Prepositions with suffixes מילות יחס עם כינויים
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.
Never use a subject pronoun after a preposition; use the fused forms לי, לך, לו, לנו and their cousins on be-, me-, את, עם, על, and אל.
לי, לך, לו, לה, לנו, לכם, לכן, להם, להן is the set you need for to / for. לך is lekha or lakh according to the addressee. This is also the set that builds יש לי and אין לי. Once ל is automatic, the other prepositions feel like variations of the same person row.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
|---|---|---|
| לִי | li | to / for me |
| לְךָ | lekha | to / for you (ms) |
| לָךְ | lakh | to / for you (fs) |
| לוֹ | lo | to / for him |
| לָהּ | lah | to / for her |
| לָנוּ | lanu | to / for us |
| לָכֶם | lakhem | to / for you (mp) |
| לָכֶן | lakhen | to / for you (fp) |
| לָהֶם | lahem | to / for them (mp) |
| לָהֶן | lahen | to / for them (fp) |
ב becomes בי, בך, בו, בה, בנו, בכם, בכן, בהם, בהן. על becomes עלי, עליך, עליו, עליה, עלינו, עליכם, עליכן, עליהם, עליהן. אל (to, toward) follows the על shape: אלי, אליך, אליו. Direction toward a person almost always wants אל plus a suffix, not ל plus a name-shaped pronoun.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| תאמיני בי | ta'amini bi | Believe me (fs). | |
| תסתכלי עליי | tistakli alai | Look at me (fs). | |
| בוא אליי | bo elai | Come to me. |
מן does not give *מאני. The forms are ממני, ממך, ממנו, ממנה, ממנו, מכם, מכן, מהם, מהן. עם in speech is איתי, איתך, איתו, איתה, איתנו, איתכם, איתכן, איתם, איתן; writing also has אתי. Learn ממני and איתי as whole words.
| Person | מן | עם |
|---|---|---|
| me | ממני | איתי |
| you ms | ממך | איתך |
| him | ממנו | איתו |
| her | ממנה | איתה |
| us | ממנו | איתנו |
| them mp | מהם | איתם |
Direct-object את plus a pronoun is אותי, אותך, אותו, אותה, אותנו, אתכם, אתכן, אותם, אותן. That set belongs with this lesson even though את is not a location preposition. ראיתי אותך is I saw you, never ראיתי את אתה.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ראיתי אותך | ra'iti otkha | I saw you (ms). | |
| הוא אוהב אותה | hu ohev ota | He loves her. | |
| תעזרי לנו | ta'azri lanu | Help us (fs). |
Exceptions
ממנו is both from him and from us
Pointed text can separate מִמֶּנּוּ (from him) and מִמֶּנּוּ (from us) poorly in some fonts; traditional grammar distinguishes them by stress and by a second spelling מִמֶּנּוּ / מִמֶּנוּ. In unvowelled Modern Hebrew ממנו is ambiguous. Context or a rewrite with מאיתנו does the job.
עליי with extra yod
First-person עלי and אלי are often written עליי and אליי in ktiv male so you do not read them as עלי. The extra yod is spelling, not a second suffix. Both עלי and עליי appear in the wild.
Common mistakes
ל אני → לי
The preposition and the pronoun fuse; לי is the only grammatical form.
עם אתה → איתך
עם plus you is איתך, not the subject pronoun אתה.
ראיתי את היא → ראיתי אותה
Object את plus she is אותה.
Go on to
et, the object marker
Hebrew marks a definite direct object with את. You say ראיתי ספר but ראיתי את הספר, and you say ראיתי אותך when the object is a pronoun.
A1 · 10 minPossessive suffixes
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.
A2 · 14 minDirection and location
Location sits mainly on three prefixes (be in/at, le to, mi from), plus a small set of free prepositions such as עַל, תַּחַת, לְיַד, בֵּין, and מוּל. A handful of frozen forms still carry a directional ־ָה: הַבַּיְתָה, יָמִינָה, שְׂמֹאלָה.
A1 · 12 min