Learn how to ask "Who?"
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| Shalom, ani Yana. Hi everybody! I’m Yana. |
| Welcome to HebrewPod101.com’s “Ivrit be-shalosh dakot”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Hebrew. |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to ask "When" questions in Hebrew. |
| This time, we are going to ask questions with the interrogative word "Who?". |
| Imagine you want to ask your friend who is his favorite singer? |
| Here, the question you can ask Mi ha-zamar she-ata hahi ohev? Mi ha-zamar she-at hahi ohevet? |
| [slowly] Mi ha-zamar she-ata hahi ohev? |
| [slowly] Mi ha-zamar she-at hahi ohevet? |
| So let’s break down this answer: |
| First we had: |
| Mi- which is the basic translation of "Who" in Hebrew. |
| Ha-zamar- Is simply- `the singer`. (it is in the masculine form but in the question you usually ask in masculine, since it is the default form). |
| She-ata Or She-at- is `that you` (masculine or feminine). |
| hahi ohev/hahi ohevet- is `love the most`. Remember the romantic verb Leehov? Here you can use it too. |
| So in Hebrew, "Who" is mainly translated as Mi to ask about someone's identity. |
| For example, if you want to ask "Who are these people?" You will say Mi ha-anashim ha-ele? when talking about a group of unknown persons. |
| As in English, the interrogative word `who` is the first in the sentence. |
| Mi- only works for people, so you can't use it to ask information about things or places. |
| Lets see another example; |
| Mi ba mahar la-mesiba? |
| Who is coming to the party tomorrow? |
| [slowly] Mi ba mahar la-mesiba? |
| Note that Mi- can be used for singular or plural. |
| In Hebrew, `who` changes slightly depending on the direction, so for example- |
| `Who has party tomorrow?`, will be- |
| Le-mi yesh mesiba mahar? |
| [slowly] Le-mi yesh mesiba mahar? |
| Le- is the direction of `to`, `towards`. |
| Do you remember what Yesh means? |
| Another example- |
| Le-mi yesh et adom? |
| Who has a red pan? |
| [slowly] Le-mi yesh et adom? |
| In case the direction is `from`, you just add Mi-mi, that translates as `from who`; |
| Mi-mi shamata al ha-mis`ada ha-zo? (masculine) |
| Or, Mi-mi shamat al ha-misada ha-zo? (feminine) |
| Who did you hear from about this restaurant? |
| [slowly] Mi-mi shamata al ha-misada ha-zo? |
| [slowly] Mi-mi shamat al ha-misada ha-zo? |
| Before moving on, lets review the various forms of `who` in Hebrew; |
| Mi- the simplest interrogative word for `who`. |
| Le-mi- translates as `to who`. |
| Mi-mi- `from who`. |
| Now its time for Yana’s insights; |
| If someone that you didn't expect is knocking at your door in Israel, the common question you can ask is Mi ze?? before opening the door. |
| This literally means "Who is it?". |
| Again, note that Ze-`this` is the masculine form, but as a default you always use the masculine form in Hebrew. |
| In this lesson, we learned how to correctly use the interrogative word for "Who" which is Mi in Hebrew, but also its variations. |
| Now you can easily know who is who! |
| Next lesson will be our last of this absolute beginner series. |
| We will deal with the last but not least common interrogative word Lama- !I’ll be waiting for you in the next Ivrit be-shalosh dakot lesson! |
| Lehitraot ve-ad ha-paam ha-baa!! |
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