What's the Difference Between Ancient and Modern Hebrew?

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Ancient Hebrew, also known as Biblical Hebrew or Lashon HaKodash ("the Holy Language") is not the same as Modern Hebrew, though Modern Hebrew was based on the ancient tongue. 

There are several main differences between the two languages. The most basic ones include:

• Ancient Hebrew was not intended for everyday conversation and primarily appears in religious texts, prayers, and halachic works.

• With ancient Hebrew, a sentence can begin with a verb, while in Modern Hebrew, sentences generally start with a subject, similar to the structure of Romance languages. 

• Tenses in Modern Hebrew are similar to other Romance languages- though not as rich. For example, אני הולך means I go and I am going. Biblical Hebrew, however, has verb constructs that do not exist in most languages, such as present-future, such as אכול תאכול you will surely eat.

For a list of free online resources to learn ancient, go here. 

Introduction to Hebrew Verbs

As we mentioned in the previous lesson, all Hebrew verbs consist of a 3 or 4 letter root called a shoresh (שורש) and are conjugated according to specific patterns called binyanim (בִּנְיָנִים) where vowels, prefixes and suffixes are added to the root.

In the Hebrew language, there are seven basic binyanim as illustrated below:

root :               פעל
active voice			reflexive	passive voice
פָּעַל pa'al	פִּעֵל pi'el	הִפְעִיל hif'il	הִתְפַּעֵל hitpa'el	הֻפְעַל huf'al	פֻּעַל pu'al	נִפְעַל nif'al
			causative
		intensive
	simple

Present Tense:

A Hebrew verb in the present tense (הוֹוֶה, hove) agrees with its subject in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural):

Form	Root	Singular		Plural		Translation
		M	F	M	F
pa'al	שׁמר	שׁוֹמֵר	שׁוֹמֶ֫רֶת	שׁוֹמְרִים	שׁוֹמְרוֹת	Guards
		shomer	shomeret	shomrim	shomrot
pi'el	גדל	מְגַדֵּל	מְגַדֶּלֶת	מְגַדְּלִים	מְגַדְּלוֹת	Raises, grows (something)
		meɡaˈdel	meɡaˈdelet	meɡadˈlim	meɡadˈlot

Introduction to Hebrew Grammar

Before we get to the specifics of Hebrew grammar, let's go over a few basic rules regarding how the Hebrew language is set up:


1. The Hebrew alphabet consists of 22 letters. Vowels are primarily depicted as a series of dots either above or below the letters. Unlike English, the Hebrew language is read from left to right.

2. The sentence structure in Hebrew is similar to that of English. Many (but not all) Hebrew sentences have a subject as well as a verb. But, there are some key differences. For example, the verb "to be" does not have a present tense form, resulting in a number of special present-tense structures.

3. The Hebrew verb (פועל) works in a similar way to the English verb, but it's construction is distinct. Every Hebrew verb consists of a shoresh (or a root), a three or four consonant stem that is classified into one of seven binyanim (בניינים constructions)

4. The Hebrew noun (שם עצם shem etzem) is inflected for number and state.

5. In Hebrew, adjectives follow the noun it modifies and agree in gender, number, and definiteness with the noun.

6. Like English, Hebrew uses prepositions extensively, but how these prepositions appear differ greatly from English. Many of the most common prepositions in Hebrew are prefixes rather than separate words, and some, like direct object modifier את et, have no equivalent in English.