sulhan
Tree - Etze

female:
Truck - Masaeit
Library - Sifriya
Hill - Givaa

Originally Posted by feuersteve

What do you mean. I don't know what you mean by a french "R". I speak German so I know that sound.

I learned Hebrew in grade school in America, so I know the letters. But, unfortunately, we learned to read with vowels so I can't read modern Hebrew.

Yeah, I think it's the same as a German "R". Listen to French people - how they say "rendez-vous" or "au revoir".

Originally Posted by feuersteve

I have another question. Are all words a specific gender, like German, French, Spanish, etc. or do only obvious things like people and animals have male and female?

Yes, all words have a gender - and plural genders. Also, some singular words in English are exclusively plural in Hebrew - for example:
Life = chayim (lives)
Sky = shamayim (skies)

Even though these words could technically be singular (chay, shama) they just...aren't.

I think the gender system is a bit more complicated in Hebrew than in Spanish or French, because some words are masculine in singular but feminine in plural - but are still verbs or adjectives related to them are still conjugated in masculine plural (and vice versa with other combinations).

For example
place = makom (masc) "hamakom hagadol" = the big place
places = mekomot (fem) "hamekomot hagdolim" the big places (usually a feminine plural noun would use "hagdolot"

Originally Posted by 1inamillion1

Yeah, I think it's the same as a German "R". Listen to French people - how they say "rendez-vous" or "au revoir".

I don't have any French people to listen to....it's been a long time since I was there and all the French people I talked to spoke English. Maybe some of my German friends who speak French can advise me. But Germans speak lousy French...

Originally Posted by 1inamillion1

I think the gender system is a bit more complicated in Hebrew than in Spanish or French, because some words are masculine in singular but feminine in plural - but are still verbs or adjectives related to them are still conjugated in masculine plural (and vice versa with other combinations).

For example
place = makom (masc) "hamakom hagadol" = the big place
places = mekomot (fem) "hamekomot hagdolim" the big places (usually a feminine plural noun would use "hagdolot"

Actually, that may be common. In German, plural declines almost exactly like feminine singular. Also, they have informal and formal, the formal is basically the same as the plural.

Sprechen Sie deutsch? Formal: do you speak german?

Sprechen sie deutsch? Plural: do you speak german?

Originally Posted by feuersteve

I don't have any French people to listen to....it's been a long time since I was there and all the French people I talked to spoke English. Maybe some of my German friends who speak French can advise me. But Germans speak lousy French...



Actually, that may be common. In German, plural declines almost exactly like feminine singular. Also, they have informal and formal, the formal is basically the same as the plural.

Sprechen Sie deutsch? Formal: do you speak german?

Sprechen sie deutsch? Plural: do you speak german?

Yeah, kiiiiind of. Except those ones I gave are strange exceptions. The usual is more like this:

אתה מדבר עברית? = ata medaber ivrit? (do you speak Hebrew? masc singular)
את מדברת עברית = at medaberet ivrit? (do you speak Hebrew? fem singular)
אתם מדברים עברית? = atem medabrim ivrit? (do you speak Hebrew? masc/mixed plural)
אתן מדברות עברית? = aten medabrot ivrit? (do you speak Hebrew? feminine plural)

The past and future tenses are more complicated. If you have ever studied Arabic it's almost exactly the same but with more sound changes.

Also I'll give you an example of how adjectives are used (this is more like Spanish or French)

ילד גדול - yeled gadol - big boy
ילדה גדולה - yalda gdola - big girl
ילדים גדולים - yeladim gdolim - big boys/boys and girls
ילדות גדולות - big girls

I am familiar that Hebrew puts the adjectives after the nouns like a lot of romance languages,,,NOW! When I was a kid, I didn't know the difference between adjectives and adverbs, so I always failed the tests!

תהיה בריא
Transliteration: tih'ye baree
In English: Get Well or Be Well (as in healthy)
In Russian: Будь Здоров
Note: This is the masculine form, so this would be said to a man

Originally Posted by RudyG

תהי בריא
Transliteration: tih'ye baree
In English: Get Well or Be Well (as in healthy)
In Russian: Будь Здоров
Note: This is the masculine form, so this would be said to a man

אם חולה מישהו אני לומר עבור זה תיהיה בריא , זה אומר הוא להרגיש יותר טוב

Originally Posted by PIMOS

אם חולה מישהו אני לומר עבור זה תיהיה בריא , זה אומר הוא להרגיש יותר טוב

אתה צודק

With the flu season upon us many of my family members in Israel are either getting over a cold or just getting started with one. So I thought this phrase would be appropriate.