"Dad, mom is coming."
Translation:אבא, אמא באה.
41 Comments
Hi everyone Shalom! it is just me or should we be learning Alphabet first, how can we translate sentences without first knowing the letters?
thats what i thought but i guess not, maybe we learn it as we go? i dont know...
There would be a "e" sound like in "pea" below the first character in the first and an "ah" sound below the first character in the second. The end "h" sound is silent ( Hebrew is where the silent h after names like Sarah and Deborah came from). The vowels before the bet are under the first charater, but native speakers don't use these "helper vowels". Think of it like computer speak, "fwd" "msgr", even though we don't have the vowels, because of context we know what they mean. But it can be confusing for beginners!
אב is more formal and its when yoy are talking about other people's dad (אביך) אבא is more casual (99% you will hear אבא)
If you use Mac just go to the setting and add a new language and a keyboard. Choose QWERTY Hebrew. It's very easy.
Please, would you send me a email to Fer.javier.bermudez@gmail.com to help me with hebrew qwerty? Please!
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You can download the language on your PC or Smartphone and than you can just switch between your standard keyboard layout and your hebrew keyboard layout.
Why is the word אמא pronounced with an ee in the beginning and uh in the end though the letters are same? What are the rules behing this?
The letters aren't the same. The vowels simply aren't written so they have to be inferred. This particular case is relatively rare. Aleph doesn't usually make the ee sound.
Are there any rules to help me know with which vowel the word is to be pronounced?
There are some general rules of thumbs. Vav tends to make an o or oo sounds, yod is ee, and he and aleph are typically ah. That is, when they are used as vowels. They are primarily consonants of course.
But actually you need to memorize evth?
Pretty much yeah. I recommend the Memrise companion course for learning how to say individual words. It's very helpful.
Are vowels used anywhere? Would be great if there were an option to see the vowels in the mouseover/hint.
Why is it באה instead of בא if dad is the main subject? Wouldnt that make the verb masculine instead of feminine?
Dad isn't the subject, you're simply addressing him, and saying that "mom (the subject) is coming".
I've seen in other comments that בא is masculine, and באה is feminine :)
This is not for me I think, there's no teaching of the letters first so how can we learn like that, it reminds me of public school teachers trying to teach us french by sentences! it didn't go well put it that way, I cannot sit here all day waiting for help, God Bless and all the best to you who understand <3
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I understand that vowels generally aren't applied in Hebrew writing and totally get being put in the deep end of things by not having recourse to them even in these introductory comprehension lessons in the interest of proper immersive learning. Having said that, something like a transliteration of the words in these lessons would've been of immense facility in the learning process, especially since the Hebrew alphabet for so many of us is unfamiliar and unlike most others on Duolingo isn't taught prior to the spelling and grammar lessons.
My preference is to replace the default keyboard with SwiftKey. It easily allows switching languages and includes spell check dictionaries for each language. I've been using it for Hebrew with no problems. Swiftkey has many other features to makes typing on an Android phone faster even when just typing English. I feel it's the best keyboard app available. On the other hand, SwiftKey's autocomplete predictions are so smart, they sometimes spoil the answers to Duolingo's questions!
SwiftKey is my favorite keyboard, for the reasons you mentioned. However now that Microsoft owns it, expect features to be removed one by one.
how would one use a comma when typing in hebrew?
Actually, does Hebrew even have commas?
You need to switch it to Hebrew in your language/keyboard settings. If you have a physical keyboard then stickers are also a good idea.
It is easiest to add a Hebrew keyboard to a tablet (iPad or other) that has a touch screen. It shows up automatically when you need to type something in Hebrew. You can add it from your Settings menu under "keyboards".
