Prounouns are words which substitute for nouns.
| The girl saw Michael. | She saw Michael. |
| Ruth saw Michael. | She saw Michael. |
She is the personal pronoun that substitutes for the girl and Ruth.
Like the girl and Ruth, she is the subject of the verb.
Important: Personal prounouns can be used only as subjects of sentences.
In English, the personal prounouns are:
| Singular | Plural | |
| first person | I | we |
| second person | you | you |
| third person | he, she, it | they |
In Hebrew, the personal pronouns are:
| Feminine Singular | Masculine Singular | ||
| I | אֲנִי | I | אֲנִי |
| you | אַתְּ | you | אַתָּה |
| she | הִיא | he | הוּא |
| Feminine Plural | Masculine Plural | ||||
| we | אֲנַחְנוּ | we | אֲנַחְנוּ | ||
| you | אַתֶּן | you | אַתֶּם | ||
| they | הֵן | they | הֵם |
There is no word for it in Hebrew. All pronouns are either masculine or feminine. Therefore, when you translate the word it in English, you must use either הוּא or הִיא in Hebrew.
Use הוּא if the it is masculine. Use הִיא if the it is feminine.
| The book fell. | הַסֵּפֶר נָפַל |
| It (the book) fell. | הוּא נָפַל |
| The notebook fell. | הַמַּחְבֶּרֶת נָפְלָה |
| It (the notebook) fell. | הִיא נָפְלָה |
| Dan wrote. | דּן כָּתַב |
| He wrote. | הוּא כָּתַב |
| The boy wrote. | הַיֶּלֶד כָּתַב |
In the past tense, the third person masculine singular (הוּא) verb consists of a three-consonant root (שֹׁרֶשׁ) and a vowel pattern םָםַם (I have used mem soffit here as a place holder, which substitutes for any letter). This is called the base form. The base form of these verbs is םָםַם. There is only one form of the past tense in Hebrew.
דָּן כָּתַב means:
Dan wrote. Dan did write. Dan had written. Dan has written. Dan was writing.
The feminine singular form of the third person in עָבָר is םָםְםָה.
| Ruth wrote. | רוּת כָּתְבָה |
| She wrote. | הִיא כָּתְבָה |
| The girl wrote. | הַיַּלְדָּה כָּתְבָה |
The plural form of the third person in עָבָר is םָםְםוּ.
| They (m.) wrote. | הֵם כָּתְבוּ |
| The boys wrote. | הַיְלָדִים כָּתְבוּ | They (f.) wrote. | הֵן כָּתְבוּ |
| The girls wrote. | הַיְלָדוֹת כָּתְבוּ |
As you can see the same form is used for both masculine and feminine.
Here are the forms of the third person, past tense.
| He wrote. | כָּתַב | םָםַם | הוּא |
| She wrote. | כָּתְבָה | םָםְםָה | הִיא |
| They (m.) wrote. | כָּתְבוּ | םָםְםוּ | הֵם |
| They (f.) wrote. | כָּתְבוּ | םָםְבוּ | הֵן |
| Dan studies. | דָּן לוֹמֵד |
| Dan does not study. | דָּן לֹא לוֹמֵד |
To put the verb in the negative, we place the word לֹא before it.
| The boy writes. | הַיֶּלֶד כּוֹתֵב |
| The boy does not write. | הַיֶּלֶד לֹא כּוֹתֵב |
| Ruth studied. | רוּת לָמְדָה |
| Ruth did not study. | רוּת לֹא לָמְדָה |
דָּן וְדִינָה לוֹמְדִים
The conjunction and connects two words of the same type (noun + noun, verb + verb). It can also connect two phrases or two sentences.
In Hebrew, and is expressed by the letter vav --- ו. The ו never stands alone; it is attached to the beginning of the second word of the pair.
| Dan and Ruth study. | דָּן וְרוּת לוֹמְדִים |
| She and he studied. | הִיא וְהוּא לָמְדוּ |
| They studied and wrote. | הֵם לָמְדוּ וְכָתְבוּ |
The most common form is וְ.
However, at times, ו may have a different vowel.
| דָּוִד וּמשֶׁה | -- | וּ |
| וַאֲנִי | -- | וַ |