Lesson 6 | Vocab: Pronouns
[1] Pronouns
We are slipping just a bit of grammar into this vocab lesson—information that you need in order to understand the pronouns we are asking you to memorize.
Personal pronouns
This is the most basic type of pronoun and typically what we mean when we speak of pronouns in general. The most significant difference from English in terms of forms is that Hebrew is more specific. Whereas English typically uses “you” as the sole second person pronoun, regardless of whether the sentence is spoken to a man, woman, or a group, Hebrew has four separate forms. In addition, “they” in English has two forms in Hebrew—one for men or mixed groups, and one for a group of ladies.
(Note that “cs” and “cp” stand for “common singular” and “common plural” respectively. That means those pronouns are not gendered—both a man and a woman could refer to him or herself as אֲנִי, for example.)
personal pronouns
primary and alternative forms
| 1cs | אָנֹכִי | אֲנִי | I |
| 1cp | אֲנַחְנוּ | we | |
| 2ms | אַתָּה | you [sir] | |
| 2fs | אַתְּ | you [ma’am] | |
| 2mp | אַתֶּם | you all | |
| 2fp | אַתֶּן | אַתֵּנָה | [ladies] you all |
| 3ms | הוּא | he | |
| 3fs | הִיא | הִוא | she |
| 3mp | הֵם | הֵמָּה | they |
| 3fp | הֵן | הֵנָּה | [those ladies] |
Also note that while personal pronouns are fairly common in Hebrew, they are not nearly as common as they are in English. This is due to the fact that inflected Hebrew verbs give a much clearer indication of the subject’s person, gender, and number than English does, making pronouns often unnecessary.
Demonstrative pronouns
A second type of pronoun is the demonstrative pronoun—the pronoun we use when pointing at something. You can see that almost all of the third person personal pronouns can also be demonstrative.
demonstrative pronouns
primary and alternative forms
| ms | זֶה | זֹה | this |
| fs | זֹאת | this | |
| cp | אֵלֶּה | these | |
| ms | הוּא | that | |
| fs | הִיא | that | |
| mp | הֵם | הֵמָּה | those |
| fp | הֵנָּה | those |
Work on memorizing the pronouns in the two charts above, along with the vocab in the previous step. Then, review both using the quizlets on the next step.