עִבְרִית

Chapter 3

Verb Sentences and Noun Sentences

We have learned that both English and Hebrew sentences normally have a subject (s) and a verb (v>. A sentence that has both a subject and a verb is called a verb sentence.

Hebrew has no present tense form of the verb to be -- הָיָה. This means that there is no Hebrew word for am, is or are.

The Hebrew sentences above have no verb -- only nouns or pronouns. Therefore, we call them noun sentences. The verb to be is understood from the context of the sentence.

In a noun sentence, the negative follows the subject.

Demonstrative Pronouns: זֶה, זֹאת, אֵלֶּה

The words this --- זֹאת, זֶה and these -- אֵלֶּה are called demonstratives because they point to (demonstrate) specific people or things.

In both English and Hebrew, the words this -- זֹאת, זֶה and these -- אֵלֶּה can be used in two ways:

1. as adjectives (we'll learn about this in Unit 5),

2. as pronouns -- in place of a noun.

אֵין / יֵשׁ

In Hebrew, when we want to say there is or there are, we place the word יֵשׁ before the noun which is the subject of the sentence.

To say there is no or there are no, we place the word אֵין before the noun which is the subject.

Here are some longer sentences using יֵשׁ and אֵין.

Present Tense of Verbs ending in ה

Some of the most common and important verbs in Hebrew have a ה as the third letter of the שֹׁרֶשׁ.

The verbs in the table below are past tense, third person, masculine, singular.

The final ה tells you that the vowel pattern of these verbs differs from the regular pattern.

Present Tense:

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