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PricingAboutSupportPossessive 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 | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 (sfarai, 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.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| ילדתו | yaldato | his daughter / his girl | |
| דירתו | dirato | his apartment |
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 → שמי
שמותי is my names, with the plural stem שמות. For one name use שמי.
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 minPrevious and Next
Frequently Asked Questions
What level is "Possessive Suffixes"?
Possessive Suffixes is A2 in baba's grammar order, and takes about 14 minutes to work through.
What's the short rule for possessive suffixes?
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.