Page 28 - Workbook-IL-Unit-2-RA1

Unit 1, Track 9 28

Intermediate-Low, Unit 2

General Structure of the Past Tense

The past tense in Hebrew is characterized by adding suffixes to a verb “kernel”.
The past structure is divided into two charts. This is not the traditional division, but it
will help you remember the past structure a lot more easily.
The first chart, of the pronouns ‫ הם‬,‫ היא‬,‫ הוא‬usually* uses one kind of verb “kernel”.

Pronoun ‫* ֵהן‬/ ‫ֵהם‬ ‫ִהיא‬ ‫הּוא‬
....
Suffix  ‫ּו‬.... ‫ה‬....

The second chart, for the pronouns ‫ אתם‬,‫ אנחנו‬,‫ את‬,‫ אתה‬,‫ אני‬uses a different verb
“kernel”. You can easily remember the suffixes of this chart, as they fit the end of the
pronoun.

Pronoun ‫ֲא ִני ַא ָּתה ַא ְת ֲא ַנ ְחנּו ַאתם * ַאתן‬

Suffix  ‫תן‬.... ‫תם‬.... ‫נּו‬.... ‫ ְת‬.... ‫ ָּת‬.... ‫ ִתי‬....

As we will see, the **verb "kernel" in the past tense is easily derived from the
infinitive form.
* Feminine pronouns ‫ הן‬and ‫ אתן‬are rarely used in Modern Hebrew and therefore will not be

addressed throughout this book.

** The verb "kernel" in Binyan ‫ ָּפ ַעל‬is an exception, and acts a bit

differently, as will be explained in the following pages.

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