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Modern Hebrew: An Essential Grammar

Modern Hebrew: An Essential Grammar

Modern Hebrew: An Essential Grammar

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Level One19 The past tensea Form of the past tenseAll verbs form their past tense by adding a suffix, as follows: (we)(you, masc. pl.)(you, fem. pl.)(they) no suffix (I)(you, masc. sing.)(you, fem. sing.)(he)(she)Note: The suffixes in the first three lines (the 1st and 2nd person suffixes) arenot stressed. Those in the last two lines are sometimes stressed, depending onthe type of verb.Using the verb ‘get up’ as a model: we got up you (masc. pl.) got up you (fem .pl.) got up they got up I got up you (masc. sing.) got up you (fem. sing.) got up he got up she got upWe have marked stress by on the first syllable. It is a feature of this typeof verb that stress never falls on the past tense endings.The past tense inflects for person as well as for gender and number, butunlike the present tense (see 19(b), (c)) it cannot distinguish gender for ‘I’,‘we’, and ‘they’.34A point to ponder: some of these suffixes bear a resemblance to thepersonal pronouns themselves: to, etc. , to

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