36 Comments
How come "את" is used here? Wouldn't that make it "Sarah loves the Abraham"? Since according to before in the notes and tips it said "את" = The (most times in between sentences)
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No, את is not "the" exactly, it indicates a direct object that is definite. Since אברהם is a proper name, it is considered already definite, no article necessary, therefore את אברהם.
So do you use את also if you wanted to say (Name) loves/likes any person or also direct object? Like I'm assuming you wouldn't use it to say Sarah loves cats, but if Sarah loves the cat, a specific cat, would it be את החתול? Or if Sarah loves the sweater or the coat? I'm probably running ahead of myself and this will be solidified later on in the course but just want to be sure I'm getting this. Guess it's obvious with objects, less so with names.
- 17
Yes, exactly. שרה אוהבת את אברהם, שרה אוהבת את החתול, שרה אוהבת את המעיל. שרה אוהבת אנשים, שרה אוהבת חתולים, שרה אוהבת מעילים.
All is well, just pointing out it works with plural since all your examples were not
- 17
True, my examples coul be understood to mean that it's a singular/plural thing. But you could think of a situation where you want to say that there is a certain coat Sara likes: שרה אוהבת מעיל ירוק.
i'm a bit confused so do people in israel say שרה אוהבת אבראהם like slang or do they use the grammatically correct את?
Congrats to Duolingo for this kind of references, since I am here mostly because of the holy Scriptures, and it makes no difference if you are unbeliever cause modern Hebrew is mostly based on biblical, may we see more of this, שלום.
- 1374
If you read the Bible, you will find that it is based on Hebrew history rather than gossip.
- 988
ID-007, you have done so well in so many languages. Well done. Keep it up
It can be the feminine form of you, but it's also a marker used to note a definite object, which is how it's being used here.
At means the, in the feminine form, or et is used to introduce a semantically definite direct object. I was wondering whether or not et is used before objective proper nouns.
There is two different words that looks the same. The word "את" (at) means you, but the word "את" (et) means the (not exactly), it's a word that does not have a meaning in English, just like the word "is" don't have a meaning in Hebrew.
I don't why this is in the possessives section. I mean, this sentence doesn't have של or שייך.
אני אוהב אותך
(Ani ohev otakh)
You as a subject and you as an object are different, in Hebrew. That's in addition to the differences depending on gender.
Why is it " את " is used in the feminiine singular form ? Supposing the sentence is reversed to " אברהם אוהב את שרה " does the " את " gender still remain unchanged? Could someone explain this please . Thanks
Is it more common or correct to stress proper names that end in a vowel on the last syllable like the speaker here and like in Biblical Hebrew, i.e. שָׂרָ֫ה [sarA], or on the penultimate, like I am used to hear, i.e. שָׂ֫רָה [sAra]?
Great question! And a long story...
The biblican pronuciation probably stressed the last syllable. I believe also the pronuciation of the Jews who lived in the Arabic-speaking world. The Jews living in Europe, however, adopted pronuciation on the penultimate syllable (of all words, including proper biblical names).
Early in the revival of the Hebrew as a spoken Language, it was decided by the experts that pronunciation on the last syllable was correct, and Hebrew speakers obeyed - with most words. I'm not sure why, it didn't catch with private names. For decades and decades, everyone knew that ultimate stress was "right", and that's what was used in the radio etc. Also when talking about the biblical characters themselves people would use ultiamte stress.
But in day-to-day life, speaking about one another and people of our time, penultiamte was almost always used - even for people named with the biblican names! So while the biblical mother is riv-KA, my own real mother is RIV-ka.
This was not without exceptions. חנוך (the biblical Enoch, also happens to be my father's name) has been always pronounced with ultimate stress. Also some indviduals insisted on ultimate stress in their names, and this would be respected (דוד בן גוריון), though potentially preceived as weird.
Then in the last two-three decades the tables flipped again. Again I'm not sure why, parents began to pronounce their children names with the proper ultiamte stress, and again this is usually respected as the child grows. Though some ultimate-stress children at some point adopt penultimate stress with their friends. I even heard of opposite cases - people who were known in penultimate stress their whole lives, at some point start to adapt ultimate stress.
So today, you really can't tell. Suppose I get an email at work, "please welcome our new staff member Rachel (רחל) Ohayun". Then when I meat her face to face, one of my first questions will probably be "So do you say ra-CHEL or RA-chel"?
