עבריתEXPRESS

Lesson 4: Telling What Is and Isn’t

The Ivrit Express series presents compact lessons in Biblical (not Modern) Hebrew grammar. It aims to reinforce (not replace) your classroom experiences.

This lesson introduces the basics of telling what is and isn’t there—that is, affirming and denying the presence or existence of something.

Relax, watch, and listen as you advance through the next few slides.

בית 

איש 

אשה

אין איש בבית 

יש איש בבית 

אין אשה בבית 

יש אשה בבית 

דלת

חלון

אין דלת לבית 

יש דלת לבית 

אין חלון לבית 

יש חלון לבית 

I recommend that you go through the foregoing picture slides at least three times before advancing to the grammatical discussion.

In fact, you can implicitly learn from the pictures what you need to know: how to say that something is or isn’t present.

So the following grammatical discussion is basically optional, provided for learners who want to peek at what the language is doing under the hood.

Use יש to say that something exists or is present. Use אין to say that something doesn’t exist or isn’t present.

There are also other ways to use יש and אין. You’ll learn these later. But in all cases, יש affirms and אין negates.

CREDITSScripted and narrated by

Dr. Chris Heard, Pepperdine University

Partially funded bya Pepperdine University

Faculty Innovation in Teaching and Learning Grant

Artwork licensed viaiStockphoto