5. Pronouns and the Nominal Sentence

Pronouns (כִּנּוּיִים – kinuyim) replace nouns: I, you, this, who. In Hebrew they distinguish gender even where English does not: “you” sounds different for a man and for a woman. And since Hebrew has no verb “to be” in the present tense, a pronoun and a noun by themselves make a sentence: אֲנִי מוֹרֶה – I am a teacher.

Personal pronouns

Three things English does not have:

• “I” and “we” are the same for both genders, but the verb or adjective after them shows the speaker’s gender: אֲנִי לוֹמֵד (a man speaking) / אֲנִי לוֹמֶדֶת (a woman speaking).
• There is no polite “you”. Any adult, including your boss and your doctor, is addressed simply as אַתָּה or אַתְּ.
• The feminine plural forms אַתֶּן and הֵן are almost always replaced in speech by the masculine אַתֶּם and הֵם. A mixed group is always masculine.

The nominal sentence: where is “to be”?

In the present tense there is no “am, is, are”. The subject and the predicate are simply put side by side:

If the subject is a noun rather than a pronoun, הוּא / הִיא / הֵם is often inserted between subject and predicate as a copula: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם הִיא עִיר גְּדוֹלָה – Jerusalem is a big city, דָּוִד הוּא רוֹפֵא – David is a doctor. In the past and future the copula is a real verb and is obligatory: הוּא הָיָה רוֹפֵא – He was a doctor, הִיא תִּהְיֶה מוֹרָה – She will be a teacher (chapters 11 and 12).

Pronouns with prepositions

“To me, you (object), with him, about me” are all a preposition with an ending in Hebrew. “To me” is לִי (li), “you” as an object is אוֹתְךָ (otcha), “with her” is אִתָּהּ (ita). These forms are covered in chapter 7; the principle to remember here is that pronouns have no cases, a preposition plus an ending does the job.

Demonstratives

Two rules of use:

• Standing alone, the demonstrative comes before a noun without the article: זֶה סֵפֶר – This is a book. That is a complete sentence.
• As a modifier it comes after the noun, and both words take the article: הַסֵּפֶר הַזֶּה טוֹב – This book is good.

“This” with no gender (about a situation or an unknown thing) is always זֶה: מָה זֶה? – What is this? זֶה לֹא חָשׁוּב – It doesn’t matter. The demonstrative does not depend on whether the thing is alive: זֶה כֶּלֶב – this is a dog, זֶה דָּוִד – this is David.

Question words

The question word goes first and the rest of the word order does not change. A preposition stands in front of the question word: עִם מִי? – with whom? עַל מָה? – about what? לְמִי? – to whom? The word אֵיזֶה agrees in gender (אֵיזֶה with masculine, אֵיזוֹ with feminine), but in speech אֵיזֶה is often used for everything.

What to remember

• “You” distinguishes gender; there is no polite form.
• In the present tense “to be” is dropped: אֲנִי מוֹרֶה. Between two nouns הוּא/הִיא can be inserted as a copula.
• זֶה סֵפֶר – this is a book (a sentence); הַסֵּפֶר הַזֶּה – this book (a phrase, two articles).
• The question word goes first, the word order stays.