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Hebrew |
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| Afro-Asiatic | Northwest Semitic |  Israel |
Hebrew abjad | |
Hebrew actually contains only one article, which marks definiteness.
Contents |
ה
ה functions very similarly to an inseparable preposition. It is appended to the beginning of the noun which it modifies, and no word can come between it and the noun it's on.
Pronunciation
By itself on a noun, ה will be pronounced ha, however, when it's on a noun along with an inseparable preposition, it becomes a, and the consonant of the preposition stands in for the h.
Examples:
- כלב kelev dog -> הכלב hakelev the dog -> בהכלב bakelev on the dog
חתול chatul cat -> החתול hachatul the cat -> להחתול lachatul to the cat
In Genitive Constructions
The Hebrew genitive consts of sticking the two nouns side by side. In English we would say "house of book," in Hebrew we say "בית ספר" (house book). This is the word for "school" in Hebrew. So naturally, the definite article will go on the second part of the noun construct (called smichot in Hebrew.) It makes sense logically, if you think of "beyt sefer" meaning "house-of book," then the definite will literally be "house-of the-book."
Examples:
- בית כלב beyt kelev dog house -> בית הכלב beyt hakelev the dog house
קופסה חתול kufsah chatul cat box -> קופסה החתול kufsah hachatul the cat box
See also
| Hebrew pages
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| Introduction · Adjectives · Pronouns · Sounds and Writing · Articles · Numbers · Verbs |
