LESSON V

• Gutturals - ) h x ( and sometimes r

• Three peculiarities of gutturals

• Gutturals refuse to be doubled (that is, they reject the dagesh forte).

• r(b if it was ra(ab and needed a dagesh forte in the ( it would become ra(fb

• Gutturals prefer "a" class vowels

• xUr , for instance becomes axUr the a  is called a patah furtive.

• Gutturals prefer compound shevas over simple shevas

• Usually this is the A  ; the ) likes E You rarely see a guttural with a F

• The Definite Article

• Hebrew has no indefinite article - e.g. - df y is "a hand"

• The definite article is always prefixed to the noun it modifies -

e.g. - df y becomes dfYah

• The general rule to follow in writing the definite article is that it is usually written:

• ah (h , plus a patah and a dagesh forte in the first consonant of the noun)

• Some exceptions:

• Before h and x , the article is usually written ah (h , plus a patah)

• Before ) ( and r , the article is usually written fh (h , plus a qames)

• Before fh , and before unaccented fh or unaccented f( , the article is written eh ( h , plus a segol)

• When you have a word that begins with a simple sheva whose initial consonant is y or m ( :y or :m ), the article is normally written ah (h , plus a patah)

VOCABULARY