QUESTION WORD "WHO?"


A. Griber


In this lesson, we will build interrogative sentences with the interrogative word "who?".


An interrogative word is applied to animate objects, masculine and feminine, singular and plural.


מִי (mi) - "who?".


Let's build sentences using the question word מִי (mi) and personal pronouns:


?מִי אֲנִי

(mi ani?)

"Who am I?"


?מִי אֲנַחְנוּ

(mi anahnu?)

"Who are we?"


?מִי אַתָה

(mi ata?)

"Who are you (m. R.)?"


מִי אַת?

(mi at?)

"Who are you (female)?"


?מִי אַתֶם

(mi atem?)

"Who are you (m. R.)?"


?מִי אַתֶן

(mi aten?)

"Who are you (female)?"


?מִי הוּא

(mi hu?)

"Who is he?"


?מִי הִיא

(mi hi?)

"Who is she?"


?מִי הֵם

(mi hem?)

"Who are they (m. R.)?"


?מִי הֵן

(mi heng?)

"Who are they (female)?"


And now let's build sentences in which we use the interrogative pronoun מִי (mi) and demonstrative pronouns:


?מִי זֶה

(mi ze?)

"Who is this (m. R.)?"


?מִי זֹאת

(mi thot?)

"Who is this (female)?"


?מִי אֵלֶה

(mi ele?)

"Who is this (pl.)?"


If the questioner does not see or cannot determine the gender of a person, then in his question he uses the masculine singular demonstrative pronoun זֶה (ze):


?מִי זֶה

(mi ze?)

"Who is this?"


Let's consider the following situation. A knock on your apartment door. You approach her and ask:


?מִי זֶה

(mi ze?)

"Who is this?"


Since you do not know who is behind the door (one person or several people, a man or a woman), this is the most correct question. It is appropriate in all cases when you are not sure about which person or number of persons in question.


In the answer to your question, that demonstrative pronoun will already sound, which indicates the gender of a given person or the number of persons.


Here are some questions with new words:


?מִי זֶה פֹּה

(mi ze po?)

“Who is this here?


The word פֹּה (by) is translated into Russian with the words "here, here."


The Hebrew consonant "p" resembles the Russian sound "p", but is pronounced with some aspiration, like in Russian the second sound "p" in the word "pop".


The letter פ (pei) is the 17th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which has a numerical value - 80 (eighty).


Depending on the presence or absence of a dot inside the letter (dagEsh), this letter can be pronounced both as the sound “p” (with a dot inside the letter) and as the sound “f” (without a dot inside the letter). As a rule, it is pronounced as “p” at the beginning of a word, and as “f” at the end of the word. In the middle of a word, both pronunciations are used.


At the end of the word, this letter has a different style - ף and is called "fey sofit - final fey".


?מִי זֶה כָּאן

(mi ze kan?)

"Who is this here?"


The word כָּאן (kan) is translated into Russian with the words “here, here”, like the word פֹּה (by). In this word, the letter א (Aleph) in the unvoiced letter represents the sound "a", and in the voweled letter it acts as a double vowel "kamAtz".


?מִי שָם

(mi sham?)

"Who's there?"


The word שָם (sham) is translated into Russian by the word "there".


The Hebrew consonant "sh" resembles the Russian "sh" sound, but is pronounced softer.


The letter ש (shin/sin) is the 21st letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 300 (three hundred).


This letter can be pronounced both as a [w] sound and as a [s] sound.


If a dot is placed above this letter on the right (or not placed at all), then the letter is pronounced as the sound “sh”. If the point above this letter is placed from the top left, then the letter is pronounced as the sound "s".


?מִי זֶה שָם

(mi ze sham?)

"Who's there?"


The supposed answers to these questions will also give us new words:


.אֲנִי פֹּה וְלֹא שָם

(anI by ve-lo sham.)

"I'm here (here), not there."


The word וְלֹא (ve-lo) consists of the conjunction וְ (ve-) — “and; a (but)" and the words לֹא (lo).


The Hebrew consonant "v" is pronounced in the same way as the similar sound of the Russian language.


The union וְ (ve-; the letter “vav” with the vowel “shva”) consists of one letter. Therefore, it is written together with the word following it. In transcription, it will be separated by a dash from the word following it.


The vowel "seam" under the union וְ (ve-) is always pronounced as the sound "e".


.אֲנַחְנוּ כָּאן

(Anahnu can.)

"We are here (here)."


So, in this lesson, you got acquainted with the interrogative word מִי (mi), the union וְ (ve-), and also learned:


- how to pronounce the consonants "sh", "p", "v" in Hebrew;


- how to write and pronounce the letters of the Hebrew alphabet ש (shin), פ (pei);


- how sentences with the interrogative word מִי (mi) are built.