Читать книгу Hebrew For Dummies - Jill Suzanne Jacobs - Страница 54

Prepositions are words that show relations among words (such as “in,” “by,” and “with,” to name a few common English prepositions). In Hebrew, prepositions sometimes stand alone; at other times, they’re attached to another word as a prefix. Table 2-10 breaks down prepositions for you.

TABLE 2-10 Hebrew Prepositions

Hebrew Preposition	Pronunciation	Translation	Presentation
עַל	ahl	on	stands alone
בְּ	buh	with/in	prefix
אֵל	ehl	to	stands alone
עִם	eem	with	stands alone
לְ	luh	to	prefix
מִן	meen	from	stands alone
מ	mee	from	prefix

In English, you combine prepositions with nouns to make prepositional phrases, such as “in the box,” “by the river,” or “with a friend.” In Hebrew, if you want to add the word “the” — to form a prepositional phrase — you have to change the vowel sound of the preposition. The uh vowel sound becomes an ah sound.

So, if a definite direct object is preceded by a preposition, the preposition will include the definite article. “He helped a girl” is הוּא עָזַר לְיַלְדָּה (hoo ah-zahr luh-yahl-dah; literally: He helped to girl.). The preposition in this case is לְ. But if you want to say “He gave assistance to the girl,” you say הוּא עָזַר לַיַּלְדָּה (hoo ah-zahr lah-yahl-dah; Literally: he helped to the girl.). The preposition אֵל is combined with the definite article in this case and becomes לַ (lah; to the).