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Hebrew Learning

  Tags: Platiquemos | Hebrew
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37 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4
bentzi
Bilingual Triglot
Groupie
Canada
Joined 6747 days ago

45 posts - 47 votes
4 sounds
Speaks: English*, Modern Hebrew*, Russian
Studies: German

 
 Message 33 of 37
26 August 2006 at 11:57pm | IP Logged 
Darobat wrote:
After studying Hebrew for a while, is it possible to become familiar enough with the language that you can accurately guess the vowels in a word when they aren't marked? Can you get the feel for it, or is memorizing vowels with new words as you learn them something you're going to be doing for the rest of your life?


yeah, this is the idea, there is no need to memorize vowels. When you hear the word, you can easily manage without the vowels, and get a "feel" fo it. The few hebrew learners that i talked to, said that it was easier than they thought.
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jazz0009
Triglot
Newbie
Malta
Joined 6292 days ago

1 posts - 1 votes
Speaks: Maltese*, English, Italian

 
 Message 34 of 37
02 September 2007 at 3:18pm | IP Logged 
Darobat wrote:
After studying Hebrew for a while, is it possible to become familiar enough with the language that you can accurately guess the vowels in a word when they aren't marked? Can you get the feel for it, or is memorizing vowels with new words as you learn them something you're going to be doing for the rest of your life?


Yes, I think it is, at least for biblical hebrew (which while not the same as modern, is very similar. It should be noted that verbs have prefixes and suffixes added to them for most changes. For example, while KTL means he killed, you have to write KTLH for she killed, KTLT for you killed, etc. There are a few cases where one word can mean two things, for example TQTLNH could mean you (female) will kill us or She (female) will kill us. in other words, that really makes up for the lack of vowels.

This at first sight seems daunting,and there are ambiguities in some cases, both in modern and even more so in biblical. But at the end of the day, you can infer from the context. Alone, a word might seem ambiguous, but in truth once you put it in a sentence you will most probably understand its meaning. Also, as people have pointed out, there are 4 consonants which in many cases indicate a vowel (& usually you will know when this is the case).

as bentzi has said, you get the feel for it after a while

Edited by jazz0009 on 02 September 2007 at 3:20pm

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Frakseno
Newbie
Joined 6309 days ago

23 posts - 28 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Esperanto

 
 Message 35 of 37
04 September 2007 at 10:48am | IP Logged 
I think that contemporary Hebrew is the next language to which I will seriously apply myself. I'm planning on using the FSI course to focus on speaking and listening first.
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vista
Tetraglot
Groupie
United States
Joined 6394 days ago

38 posts - 40 votes
Speaks: English*, Portuguese, Spanish, French
Studies: Modern Hebrew, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Basque

 
 Message 36 of 37
04 September 2007 at 12:45pm | IP Logged 
You definitely can the feel for it. I think there is another point worth mentioning about the example jazz009 gave. He used as an example the root "katal", the root for "kill". This is a very common model used by Christian grammaticians to illustrate the Hebrew system of "binyanim". Earlier in this thread, someone metioned someting about how Hebrew has very few tenses. In fact, Hebrew only has 5 tenses: imperfect, present, perfect, conditional, and imperative. That is, past, present, future, conditional, and command. The unique thing about Hebrew is its binyanim, which there are 7 of. These five tenses (in theory) exist in each of the 7 binyanim. I say in theory becasue many verbs are only used in specific binyanim. The root katal is given as an example to show the meanings of each of the binyanim ( which mean "buildings"), but it is not really possible to use all 7 binyanim for a single verb.
Once you learn it, you will see that the system is farely straightfoward, with few exceptions. I encourage all with interest tofurther pursue Hebrew, because it is very rewarding!
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MichaelM204351
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5443 days ago

151 posts - 173 votes 
Speaks: English*, Biblical Hebrew
Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish

 
 Message 37 of 37
04 February 2010 at 12:28am | IP Logged 
It's really not hard at all. When I made the switch, I was very pleasantly surprised. I will feel very natural...


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