Modern Hebrew grammar incorporates analytic, expressing such forms as dative, ablative, and accusative using prepositional particles rather than morphological cases.
Modern Hebrew grammar is also fusional synthetic:[1] inflection plays a role in the formation of verbs and nouns (using non-concatenative discontinuous morphemes realised by vowel transfixation) and the declension of prepositions (i.e. with pronominal suffixes).
Examples of Hebrew here are represented using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) as well as native script.
In the transcriptions, /r/ is used for the rhotic, which in Modern Hebrew phonology is more commonly a lax voiced uvular approximant[2] [ʁ].
Every Hebrew sentence must contain at least one subject, at least one predicate, usually but not always a verb, and possibly other arguments and complements.
[1] Consider ten li et ha-séfer "give:2ndPerson.Masculine.Singular.Imperative to-me ACCUSATIVE the-book" (i.e. "Give me the book"), where et, albeit syntactically a case-marker, is a preposition and ha is a definite article.
However, word order can change in the following instances: Generally, Hebrew marks every noun in a sentence with some sort of preposition, with the exception of subjects and semantically indefinite direct objects.
For example, the English As I said, there's nothing we can do in Hebrew is כְּפִי שֶׁאָמַרְתִּי, אֵין מָה לַעֲשׂוֹת /kfi ʃe-ʔaˈmarti, ʔen ma laʕaˈsot/ (literally As that-I-said, there-isn't what to-do).
The sentence can also be rearranged into הִיא מַכִּירָה אֶת הָאִישׁ עָלָיו דִבַּרְתִּי /hi makiˈra ʔet ha-ˈʔiʃ ʕaˈlav diˈbarti/, literally She knows [et] the-man about him I-talked., and translates into the same meaning.
Collective parts can have any grammatical function in the sentence, for instance: אָדָם,/ʔaˈdam,אַיָּהʔaˈjaוַאֲנִיva-ʔaniאָכַלְנוּʔaˈχalnuיַחַדˈjaħadבְּמִסְעָדָה.be-misʕaˈda./אָדָם, אַיָּה וַאֲנִי אָכַלְנוּ יַחַד בְּמִסְעָדָה./ʔaˈdam, ʔaˈja va-ʔani ʔaˈχalnu ˈjaħad be-misʕaˈda./Adam, Aya and I ate at a restaurant together.מִיכַל/miˈχalאָכְלָהʔaχˈlaוְשָׁתְתָהve-ʃateˈtaהַרְבֵּהharˈbeאֶתְמוֹל.ʔetˈmol/מִיכַל אָכְלָה וְשָׁתְתָה הַרְבֵּה אֶתְמוֹל./miˈχal ʔaχˈla ve-ʃateˈta harˈbe ʔetˈmol/Michal ate and drank a lot yesterday.בִּשַּׁלְתִּי/biˈʃaltiאֶתʔetהַגֶּזֶר,ha-ˈgezer,אֶתʔetהַבָּטָטָהha-baˈtataוְאֶתve-ʔetתַּפּוּחַtaˈpu.aħהָאֲדָמָהha-ʔadaˈmaשֶׁקְּנִיתֶםʃe-kniˈtemשָׁבוּעַʃaˈvu.aʕשֶׁעָבַרʃe-ʕaˈvarלַאֲרוּחַתla-ʔaruˈħatהָעֶרֶבha-ˈʕerevהַיּוֹם.ha'jom./בִּשַּׁלְתִּי אֶת הַגֶּזֶר, אֶת הַבָּטָטָה וְאֶת תַּפּוּחַ הָאֲדָמָה שֶׁקְּנִיתֶם שָׁבוּעַ שֶׁעָבַר לַאֲרוּחַת הָעֶרֶב הַיּוֹם./biˈʃalti ʔet ha-ˈgezer, ʔet ha-baˈtata ve-ʔet taˈpu.aħ ha-ʔadaˈma ʃe-kniˈtem ʃaˈvu.aʕ ʃe-ʕaˈvar la-ʔaruˈħat ha-ˈʕerev ha'jom./I cooked the carrots, the sweet potatoes and the potatoes you bought last week for dinner today.הַמּוֹרָה/ha-moˈraתִּתֵּןtiˈtenלְתֹמֶרle-toˈmerוְלִיve-liאִשּׁוּר.ʔiˈʃur/הַמּוֹרָה תִּתֵּן לְתֹמֶר וְלִי אִשּׁוּר./ha-moˈra tiˈten le-toˈmer ve-li ʔiˈʃur/The teacher will give Tomer and me permission.When a collective part is preceded by a preposition, the preposition must be copied onto all parts of the collective.
Hebrew verbs (פועל /ˈpoʕal/) utilize nonconcatenative morphology extensively, meaning they have much more internal structure than most other languages.
Every Hebrew verb is formed by casting a three- or four-consonant root (שֹׁרֶשׁ /ˈʃoreʃ/) into one of seven derived stems called /binjaˈnim/ (בִּנְיָנִים, meaning buildings or constructions; the singular is בִּנְיָן /binˈjan/, written henceforth as binyan).
The "concept" of the Hebrew verb assumes verbal meaning by taking on vowel-structure as dictated by the binyan's rules.
Finally, a very small number of fixed expressions include verbs in the jussive mood, which is essentially an extension of the imperative into the third person.
In listings such as dictionaries, Hebrew verbs are sorted by their third-person masculine singular past tense form.
(Nonetheless, the Hebrew term for infinitive is shem poʕal, which means verb name.)
Further, each of the seven binyanim is identified by the third-person masculine singular past tense form of the root פ־ע־ל (P-ʕ-L, meaning doing, action, etc.)
of gizra), and the small number of Hebrew verbs that are strictly irregular (about six to ten) are generally considered to be part of the pa'al binyan, as they have some conjugation features similar to paʕal.
In principle, any transitive paal verb can be rendered passive by taking its root and casting it into nifal.
Nonetheless, this is not nifʕal's main use, as the passive voice is fairly rare in ordinary Modern Hebrew.
(Nonetheless, as in English, it can still be made clear that there was an ultimate agent: הוּא הִפִּיל אֶת הַצַּלַּחַת וְהִיא נִשְׁבְּרָה /hu hiˈpil ʔet ha-t͡saˈlaħat ve-hi niʃbeˈra/, he dropped the plate and it broke, uses nif'al.)
Nouns are generally related to verbs (by shared roots), but their formation is not as systematic, often due to loanwords from foreign languages.
Unlike in English, some count nouns also have separate dual forms, for referring to two objects; see below.
However, this rule is not always adhered to in informal or colloquial speech; one finds, for example, הָעוֹרֵךְ דִּין /ha-ˈoʁeχ din/ (literally the law organiser, i.e. lawyer).
In addition, the inflected possessive is commonly used for terms of kinship; for instance, בְּנִי /bni/ (my son), בִּתָּם /biˈtam/ (their daughter), and אִשְׁתּוֹ /iʃˈto/ (his wife) are preferred to הַבֵּן שֶׁלִּי /ha-ˈben ʃe'li/, הַבַּת שֶׁלָּהֶם /ha-ˈbat ʃelahem/, and הָאִשָּׁה שֶׁלּוֹ /ha-ʔiˈʃa ʃe'lo/.
Many abstract nouns are derived from noun, using the suffix /-ut/: Also, there is הִתְקַטְּלוּת /hitkat'lut/ meter, that also ends with /-ut/: The קַטְלָן /katˈlan/ meter applied to a root, and the /-an/ suffix applied to a noun, indicate an agent or job: The suffix /-on/ usually denotes a diminutive: Though occasionally this same suffix can denote an augmentative: Repeating the last two letters of a noun or adjective can also denote a diminutive: The קָטֶּלֶת /kaˈtelet/ meter commonly used to name diseases: However, it can have various different meanings as well: New nouns are also often formed by the combination of two existing stems: רַמְזוֹר /ramˈzor/ uses more strictly recent compound conventions, as the א aleph (today usually silent but historically very specifically a glottal stop) is dropped entirely from spelling and pronunciation of the compound.
However, אֶת /ʔet/ is used only with semantically definite direct objects, such as nouns with the, proper nouns, and personal pronouns; with semantically indefinite direct objects, it is simply omitted: אֲנִי רוֹאֶה סֵפֶר ʔani roʔe sefer (I see a book) does not use את /ʔet/.
For example, when the adjective צָרִיךְ /t͡saˈriχ/ (in need (of)) takes a definite noun complement, it uses the preposition אֶת /ʔet/: הָיִיתִי צָרִיךְ אֶת זֶה /haˈjiti t͡saˈriχ ʔet ze/ (literally I-was in-need-of /ʔet/ this, i.e.
In modern usage, the verbal pronominal suffixes are rarely used, in favor of expression of direct objects as the inflected form of the separate word ʔet.
(The preposition עִם /ʕim/ (with) in everyday speech is not inflected, rather a different, more archaic pronoun אֶת /ʔet/ with the same meaning, unrelated to the direct object marker, is used instead.)