185 Comments
Is Hebrew like German, as in, love comes is the same as love is coming? Thanks.
I'm starting to wonder if English is the only one with a continuous tense...
1941
Plenty of languages have the continuous (it's an aspect, not a tense, though).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_and_progressive_aspects
Irish Gaelic has both a present continuous and a present habitual tense that differ from the standard present tense. For example,
I run = Rithim
I am running = Táim ag rith
I (usually) run = Bím ag rith
But it is a rather rare tense (or aspect).
AAVE and other non-standard English dialects have this too.
I run. I'm running. I be running.
- 1941
More on the habitual "be" in AAVE.
It is a common misconception that AAVE speakers simply replace is with be across all tenses, with no added meaning. In fact, AAVE speakers use be to mark a habitual grammatical aspect not explicitly distinguished in Standard English. For example, to be singing means to sing habitually, not to presently be singing. In one experiment, children were shown drawings of Elmo eating cookies while Cookie Monster looked on. Both black and white subjects agreed that Elmo is eating cookies, but the black children said that Cookie Monster be eating cookies.
It's called a present participle, not to be confused with a gerund. I know that it's in Russian, French, Spanish, Chinese. It's just that English uses it a whole lot more than those languages for some reason and, en lieu of that which, they gravitate to the indicative or infinitive.
Hebrew has a very simple tense system - past, present, future, and imperative. On the contrary, it has a vast conjugation system.
the conjugation is crazy with this language. Not always easy. I mean there are patterns I've noticed but then you have irregulars as well.
Nope. 'Amo venas' vs 'Amo estas venanta'. (The latter can be contracted to 'Amo venantas', but that would be fairly uncommon.)
Some dialects of German (such as Swiss German) do have a progressive aspect: "I'm eating" is "I bi am ässe" in Swiss German but "I eat a lot" (not right now) is "I ässe viel"
You can say in German: "Ich bin am essen." I don't see a difference to the Swiss German example.
Compared to other duolingo courses this starts too complex. I would like to learn hebrew in an easy fun way, supersimple. Also the letters are way too small to see them good. Also more explanation is needed.
I'm going to keep trying at it, but I felt the same way. As an English speaker, when having to deal with both a new alphabet and reading right-to-left, I expected a more gradual introduction. Finding it very hard to make out the letters.
Why is the -ah put on the end after 'coming'? Is this because of the -ah on the end of 'love'? Thanks.
it may have to do with the gender of the word since most Hebrew nouns ending in -ah are feminine (not all, but most). My Biblical Hebrew is rusty but there's also a rule concerning the fact that you can't end a word with an open syllable (a CV syllable). If it ends in a vowel, there's usually an -h or an aleph at the end
The "Aleph" letter is a "glottal stop". A glottal stop happens, for instance, in the "uh-oh" word, or in american pronounciation for "button". Your throat litteraly closes itself for a little moment. But I think it's not wrong if you just speak without the stop. Just put the emphasis on the second letter (baÁH)
The emphasis is correct, but not neccesary. I would personally pronounce it without exaggerating the ah - like in this forvo pronunciation for "את באה לפה הרבה?" - http://he.forvo.com/search/%D7%91%D7%90%D7%94/ --- (Do you come here often? - the cliched pickup line)
I am not learning anything without knowing how to read the words. I just hover over to see the tooltip and guess what the sentence will be.
Yes, i also feel this does not work to learn hebrew :-( The course should start way more simple!
There is a memrise.com course called "Hebrew Alef-Bet" that helped me in reading the Hebrew letters.
- 1941
I have to agree. Greek, whose writing system is much more similar to ours, explicitly introduces the letters in the first lesson. The other languages that don't use the Roman alphabet really ought to follow suit.
It's just for getting introduced to the Hebrew alphabet. It doesn't have to make sense for you to learn it, and, in fact, it's probably better if it doesn't make sense, since it'll make it more memorable.
There was a sentence in Dutch that meant "Good day, Juice." Never forgot it.
I will always have a soft spot in my heart for turtles after doing the first several lessons of the Duo Dutch course. :)
Have you ever heard the song "Love is on the way?" I think it's metaphorical, like that.
do you read the whole thing left to right or just each word read seperately? (completely new to hebrew)
- 1941
In exactly the same way that English is written and read left to right --->, Hebrew is written and read right to left <---.
MariahLightfoot wrote: "do you read the whole thing left to right or just each word read seperately? (completely new to hebrew)"
This is another example of why this course starts too complex for beginners: why don't you explain this in the beginning?! That hebrew is read from right to left?
The tips and notes do mention that it is read right to left, but does not go into words vs letters.
We read it right to left. Read this, I think you will find it helpful - https://www.duolingo.com/comment/16251269
This was really pointless to me until I downloaded an app called "write it hebrew" and learned a large part of the Hebrew alphabet then returned to Duolingo.
Thank you for the tip, it was seriously irritating. As incredible as it may think, the duolingo team must have a reason to have intentionaly chosen to ignore that aspect.
Because there is no ה ("ha") ie "the" at the beginning of the sentence. Unless I'm confused, since I just started this language too...
Love=אהבה (ahava). The love=האהבה (Ha'ahava). You would place a ה before a noun as you would place a "the" before a noun.
Could someone explain to me what this means? Love is coming? Is this similar to the Yorkshire for 'love' being a person, or is this simply stating that Love (ie romance etc) is coming to a certain area / person?
You're thinking about it too hard. As @JackyDW wrote above, "It's just for getting introduced to the Hebrew alphabet. It doesn't have to make sense for you to learn it, and, in fact, it's probably better if it doesn't make sense, since it'll make it more memorable."
Then use another clear sentence that does not make things more complicated for beginners :-) That is what good teachers do!
IN English, anyway, you could say "love is coming" in a general way to say "you/one will experience love in the near future" though it would sound rather poetic or metaphorical. In a much more specific Christian religious context we sometimes talk about "love has come" to refer to Christ's coming into the world. I don't think that latter context is what's being referred to here, though. :)
I meant to say what is the meaning of : love is coming ? does that have a meaning ?
I see. Sorry. That question has already been asked, and answered, several times earlier on this board. The explanation given there is that the sentences at this stage of the course are being constructed primarily to teach the alphabet.
- 1941
You need to use the website, not an app.
https://www.duolingo.com/skill/he/Letters-1
May depend on your browser or other factors. On the email I received notifying me of the new comment on this post, it is on the right. On the top of this page, it is on the left. The letters are still in the same order, so it's not like one is reading the RTL setting correctly and the other isn't, but I'm not sure what the actual issue is.
It should be on the left, as Hebrew reads right-to-left. If it's not, you may wish to report it. The mechanism for this will depend on which interface you're using, but may look like a 'flag' button next to or near the button to access the forum....
Interesting. I hadn't noticed, but (in internet explorer) the dot was correctly on the left in the actual exercise, but is showing on the right at the top of this discussion page.
OK, stupid question: are there no voicing diacritics in modern Hebrew? How can you tell it's Ahava ba'ah and not Ahaba va'ah?
- 1348
There are. But as you get fluent in the language you learn to recognize words as a whole - your brain will know the word so you won't need to connect the letters each time. These nikkud signs can be found usually in school and children's books.
the answer will depend on what sort of keyboard you have. Try googling "Hebrew keyboard" + Mac | Windows | Android | iPhone as appropriate.
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+do+i+get+Hebrew+letters+on+my+keyboard+%3F
- 1941
Unlike European languages, verbs in Hebrew include the gender of the subject in their conjugation.
Is it correct that ב sounds sometimes like an English "B" and sometimes like "V"?
The lesson 'tips and notes' bit mentions that for each of the b/v, p/f, and k/X pairs (the distinction is formally called voiced/voiceless), the letter is pronounced as the former only at the beginning of a syllable; elsewhere, it's devoiced.
- 1941
Stop vs. fricative, not voiced vs. voiceless. So it's a matter of fortition vs. lenition.
http://www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org/ipa-sounds/ipa-chart-with-sounds/
oh, right. thanks. (What i get for trying to remember classes i took ten years ago, i suppose....)
i also have this question, but i remember i saw somewhere else about Hebrew Alphabet(Aleph-Bet), it talks about some Hebrews alphabet may change sound with a dot or a point, i didn't finish the whole thing coz it was too much for me...
- 1941
The Hebrew writing system is more of an abjad than an alphabet.
An abjad is kind of like an alphabet, except the primary letters are consonants. Vowels are rarely included explicitly.
Ehy doesn't the bet in "love" have a dagesh mark? It sounds like a "v," but it soesnt have the mark that makes it a vet.
- 1348
Nope. With the dagesh mark it has a "b" sound, and without the dagesh a "v" sound.
It seems that one should not be penalized for writing the translations in English for a phrase in Hebrew such as "Love come(s)", which I assume is the correct Hebrew form. Asking users to use precise English grammar--"Love is coming"-- is no way to teach proper Hebrew grammar.
i dont understand this course they dont even freaking teach you the letters and expect americans with american keyboard to be able to type in hebrew letters with no explanation how guess ill just buy a hebrew tutor
- 1941
https://www.duolingo.com/skill/he/Letters-1
And you can Google how to add a Hebrew keyboard, depending on which OS you're using.
did you read the tips and notes? Unfortunately they're not visible in the mobile apps, but the aleph-bet is fully discussed there and there is a link to info on how to type in Hebrew.
So where did "is coming" pick up the ב? It wasn't there in the translation of "the father is coming"
I can't type love in hebrew because I don't have a hebrew language setting
- 1941
If you Google your OS and the phrase "Hebrew keyboard" you should find instructions on how to add/access that.
I'm not seeing much of a pattern and all I can do is memorize what characters make up what words
- 1941
Hebrew is written right-to-left and generally just writes the consonants, not so much the vowels.
Rae, speaking about reading right to left, I've been gone from Duolingo for a year and when I came back last week, I noticed that all the new, blue, Hebrew sentences at the top of the discussion pages are written backwards. Do you have any idea why this error happened, how long the problem has been going on, and why it hasn't been fixed yet? Thanks.
- 1941
I don't know why you're asking me. I haven't done Hebrew for a while and I'm not one of the course contributors. But I took a quick look at the top of this page and it's not backwards.
If you think there's a problem, you'll need to take a screen shot and submit a bug report.
I asked you because you are frequent and knowledgeable contributor who has been on the site more recently than I have. I thought you might have been following a discussion or heard some other way about this issue. The Hebrew in blue at the top of this page reads "באה אהבה" instead of "אהבה באה" on my computer. I turned in a bug report a couple of days ago but, since Duolingo does not respond back to individual bug reports, I was hoping someone else had an idea what is causing the problem and if it can be fixed.
which one is free can i use for windows, i tried to download one but it doesnt work
Go here: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/17767515 And follow the links for whatever browser you're using.
Can anybody explain me? בא באה They both means is coming but when do I use each one?
I came here with the same question. Earlier on the page people have said that בא is a masculine form (used with אבא ) and באה is a feminine form (used with אחבח).
Is it me or are they just throwing us into this heads first with a single sign of hope.
- 1941
You haven't replied to anyone, so I don't have the context for your comment. In what way do you think Hebrew is like German? Because there are some fundamental ways in which they are very, very different.
I presume Quinny2006 is replying to the first comment of the discussion, by EpicPowerHero. There seems to be some app for accessing Duolingo which only allows the user to see the first comment on a sentence, and not any subsequent replies or comments. It seems to lead to a lot of misunderstandings!
- 1941
Does that app also prevent people from replying directly to a comment, forcing them to make a top-level comment?
I'm struggling with the Android app myself. I type out a comment, and it won't post! (I'm on my computer right now.)
I'm not sure whether it is possible for them to make a reply, as such. But since they cannot see any replies themselves, they are completely unaware of the true structure of a page like this. They see the sentence, and a comment asking a question about it - so they reply by commenting themselves. I have seen one person specifically comment that they cannot make replies (in explaining why they would not be able to respond to anyone who replied to their own, top-level, comment), so I think that it may be so.
For myself, when I access Duolingo via the Windows phone app, I have access to neither the discussion boards nor the "Notes and Tips"! (needless to say, I am currently on a computer...)
Yep. If you realise that you are getting a cutdown version, you can access Duolingo via the browser, which gives a bit more functionality. But the worst of it is, there is no indication that you are not getting the full facility - I suspect that a lot of the angry, frustrated comments on Hebrew come from app users with no idea that the Tips and Notes exist!
However, yedish , not hebrew is a language between the two languages hebreu and german
- 1941
No. Yiddish is entirely a Germanic language. It is written using the Hebrew alphabet, and some Yiddish speakers might include some Hebrew loanwords, but that in no way makes the language "between Hebrew and German".
Hebrew is so confusing I think I could be able to speak it but never read it.
yo escribo las palabras en español y sale malo porqe debe ser en ingles y nose nada de ingles y necesito qe se pueda escribir la respuesta en español
- 1941
Por supuesto que quiere las respuestas en inglés. Esta es la lección de inglés a hebreo, no la lección de español a hebreo. No tienen español al hebreo todavía.
it sounds like a lava bar
"Love is coming" --said no one ever in any language. What the hell kind of retarded sentence is this?
Bull! You can learn an alphabet by much more valuable means, such as an alphabet song, or diagrams, or even words that start with each of the letters, instead of having to memorize sentences or phrases that you will almost with certainty never use in an actual conversation. "Love is coming" teaches me nothing, except how to waste everyone's precious time with empty, scripted mismatch of words.
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Cool course not a fan of the flag and country because I support Palestine but the language is very interesting! (though duo doesn't have the sound for all the words yet)
Well, I support sharia laws and Muslim independence in those European towns with Muslim majority (several are on the way), but what does my political opinion, or yours, has to do with a language learning. I think we all better keep our political opinions to political oriented forums.
