Modern Hebrew: An Essential Grammar

Level TwoThe one major exception is the PA’AL Future. Here, -a- is not addedbut substituted. Thus:NotNot or . . . but rather or . . . but rather A similar but minor exception: particularly in formal style, the futureof PI’EL and NIF’AL is sometimesagain substituted rather than added. , ,, etc., i.e. -a- is2 Once a feminine suffix has been added, the ‘final guttural’ is, ofcourse, no longer final. Yet the vowels are still affected provided thefeminine suffix is - , i.e. in all but HIF’IL and ONE-SYLLABLE verbs.The guttural gives rise to the endings or . For example: , , , , 52 Roots with õ ,× , ë: ‘soft’ or ‘hard’? , or as the first letter of a verb will haveVirtually without exception,a hard pronunciation (b, k, p), i.e. pointed texts would insert a ‘dagesh’: , ,. Conversely, as the last letter of a verb they nearly always receive asoft pronunciation (v, ch, f): . Thus: , , First letterLast letter asked wrote calculated spilled exempted burned90But when the very same verbs take on prefixes, so that the , , are nolonger the first letter, or when , , are from the outset the middleconsonants of the root, there are various rules affecting whether the are hard or soft. These are given in 52(a), (b) and (c)., ,