Learn how to use the verb "to be" as a helping verb to talk about the past
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sherah: Hi everyone, and welcome back to HebrewPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 8 - Talking About Your Childhood in Hebrew. Sherah here. |
| Amir: שלום I'm Amir. |
| Sherah: In this lesson, you’ll learn about the verb "to be" as a helping or auxiliary verb to discuss the past. The conversation takes place at Ella's apartment. |
| Amir: It's between Ella and Daniel. |
| Sherah: The speakers are friends, so they will use informal Hebrew. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| דניאל: יש לכן עוד סיפורים מהילדות של אלה? |
| גברת אלון: אלה, תספרי לו על החברים הדמיוניים שלך. |
| אלה: טוב, לא הספיק לי לשחק עם חבר דמיוני אחד, אז שיחקתי עם שמונה. |
| דניאל: שמונה? למה כל כך הרבה? היה לך משעמם בבית? |
| גברת אלון: היה לה חבר דמיוני לכל מצב רוח אפשרי. ולכולם היה שם. |
| אלה: כן, וכולם היו באים איתנו לכל מקום, עד שאימא שכחה אחד בחנות. הייתי כל כך עצובה, שבכיתי כל הדרך הביתה. |
| דניאל: חזרתם כדי לקחת אותו? |
| אלה: לא, אימא אמרה לי שהוא גדול ולכן הוא יכול לקחת אוטובוס. |
| דניאל: והתשובה הזאת סיפקה אותך? |
| אלה: כן, ולפיכך החלטתי שגם אני גדולה מספיק כדי לקחת אוטובוס ולמצוא אותו. |
| דניאל: ועשית את זה? |
| אלה: ניסיתי. השכנה שלנו ראתה אותי והחזירה אותי הביתה. אין לי מושג איך הייתי עולה על האוטובוס, כי לא היה לי כסף. |
| Sherah: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Daniel: Do you have any more stories from Ella's childhood? |
| Mrs. Alon: Ella, tell him about your imaginary friends. |
| Ella: Well, it wasn't enough for me to play with one imaginary friend, so I played with eight. |
| Daniel: Eight? Why so many? Was it boring at home? |
| Mrs. Alon: She had an imaginary friend for every possible mood. And they all had names. |
| Ella: Yes, and they would all come with us everywhere, until mom forgot one in a store. I was so sad, I cried all the way home. |
| Daniel: Did you return to get him? |
| Ella: No, Mom told me he was big and therefore he can take a bus. |
| Daniel: And that answer satisfied you? |
| Ella: Yes, and so I decided that I was big enough to take a bus and find him. |
| Daniel: And did you do that? |
| Ella: I tried. Our neighbor saw me and took me back home. I have no idea how I would have gotten on the bus because I didn't have money. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sherah: Amir, are there preschool kindergartens in Israel? |
| Amir: Of course. |
| Sherah: Can you tell us more about them? |
| Amir: Sure. Israeli preschool kindergartens usually have between 20 to 35 children. The classroom is usually one large room, which is divided into topic areas like a library, an arts-and-crafts area, a building-block area, a "kitchen" area, and so on. Every kindergarten also has a yard with some playground facilities, and many have small junk-yards with old kitchenware, and broken electrical appliances. |
| Sherah: What is the educational program in these kinds of kindergartens? |
| Amir: The educational program in preschool includes many different topics, like family, nature, Israeli holidays, food, and many more. The parents always get weekly updates of the topics learned, so that they too can be involved in the educational program. Most kindergartens have active and involved parents committees. |
| Sherah: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Sherah: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Amir: ילדות [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: childhood |
| Amir: ילדות[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: ילדות [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: דמיוני [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: imaginary |
| Amir: דמיוני[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: דמיוני [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: מצב רוח [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: mood |
| Amir: מצב רוח[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: מצב רוח [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: לשכוח [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: to forget |
| Amir: לשכוח[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: לשכוח [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: לבכות [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: to cry |
| Amir: לבכות[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: לבכות [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: כל הדרך [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: all the way |
| Amir: כל הדרך[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: כל הדרך [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: לכן [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: so, therefore |
| Amir: לכן[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: לכן [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: לספק [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: to satisfy |
| Amir: לספק[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: לספק [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: לפיכך [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: for this reason |
| Amir: לפיכך[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: לפיכך [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: And last.. |
| Amir: להחזיר [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: to return |
| Amir: להחזיר[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: להחזיר [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Sherah: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Amir: מצב רוח |
| Sherah: which means “mood” |
| Amir: מצב רוח consists of two words: מצב, meaning “state” or “situation”, and רוח (ruaħ), meaning “wind” or “spirit”. |
| Sherah: So, it literally means “state of spirit”. |
| Amir: The phrase מצב רוח (matzav ruaħ) is used pretty much in the same way as the word “mood” in English. |
| Sherah: And like the word “mood”, matzav ruaħ can also be made into an adjective מצוברח (metzuvraħ), meaning “moody” - in bad mood. Amir, can you give us an example using this word? |
| Amir: Sure. For example, you can say.. היא הגיעה היום לעבודה במצב רוח נהדר. |
| Sherah: ..which means “She arrived to work today in a great mood.” Okay, what's the next word? |
| Amir: לספק |
| Sherah: which means “to satisfy” or “to fulfill”, but it also means “to provide” or “to supply”. |
| Amir: The root letters of this verb are Samekh Peh Kuf: ס.פ.ק, and the verb stem is Pi'el. |
| Sherah: You can also create a noun from this verb. |
| Amir: Right. לספק is a verb, “to satisfy” and סיפוק (sipuk) means “satisfaction”. |
| Sherah: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Amir: For example.. עבודה חקלאית היא קשה מאוד, אבל גם מספקת. |
| Sherah: .. which means “Agricultural work is very hard, but also satisfying.” Okay, what's the last word? |
| Amir: דמיוני |
| Sherah: ...which means “imaginary” |
| Amir: The adjective דמיוני (dimyoni) comes from the noun דמיון (dimyon) - “imagination”. |
| Sherah: Like many other Hebrew adjectives, it consists of a noun plus the sound “i” at the end, represented by the letter י (Yod). |
| Amir: You can use the word דמיוני (dimyoni) to describe things that are not real, that are made-up by imagination. It can be a place, a person, an object and so on. |
| Sherah: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Amir: Sure. For example, you can say.. אני לא מאמין לו, זה נשמע כמו סיפור דמיוני. |
| Sherah: .. which means “I don't believe him, it sounds like an imaginary story.” Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Sherah: In this lesson, you’ll learn about the verb “to be” as a helping or auxiliary verb to discuss the past. The verb “to be” in Hebrew is irregular like it is in other languages. Ok, Amir, let’s conjugate it in the past tense. “I was” will be... |
| Amir: הייתי |
| Sherah: you, singular, masculine |
| Amir: היית |
| Sherah: you, singular, feminine |
| Amir: היית |
| Sherah: he |
| Amir: היה |
| Sherah: she |
| Amir: הייתה |
| Sherah: we |
| Amir: היינו |
| Sherah: you, plural, masculine |
| Amir: הייתם |
| Sherah: you, plural, feminine |
| Amir: הייתן |
| Sherah: They |
| Amir: היו |
| Sherah: Verbs in the past tense in Hebrew are set up so that you don't always need to use the subject: it can be understood from the verb itself. |
| Amir: So, when the action is done by the speaker or by the listener - that is, first or second person - you can omit the subject. For example, איפה היית אתמול? |
| Sherah: This means “Where were you yesterday?” |
| Amir: The sentence includes three words: איפה (efo), “where”; היית (hayita), “were”; and אתמול (etmol), “yesterday”. |
| Sherah: Since the word for “were” is already conjugated to include “you”, single masculine, the word for “you” - אתה (ata) - is omitted. |
| Amir: The same applies for “to be” in past tense , first person. For example..אתמול הייתי בים. |
| Sherah: “Yesterday I was at the beach.” In this sentence we omitted the word for “I” - אני (ani), as the word for “was” is already conjugated to include “I”. |
| Amir: So, if you want to stress the subject you can use it, but it's not necessary. |
| Sherah: Ok, I think that’s clear. Our next grammar point is the verb “to be” plus adjective. In our dialog we have a sentence... |
| Amir: הייתי כל כך עצובה, שבכיתי כל הדרך הביתה. |
| Sherah: which means “I was so sad, I cried all the way home.” As you can see, Ella is not using the word אני (ani), “I”. The word “was” implies it. |
| Amir: We can also see Ella using a structure of “to be” + adjective - הייתי עצובה (hayiti atzuva), “I was sad”. |
| Sherah: Hebrew adjectives have to agree with their subject in gender and number, but they don’t change according to tense or person. |
| Amir: So the adjective עצובה (atzuva) meaning “sad” which is singular feminine, will stay the same whenever Ella is saying it about herself - in past, present or future tense. |
| Sherah: This also goes for objects. If you want to say that the food was delicious, you will use the adjective טעים (ta’im). |
| Amir: You can use the object in your sentence, for example, salad, or simply refer to it as זה (ze), “that”, masculine. זה היה טעים מאוד |
| Sherah: “That was very delicious.” Amir, can you give us more examples? |
| Amir: Sure. היא הייתה רגועה. |
| Sherah: “She was calm.” This sentence is using the structure “to be” + adjective, to talk about a female in the third person. |
| Amir: הם היו נחמדים אליי. |
| Sherah: “They were nice to me.” This sentence is using the structure “to be” + adjective, to talk about a third person-plural subject - “they”. Listeners, as always, please check the lesson notes for more examples and explanation. |
Outro |
| Sherah: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Amir: להתראות |
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