By birth, Hebrew is part of the Semitic family, along with Arabic, Aramaic, and some other Middle Eastern languages. To this day, Hebrew is quite similar to other Semitic languages in terms of the way words — especially verbs — are formed. Hebrew nouns and verbs are marked for gender (feminine or masculine, no neuter), just like their Semitic cousins.
Today, Hebrew, like many world languages, is grappling with inclusivity of nonbinary gender identities and the ways that language can acknowledge and accommodate them. In Israel, nonbinary people often speaking in alternating gender conjugations and there is no “singular they” as “they” is gendered in Hebrew. In the Diaspora, the Nonbinary Hebrew project has proposed a way for Hebrew to accommodate nonbinary gender identities, though their proposal has not (yet?) caught on in Israel or worldwide. For a chart of nonbinary Hebrew grammar and systematics, check out the Nonbinary Hebrew Project at www.nonbinaryhebrew.com/grammar-systematics.
The people who revived Hebrew as a modern language in the 19th and 20th centuries spoke and thought mostly in Yiddish, Russian, German, and other European languages. Those languages became the “adoptive parents” of Hebrew today. You notice their influence most strongly in the pronunciation of modern Hebrew and in the word order within sentences (syntax).
Making Sense of Hebrew Syntax
The syntax (the arrangement of words to make sentences), or תַּחְבִּיר (tahch-beer), of a Hebrew sentence is quite different from that of English. In this section, I run you through the basics of word order — what syntax looks like in English and how Hebrew is different. I also cover how to say there is and there isn’t, because if you can use this simple sentence construction, you can say a lot. Just plug in the noun of your choice, and you’ll be speaking Hebrew!
Putting your sentences in order
When you read or hear Modern Hebrew sentences, you may think that they’re oddly constructed compared with sentences in English or any other European language. In English, so much depends on word order. Hebrew, on the other hand, is more flexible about word order. In Hebrew, for example, you could say either of the following:
מֶמְשָׁלָה חֲדָשָׁה קָמָה (mehm-shah-laḥ ah-dah-shah kah-mah; literally: A government new arises.)
קָמָה מֶמְשָׁלָה חֲדָשָׁה (kah-mah mehm-shah-laḥ hah-dah-shah; literally: Arises government new.)
Both phrases mean the same thing: A new government rises. The order of the words doesn’t affect the meaning.
Look at another example in English. “Mollie kissed Fred” isn’t the same as “Fred kissed Mollie,” is it? It certainly isn’t to Mollie — or, for that matter, to Fred.
In Hebrew, sometimes a verb, especially one without an object, comes before its subject — not after it, as in English. Under certain conditions, you can identify the direct object (the person or thing acted on, as opposed to person or thing doing the acting) because the word אֶת (eht) precedes the direct object. You know that it was Mollie who did the kissing whether I say
מָלִי נִשְּׂקָה אֶת פָרֶאד (moh-lee neesh-kah eht fred; literally: Mollie kissed Fred.)
מָלִי אֶת פָרֶאד נִשְׁקָהּ (moh-lee eht fred neesh-kah; literally: Mollie Fred kissed.)
אֶת פָרֶאד נִשְׁקָהּ מָלִי (eht fred neesh-kah moh-lee; Fred [is] kissed [by] Mollie.)
All these sentences, despite their different word order, mean essentially the same thing: Mollie kissed Fred.
יֵשׁ בָּנָנוֹת (yehsh bah-nah-noht; There are bananas.)
אֵין בָּנָנוֹת (ayn bah-nah-noht; There aren’t any bananas.)
Now, you can find any noun in this book, put a יֵשׁ or an אֵין in front of it, and you’ll be speaking Hebrew!
Questioning
When you make a question, you don’t change the order of the words, as in English. You can ask a question in a few ways. The first way is by simply taking a statement and putting a question mark in your voice (by raising your voice at the end of the sentence). Thus, when asked with the proper intonation, this statement can be a question: ? יֵשׁ חָלָב בַּמְּקָרֵר (yesh haḥ-lahv bah-mahk-rehr?; There’s milk in the refrigerator?).
Another way to turn this statement into a question is to add the word נָכוֹן (nah-chohn; correct) to the end of the statement. In grammarspeak, this word is called a tag. For example:
? יֵשׁ חָלָב בַּמְּקָרֵר נָכוֹן (yehsh chah-lahv bah-mahk-rehr, nah-chohn?; There’s milk in the refrigerator, correct?)
Yet another way to turn a statement into a question is to add the question word, הַאֵים (hah-eem), in front of the sentence — for example ? הַאֵים יֵשׁ חָלָב בַּמְּקָרֵר (hah-eem yehsh chah-lahv bah-mahk-rehr; Is there milk in the refrigerator?). This last option is the most formal option, so you won’t hear it often.
Although Hebrew differs from English in that you don’t need to flip the order in a statement to turn it into a question, the word-order flexibility of Hebrew allows the speaker to stress a particular part of the sentence by putting it at the beginning.
If someone just said there are no strawberries in the fridge, for example, you might ask ? יֵשׁ בָּנָנוֹת(yesh bah-nah-noht; literally: Bananas?; But are there bananas?). Or you might ask ? אֵין בָּנָנו(ehn bah-nah-noht?; literally: Bananas there aren’t?; Aren’t there bananas?).
Recognizing Parts of Speech
In Hebrew, you can recognize the different parts of speech — such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives — by their distinct patterns. Sometimes, however, a word is both a verb and a noun, and adjectives and adverbs can take on many forms, so I can’t offer any easy clues for distinguishing the various parts of speech. You just need to memorize the vocabulary; then you’ll know.
Naming nouns
In Hebrew, all nouns are either masculine or feminine.
