Hebrew Grammar Outline

Keyed to Basics of Biblical Hebrew, 2nd edition by Gary Pratico & Miles Van Pelt1

Compiled by James M. Branum May 2014 –

www.jmbranum.com

Introductory note: I am a seminary student but previously was a law student (graduated from law

school in 2005). Much of the experience of law school and seminary is dissimilar, but one element is the

same --- the need to comprehend, remember, organize and apply large amounts of information.

A common study technique in law school is the preparation of “outlines,” normally about 20-30 pages

for student-written outlines, or between 200-300 pages for commercial outlines (sold by companies to

help law students prepare for exams), as well as some unusual forms (I often condensed longer outlines

down to 2 pages, and sometimes even 1 page as a method of studying). Since Biblical Hebrew has been

an incredibly difficult subject for me, I decided to use the outline technique to prepare for my Hebrew

final (which fortunately was open book, allowing us to use our textbook and lexicon, which meant the

most important thing to do in preparation was to be able to quickly find relevant information in the

textbook on the fly, which is why this outline is keyed to our textbook.)

As for coverage, I think I did a decent job of outline the first half of the class (all of the grammar besides

verbs) but it is much weaker in the second half of the outline. In the future (for my own learning) I will

probably rewrite this section. But for those interested, I’m sharing the outline anyway incomplete as it

is. Use at your own risk.

I. Writing

A. Consonents

1. Gutturals: אעהח and sometimes 2 ר

2. Begadkephat: letters that can take a dagesh lene3

1 See https://www.teknia.com/basicsofbiblicalhebrew

2 p. 3

3 P. 2-3

B. Vowels

Hebrew Vowels Chart

A E I O U

Long

ב Qamets

ב Tsere

ב

Holem

Short

ב Pathach

ב Seghol

ב Hireq

ב Qamets Hatuf

ב Qibbuts

Reduced

ב Hateph Patach

ב Hateph Seghol

ב Hateph Qamets

C. Vowel Letters: possibilities are י ו ה 4

D. Syllabification

1. Rules of Shewa5

2. Qamets and Qamets hatuf – p. 22-23

3. Furtive Patach – p.23

4. Dipthongs – p.23

II. Grammatical Building Blocks

A. Definite Article

1. Normally consists of Ha + Dagesh lene in first consonant of the

noun6

B. Conjunctive Vav

1. Normally consists of vav added to another word

2. Can be translated as and, but, also or even

3. See chapter 17 for unique use with verbs in perfect verb form – p.

195

4. Disjunctive Vav – p. 282-284

C. Prepositions

1. Three Kinds of propositions: independent, maqqef (with a

hyphen connecting proposition to the word) and inseperable

(prepositions mashed with a word without a hyphen).

2. Independent Prepositions

4 P. 15

5 P. 21-22

6 P. 41-43

Independent preposition chart

Hebrew word Transliteration Translation

ר אח Achar After, behind

ת א Et With, beside or D.D.O.

Marker7

ל א El To, toward

ין ב Beyn Between

ב Ba In, at, with, by, against

תוך ב Batoach In the midst of

כ Cha As, like, according to

לכ Chol All, each, every

י כ chi Because, for, that when, but,

indeed, truly

י נ פ ל Liphaneh Before, in front of

ל La To, toward, for

ן ע מ ל Lamaan On account of, for the sake

of

7 DDO = Definite Direct Object Marker see p.54-55

ן מ Min From, out of, can also be

used for comparative

purposes,8 superlative

purposes,9 or partitive uses10

ל ע מ Maal Above, upward, on top of

ד ע Ad Until, as far as

ל ע Al On, upon, on account of

ר ב ל־ד ע Al-dabar Because of, on account of

ם ע Im With, together with

ת ח ת Tachat Under, below, instead of

3. Maqqef Propositions (with a hyphen)

ל־ ע -al Upon, concerning

ל־ א -el To, toward

ד־ ע -ad As far as, until

ן־ מ -min from

8 Example: Literally: “Wisdom is good from gold” translates as “wisdom is better than gold”

9 Example: Lit: “Clever from every living thing of the field” is “the most clever thing of the field”

10 Example: Lit: “from a fruit” partively: “some of the fruit” OR Lit: “from the men” means “some of the men”

4. Inseperable prepositions

ב Ba In, by, with

ל La To, toward, for

כ Cha As, like, according to

ן מ Min11 from

D. Numbers

1. Cardinal Numbers – used for counting, has gender and

absolute/construct states12

2. Ordinal numbers – express position in a series, has gendered

forms13

11

When min is an inseperable preposition, the nun assimilates into the first consonant of the noun, remaining only as a dagesh forte. – see p. 52-54 12

For numbers 1-10 see chart p. 113, for numbers 11-19 see chart p. 115, for numbers 20-99 and 100+ see chart p. 116 13

1st

-10th

places – see chart p. 117. For 11th

and higher places, use cardinal numbers.

III. Nouns and related items

A. Nouns

1. Endings – p. 29

Noun Form Examples Chart

Masculine Noun

Feminine Noun

Singular ות סוס הר

Plural יםסוס ותרתו

Dual יםסוס יםתור ת

Noun Endings Chart

Masculine Feminine Singular dgelgnidee ת ה/

ת ית / ות / Plural ים ות

Dual ים ים ים/ ת

2. Irregular nouns – see list of common ones on p. 34

B. Pronouns – 4 types

1. Independent personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)

Independent Personal Pronouns Chart

Singular Plural 1st person common

י כ אנ י נ א

I נו ח נ א

We

2nd person masculine

ה ת ם You א ת Y’all א

2nd person feminine

א ת You ה נ ת Y’all א

3rd person masculine

ם He/it הוא ה ה מ ה

They

3rd person feminine

יא ה וא ה

She/it

ן ה ה נ ה

They

2. Demonstrative Pronouns and Adjectives (this, that, these, those)

a) Can function as pronouns – “this” is the man

b) Can function as adjectives – “this” man

Singular Plural Masculine

ה This ז ה ל These א

Feminine This ז את

ה ל These א

Masculine That הוא

ם ה ה מ ה

Those

Feminine יא That ה

ן ה הה נ

Those

3. Relative Pronoun

שר א

שר ־א

Who, whom, whose, that which

4. Interrogative Pronouns

י ?Who מ ה What?14 מ

14

There are some alternate forms with different vowels.

5. Interrogorative particle

ה Can be added to the first word of a sentence to indicate a question, instead of using an interog. Pronoun (see above)

C. Pronominal Suffixes15

1. PS’s can either be possessive (his, her, our, etc.) or objective

(him, her us, etc.)

2. PS’s when added to nouns are all possessive. PS’s added to

propositions and the direct object marker are always objective.

3. There are two types of PS’s, type I and type II.

15

Generally see ch. 19

Pronominal Suffixes Chart

Type I Type II Possessive Translation

Objective Translation

1CS י י

My Me

2MS יך ך

Your You

2FS יך ך

Your You

3MS יו ו

His/its Him/it

3FS ה יה

Hers/its Her/it

1CP ינו נו

Our Us

2MP ם ם כ יכ

Your You all

2FP ן ן כ יכ

Your You all

3MP ם ם ה יה

Their Them

3FP ן ן ה יה

Their them

D. Construct Chains

1. CC’s show connection between two or more nouns.

2. Construct nouns are the “owned”part of the chain, while

absolute nouns are the “owners” of the chain.

3. Normally word order determines the parts of the chain, but a

maqqef can also be used.

Chart of Example Construct Chains

Hebrew phrase Construct 2nd Construct

Absolute Translation

יש א ה קול Kol (voice)

n/a Melech (man) Voice of the man

ך ל ץמ אר ה Melech (king)

n/a Haeretz (the land)

King of the land

ד ו ן־ד ב Ben (son) n/a David Son of David

ך ל יהמ ח דא ב ע Eved (servant)

Achi (brother)

Hamelech (the King)

Servant of the brother of The King

E. Adjectives

1. Endings – p.72

a) Adjectives agree in number and gender with nouns.

b) Adjectives have the same basic endings as nouns but undergo

vowel changes when endings are added.

c) Lexical form is masculine singular form

Chart showing how the adjective tov inflects

M F Singular

ה טוב טוב Plural

ים טובות טוב

2. The Use of adjectives

a) Attributive use – when an adjective modifies a noun – i.e. “the

good student”

b) Predictive use – when an adjective asserts something about a

noun – i.e. “the student is good”

c) Substantive use – Adjectives can be used as nouns, such as the

Hebrew word for wise being translated as “wise one”

3. List of common adjectives – p. 65

4. Directional endings

a) In place of a prepositional phrase, you can use a directional

ending to show direction

b) Vowel changes are common – see p. 63-64

Hebrew English Description

רץ אל־האTo (toward) the land Uses prepositional

phrase

רצה א To(toward) the land Uses directional

ending

IV. Verbs

A. Introduction of key elements

a) Roots: Normally 3 consonant word

2. Stems: See charts below

Verbal Stems Chart

Simple Action Intensive Action

Causative Action

Active Voice Qal Piel Hiphil

Passive Voice Niphal Pual Hophal Reflexive Voice

Niphal Hithpael -

Verbal Stems Example Chart

Stem Hebrew example English translation Qal See p. 128 He heard

Niphal He was heard Piel He smashed into

pieces Pual He (it) was smashed

into pieces

Hiphil He made King Hophal He was made King Hithpael He hid himself

3. Person: 1st, 2nd or 3rd – tells who is being talked about

4. Gender: Masculine or feminine

5. Number: Singular or plural

6. Voice:

a) Active

b) Passive

c) Reflexive

7. Action

a) Simple

b) Intensive

c) Causative

B. Verbal Conjugations

1. English conjugations

a) Tense (time): past or perfective, present or imperfective &

future

b) Participles – studying

c) Infinitives - to study

d) Imperatives - study!

2. The 8 Hebrew Conjugations

a) Perfect – completed action or state of being

He studied, he had studied, he will have studied, he knows, he loves

b) Imperfect – Incompleted action, either past, present or future

I study, I will study, I study regularly, I might study, I would study

c) Imperative –2nd person only, direct command

Shut the door!

d) Cohortative (aka 1st person volitional) - 1st person only,

expresses a wish, request or command, expresses purpose (in order to)

or result (resulting in)

Let me honor the Lord!

Let us honor the Lord!

e) Jussive – (aka 3rd person volitional) - 3rd person only, mild

command or strong wish

May the Lord give me

f) Infinitive construct – one of two types of verbal nouns, works

like an English infinititve16

To study, to learn, I want to study, to study is hard work

g) Infinitive – one of two types of verbal nouns, doesn’t translate

easily, emphasizes or intensities verbal action. Can also be used to

substitute for a command. Can also be used with another verb for

contemporaneous action.

h) Participle – a verbal adjective

Studying, learning

Can be used in the same ways that a Hebrew adjective can be used:

(1) Attributively

(2) Predictively

(3) Substantively

C. Strong and Weak Verbs

1. Strong and weak verbs often have different forms.

2. Strong verbs – No weak consonants

3. Weak verbs – has at least one weak consonant: ה ע א

ר ח (gutturals + resh) and sometimes נ י

16

Other uses see chapter 20 of the textbook.

D. Verbal Word Order

1. English: subject-verb-object

Rachel loved Jacob

2. Hebrew: verb-subject-object

Loved Rachel Jacob

E. How to parse a verb: Provide the stem,

conjugation, person, gender, number and lexical

(qal perfect 3ms) form17

F. Verbal Diagnostics

1. Qal Stem

a) Qal Perfect Strong – see endings chart18

17

See chart on p. 138 in textbook 181818

See p. 141

Qal Perfect Strong Endings Chart

Ending Qal Perfect of strong verb

Translation

3MS None ל ט He killed ק

3FS ה ל ט הק She killed

2MS ת ט ל ק ת You killed

2FS ת ט ל ק ת You killed

1CS י ת ט יל ק ת I killed

3CP ל ו ט וק They killed

2MP ם ת ט םל ק ת You all killed

2FP ן ת ט ןל ק ת You all killed

1CP ל נו ט נוק We killed

b) Qal Perfect Weak – Chart p. 161

c) Qal Imperfect Strong – see chart p. 167, includes prefixes and

suffixes

d) Qal imperfect weak – see chart on p.190

e) Vav consecutive exception19

f) Qal imperative

(1) Only 2nd person

(2) Suffixes on p. 209

(3) Related to imperfect form

(4) Negative of imperative – p. 211

g) Participle (translated as “please”) – p. 211

h) Weak imperative and middle weak – p . 212…

i) Qal Cohortative

(1) Only 1st person, see p. 217-218

(2) Related to imperfect form

j) Qal Jussive

(1) Only 3rd person, see p. 218-221

(2) Related to imperfect form

k) Qal infinitive construct

l) Verbal nouns – to study, to learn

(1) Normally one form: ______, same as Qal imperative 2ms

(2) _______, other exceptions for weak verbal forms, p.238-

(3) Often occurs with pronominal suffixes that can serve as

either the subject or the object of the verbal idea. – see p. 241-242

(4) Also often occurs with inseparable propositions

(5) Negation - _______, rather than _____ or ____

19

See ch. 17 in textbook as well as II-B in this outline.

m) Qal Infinitive absolute

(1) Rare

(2) Verbal noun, not easy to translate

(3) Not inflected, one basic form _______

(4) Weak forms – p. 252

(5) Uses of this form

(a) Emphatic: you will indeed listen, you will certainly die

(b) Imperatival: Remember the day, observe the Sabbath

(c) Contemporaneous action: and he walked, walking and

eating

(d) Complementary - ? p. 254

(e) Participles can be added p. 254-255

n) Qal participle- plug in details here

2. Niphal Stem

a) Generally: Simple action with passive or reflexive voice

b) Most forms have nun

c) Nihpal perfect strong: _______________

d) Niphal imperfect: he will be killed, _________________

e) Niphal Imperative/Infinitive construct, _________________

f) Niphal Infinitive Absolute, _____________________

g) Niphal Participle, __________________________

h) Niphal Weak – see chart p. 306

3. Piel Stem – diagnostic chart p. 325

4. Pual stem

a) Meaning: intensive action with passive voice

b) Rare

5. Hiphil Stem

a) Meaning: causative action with an active voice

b) “he caused to remember”

c) See chart on p. 363 for strong and weak forms

d) Common

6. Hophal Stem

a) Meaning: causative action with passive voice, or a passive

version of Hiphil

b) Examples: “He was made King” is hophal while “he made

somone King” is hiphil

c) See chart p. 383

7. Hithpael stem

a) Meaning: intensive action with a reflexive voice

b) Examples: Qal is “he was holy,” while hithpael would be “he

sanctified himself” – Note translation of this almost always involves

somethingself --- himself, myself, etc.

c) Can also mean reciprocity, as in “they looked at each other”

d) Diagnostics on p. 398

e) Easy to spot because of common prefixes:

(1) ___________

(2) ___________

(3) ___________

f) Some forms blur out tav or switch the tav with another

consonant – see p. 390-391

V. Other material in the textbook…

A. Verbal Diagnostics at a glance – p. 438-445

B. Lexicon

Lexicon alefbet key

Letter Page # Lamed 456

Alef 446 Mem 457

Bet 448 Nun 459

Gimel 449 Samek 460

Dalet 450 Ayin 461

He 450 Pe 462

Vav 451 Tsade 463

Zayin 451 Qof 463

Chet 452 Resh 464

Tet 453 Sin 466

Yod 453 Shin 466

Kof 455 Tav 468

ם! ש ברוךה Baruch Hashem! (Praise God!)