Modern Hebrew: An Essential Grammar

Level One37L Ñ ‘there is, there are’For ‘there is . . ., there are . . .’ (i.e. ‘there exists’), Hebrew uses the verbalparticle . It generally precedes its noun, like English ‘there is’, and isunchanged for feminine or plural: There’s a problem There are problemsFor ‘there isn’t . . ., there aren’t . . .’, one uses the verbal particlepositioned and inflected just like : There isn’t a video . It is There aren’t any cleaning ladiesFor other tenses, Hebrew simply uses the verband generally agreeing with it: , preceding the noun There was a jam There was an accident There won’t be a video There won’t be any cleanersSimilar to is the particle ‘here is, here are’: Here’s the switch! Here he is! Here they are38 ‘I have’: Ìñ LÑ68For ‘have’ (present tense), Hebrew again makes use of the verb (see37). The construction . . . (‘to x there is . . .’) denotes ‘x has . . .’: Rivka has a cleaning lady