Possessive suffixes כינויי שייכות
Hebrew can glue the owner onto the noun: ביתי, ספרו, שמם. The pattern is older and tighter than של, and modern speech keeps it for some words while preferring של for the rest.
Add a person suffix to the construct stem of the noun (ביתי, ספרו); expect a vowel change in the stem, and prefer של when you are not in a set phrase.
בית is a clean model. ביתי, ביתך, ביתו, ביתה, ביתנו, ביתכם, ביתכן, ביתם, ביתן. Final ך, ם, and ן on these forms are the ordinary final letters. The stem vowel of בַּיִת tightens when a suffix is added. Read the whole word; do not stack בית plus a separate pronoun.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
|---|---|---|
| בֵּיתִי | beiti | my house |
| בֵּיתְךָ | beitkha | your house (ms) |
| בֵּיתֵךְ | beitekh | your house (fs) |
| בֵּיתוֹ | beito | his house |
| בֵּיתָהּ | beita | her house |
| בֵּיתֵנוּ | beitenu | our house |
| בֵּיתְכֶם | beitkhem | your house (mp) |
| בֵּיתְכֶן | beitkhen | your house (fp) |
| בֵּיתָם | beitam | their house (mp) |
| בֵּיתָן | beitan | their house (fp) |
סֵפֶר becomes סִפְרִי, סִפְרוֹ, סִפְרֵנוּ. The first vowel shrinks because the suffix stole the stress. Unvowelled writing shows ספרי, ספרו, ספרנו. You cannot hear sefer inside sifri. Other two-syllable nouns behave the same way; learn the suffixed stem as a new shape.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ספרי | sifri | my book | |
| ספרו | sifro | his book | |
| ספרנו | sifrenu | our book |
Fixed adverbial phrases keep suffixes: לדעתי, לדעתו, בחיי, בשבילי. Kinship in formal language uses אבי, אמו, בנם. Signs and announcements like it. If a phrase is listed in a dictionary as one chunk, do not unpack it into של.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| לדעתי | le-da'ati | in my opinion | |
| בשבילי | bishvili | for me | |
| שמו | shmo | his name |
הבית שלי and ביתי can refer to the same house. ביתי is denser and often more formal or more intimate. הספר של הילד cannot be replaced by a suffix on ספר plus הילד; a full noun possessor needs של or construct state. Suffixes only encode pronoun owners.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| הבית שלי | ha-bayit sheli | my house (with של) | |
| ביתי | beiti | my house (suffix) |
Exceptions
Plural nouns take a different glue
Suffixed plurals insert ־י־: ספריי (sifrai, my books), ידיו (yadav, his hands). The extra yod is easy to miss in print. Do not put a singular suffix on a plural meaning. This is a common reading problem at A2.
| ספריו | sfarav | his books |
| ידיו | yadav | his hands |
Feminine nouns ending in ה
The ה of ילדה and שנה often becomes ת before a suffix: ילדתו, שנתה. That ת is the construct ending, the same one you will meet in smikhut. The spoken language still likes הילדה שלו beside ילדתו.
| ילדתו | yaldato | his daughter / his girl |
| שנתה | shnata | her year |
Common mistakes
בית אני → ביתי
Glue the owner on as a suffix, or switch to הבית שלי; do not leave אני after the noun.
ספר שלו → הספר שלו
If you use של, the possessed noun is usually definite: הספר שלו. The suffix form is ספרו.
שמותי for one name → שמי
שמי is my name; the extra ו in שמות marks a plural stem.
Go on to
Prepositions with suffixes
A Hebrew preposition cannot sit in front of אני or אתה. The pronoun melts into the preposition: לי, בך, ממנו, איתי, עליה, and each preposition has its own little table.
A2 · 14 minPossession with shel
The everyday way to say my, your, or Dan’s in modern Hebrew is של plus a noun or a pronoun ending. הספר שלי is the phrase you want in class and on the street.
A1 · 8 minSmichut, the construct state
Hebrew often chains two nouns so the first is “of” the second: בֵּית סֵפֶר, עוֹרֵךְ דִּין, כּוֹס קָפֶה. That chain is smichut, and the first noun frequently changes shape.
A2 · 13 min