Pronouns, Verbless Clauses and Pronominal Suffixes

Abraham's servant meets a young woman at a well and asks her a question. She answers. Neither of them uses a verb.

וַיֹּאמֶר בַּת־מִי אַתְּ הַגִּידִי נָא לִי הֲיֵשׁ בֵּית־אָבִיךְ מָקוֹם לָנוּ לָלִין׃

Genesis 24:23, Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַתֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו בַּת־בְּתוּאֵל אָנֹכִי בֶּן־מִלְכָּה אֲשֶׁר יָלְדָה לְנָחוֹר׃

Genesis 24:24, Westminster Leningrad Codex

"Whose daughter are you?" is בַּת־מִי אַתְּ [bat-MI AT], literally "daughter-of who you." "I am the daughter of Bethuel" is בַּת־בְּתוּאֵל אָנֹכִי [bat-be-tu-EL a-no-KHI], "daughter-of Bethuel I." In those two verses you can also see four of the things this lesson teaches: an independent pronoun (אַתְּ, אָנֹכִי), a question word (מִי and the little הֲ of הֲיֵשׁ), a pronoun suffix on a noun and on prepositions (אָבִיךְ "your father," לִי "to me," לָנוּ "for us," אֵלָיו "to him"), and the relative word אֲשֶׁר "whom." By the end of the lesson you will read both verses without help.

The independent personal pronouns

Hebrew has a full set of stand-alone pronouns, like English "I, you, he." Unlike English, it has separate forms for "you" speaking to a man and "you" speaking to a woman, in the singular and the plural. Only "I" and "we" are common gender (the same for men and women). Gesenius gives the forms in section 32.

Some patterns make the list easier to hold. Every second person form starts with אַתּ [at]: אַתָּה, אַתְּ, אַתֶּם, אַתֵּן. Every third person form starts with ה. Masculine plurals end in m (אַתֶּם, הֵם) and feminine plurals in n (אַתֵּן, הֵן), the same m and n contrast you will meet again in the verb endings of lessons 11 and 12. Hold onto that m for men and n for women: it comes back in every suffix table below.

Two words for "I"

אָנֹכִי is the older, fuller form, related to the Akkadian and Phoenician words for "I." אֲנִי is the shorter one. In Genesis and Ruth the two alternate freely; Gesenius notes that some later books strongly prefer אֲנִי (Gesenius, section 32). There is no difference in meaning that a beginner needs to worry about. Notice which one a writer uses and move on. Modern Israeli Hebrew uses only אֲנִי; אָנֹכִי sounds as old to an Israeli ear as "thou" does to yours.

Pausal forms

At a strong break in the verse (shown by the accents, usually at the end of the verse or the middle), many words lengthen a vowel. This is called pause. Pronouns are among the words you will meet most often in pause:

A pausal form is the same word. When a form in a verse looks slightly "off" and it sits right before the sof pasuq ׃, pause is the first thing to suspect.

The Torah's הִוא

Read Genesis 3:12 in the Leningrad Codex and you will find "she" spelled הִוא: the consonants of הוּא "he" with the vowel of הִיא "she."

וַיֹּאמֶר הָאָדָם הָאִשָּׁה אֲשֶׁר נָתַתָּה עִמָּדִי הִוא נָתְנָה־לִּי מִן־הָעֵץ וָאֹכֵל׃

Genesis 3:12, Westminster Leningrad Codex

In the five books of the Torah the written text spells "she" as הוא nearly everywhere (only a handful of places, such as Genesis 14:2, have הִיא). The Masoretes, who added the vowels, did not change the letters; they put a hireq under the he to tell the reader to say [HI]. Gesenius treats this as a "perpetual" reading instruction that the manuscripts do not need to mark in the margin each time (Gesenius, section 32). So: in the Torah, הִוא with a hireq means "she." הוּא with a shureq means "he."

What the pronouns do

Subject of a verbless clause

The main job of an independent pronoun is to be the subject of a clause with no verb. A Hebrew verb already contains its subject (you will see this in lesson 11: שָׁמַרְתִּי is "I kept," one word). So a pronoun next to a verb is optional, and when it appears it usually adds weight.

Emphasis and contrast with a verb

When a pronoun stands beside a finite verb, read it as "I myself," "as for you," or with stress in your voice. God has just spoken of his own side of the covenant; then he turns to Abraham:

וְאַתָּה אֶת־בְּרִיתִי תִשְׁמֹר אַתָּה וְזַרְעֲךָ אַחֲרֶיךָ לְדֹרֹתָם׃

Genesis 17:9 (second half), Westminster Leningrad Codex

"And as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you, for their generations." The verb תִשְׁמֹר already means "you will keep." וְאַתָּה sets Abraham against what God has just said about himself. Gesenius gathers this use in section 135.

The third person pronoun as a link

A third person pronoun often stands between subject and predicate, where English puts "is" or "are." Exodus 32:16 says of the stone tablets: וְהַלֻּחֹת מַעֲשֵׂה אֱלֹהִים הֵמָּה, "and the tablets, the work of God they (were)." It still is a pronoun, not a verb; it points back to the subject and helps the hearer find where the subject ends and the predicate starts. Modern Hebrew grew a regular copula out of this use. In classical texts, translate it as "is" or "are" when that reads best, but know what it is.

Verbless clauses

Hebrew has a verb "to be," הָיָה [ha-YA], but in present time it normally leaves it out. A noun or pronoun set next to another noun, an adjective, a participle or a prepositional phrase is a complete sentence. Gesenius calls this a noun clause (Gesenius, section 141). The four common types:

מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד יְהוָה רֹעִי לֹא אֶחְסָר׃

Psalm 23:1, Westminster Leningrad Codex

"A psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not lack." רֹעִי [ro-I] is רֹעֶה "shepherd" with the suffix "my." Two words make the whole famous clause.

Word order in verbless clauses

Both orders occur. A rough guide that works most of the time (Gesenius, section 141):

• Subject first when the clause says who someone is, identifying them: אֲנִי יוֹסֵף "I am Joseph"; אָנֹכִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ "I am the LORD your God" (Exodus 20:2).
• Predicate first when the clause says what kind of person or thing someone is, classifying or describing them: כֵּנִים אֲנַחְנוּ "honest men are we"; בַּת־בְּתוּאֵל אָנֹכִי "Bethuel's daughter am I"; עִבְרִי אָנֹכִי "a Hebrew am I" (Jonah 1:9).

אָנֹכִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתִיךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם מִבֵּית עֲבָדִים׃

Exodus 20:2, Westminster Leningrad Codex

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves." אֱלֹהֶיךָ "your God" and הוֹצֵאתִיךָ "I brought you out" both carry the suffix "you" (masculine singular). Every Israelite hearer is addressed one by one.

Tense in a verbless clause

A verbless clause has no tense of its own. It takes its time from the story around it. In conversation it is usually present ("I am"); in a narrative about the past it is past ("the man was old"); in a promise it can be future. Supply whichever English form of "to be" the context needs.

"There is" and "there is not": יֵשׁ and אֵין

Existence has its own pair of words, neither of them a verb. יֵשׁ [YESH] means "there is, there are." אֵין [EIN] (construct of אַיִן) means "there is not." The servant's question הֲיֵשׁ בֵּית־אָבִיךְ מָקוֹם לָנוּ is "Is there in your father's house a place for us?" Ecclesiastes 1:9 ends וְאֵין כָּל־חָדָשׁ תַּחַת הַשָּׁמֶשׁ, "and there is nothing new under the sun." Possession uses the same words with לְ: יֵשׁ לִי "there is to me," that is, "I have." Hebrew has no verb "to have."

Negating a verbless clause

Use אֵין for "there is not" and for negating a participle (אֵין רֹאֶה "no one seeing," Exodus 22:9). Use לֹא before a noun or adjective predicate: לֹא־טוֹב "not good" (Genesis 2:18). Lesson 11 gives לֹא with verbs.

Pronominal suffixes: the idea

English "my horse" is two words. Hebrew says it in one: סוּסִי [su-SI]. The pronoun is a suffix, a short ending glued to the noun. The noun with a suffix is always definite ("my horse," never "a horse of mine"), so it never takes the article: הַסּוּס or סוּסִי, never both.

Grammatically, a noun with a suffix is in the construct state (lesson 6): סוּסִי is "horse-of me," just as סוּס הַמֶּלֶךְ is "horse-of the king." That is why the plural forms below are built on the plural construct סוּסֵי, and why nouns whose vowels change in the construct also change before suffixes (Gesenius, sections 33 and 91).

Suffixes and independent pronouns are related. Compare them and you will see the family likeness: אֲנִי and ־ִי (my), הוּא and ־וֹ (his), אֲנַחְנוּ and ־נוּ (our), אַתֶּם and ־כֶם (your, plural), הֵם and ־הֶם / ־ם (their). The second person suffixes use k where the independent pronouns use t.

Suffixes on singular nouns

The model noun in Gesenius is סוּס [SUS] "horse," chosen because its vowel never changes: the shureq is unchangeable, so only the ending moves (Gesenius, section 91). Next to it is a real noun with the same kind of unchangeable vowel, קוֹל [KOL] "voice," with a verse for every form that occurs in the books our lookup tool covers.

Notes on the table:

• Spelling with and without vav. The Leningrad Codex spells קוֹל both full (קוֹלִי) and short (קֹלְךָ, קֹלֵנוּ). The sound is the same [o]. Lesson 2 called these full and defective spellings.
• Shewa before ךָ and כֶם. In the Tiberian reading the shewa after the long vowel is vocal, so the guide gives [su-se-KHA] and [ko-le-KHA]. In quick modern speech many Israelis say [sus-KHA], [kol-KHA]. Either way, the stress falls on the suffix.
• 2nd masculine singular in pause. At a verse break ־ְךָ becomes ־ֶךָ: קוֹלֶךָ (Proverbs 2:3), שְׁמֶךָ "your name" (Genesis 32:28). Do not confuse it with the plural-noun suffix ־ֶיךָ, which has a yod.
• Mappiq. "Her" is ־ָהּ, with a dot in the he. Without the dot, ־ָה is the ordinary feminine ending: סוּסָה is "mare," סוּסָהּ is "her horse." In the classical reading the mappiq he is a real, lightly breathed h; modern speakers usually drop it and say [su-SA].
• Stress. The stress moves onto the suffix: [su-SI], [su-SO], [su-se-KHEM]. In ־ֵנוּ it falls on the e [su-SE-nu]. ־כֶם and ־כֶן (and ־הֶם, ־הֶן) are called heavy suffixes: they are a full stressed syllable of their own, and they pull the stress furthest from the noun, which is why nouns with changeable vowels shorten most before them.

Nouns whose vowels change

Most nouns are not as polite as סוּס. A changeable vowel shortens or drops when the stress moves to the suffix, just as it did in the construct state in lesson 6. Three examples you will meet constantly:

• מֶלֶךְ "king" builds on the old base malk-: מַלְכִּי "my king" (Psalm 2:6), מַלְכּוֹ "his king" (Numbers 24:7), מַלְכֵּנוּ "our king" (1 Samuel 8:20). Lesson 6 introduced this kind of noun, the segolate.
• אָב "father" adds a long i: אָבִי "my father" (Genesis 45:3), אָבִיךָ "your father" (Genesis 28:13), אָבִיךְ "your (f.) father" (Genesis 24:23), אָבִיו "his father" (Genesis 37:11). אָח "brother" works the same way: אָחִי, אָחִיךָ.
• שֵׁם "name": שְׁמוֹ "his name" (Genesis 2:19), שְׁמֶךָ "your name" in pause (Genesis 32:28).

When you meet an unfamiliar suffixed noun, strip the suffix, then look for the noun in the lexicon under its dictionary form. Lesson 20 shows how.

Suffixes on plural nouns

Plural nouns take a second set of suffixes. They all contain a yod, because they are built on the masculine plural construct ending ־ֵי (Gesenius, section 91). Watch for the yod: it is the quickest way to tell "his horses" from "his horse."

The word יָמִים "days" in the right-hand column is the plural of יוֹם; its stem shortens to יְמֵי before the heavy suffixes (יְמֵיכֶם), but the suffix endings are exactly those of סוּסִים. In the 3rd masculine singular, ָיו is said [av]: the yod is silent and the vav is the consonant v. One pair sounds alike and differs only in spelling: סוּסֵנוּ "our horse" and סוּסֵינוּ "our horses." When reading aloud you cannot hear the difference; when reading the page, look for the yod.

Suffixes on feminine nouns

A feminine singular noun in ־ָה takes the suffixes on its construct base in ־ַת / ־ָת: the old t of the feminine ending comes back, exactly as it did in the construct state (תּוֹרַת יְהוָה, "the law of the LORD," Psalm 1:2). Gesenius' feminine model is סוּסָה "mare." Next to it is תּוֹרָה [to-RA] "instruction, law," a word with many attested suffixed forms.

Before the heavy suffixes ־כֶם and ־כֶן the stress moves off the stem and the syllable before the suffix closes, so the qamets of ־ָת becomes patah: סוּסַתְכֶם. Some feminine nouns build their suffixed forms on a construct with a closed syllable instead: מַמְלָכָה "kingdom" (construct מַמְלֶכֶת, Exodus 19:6) gives מַמְלַכְתּוֹ "his kingdom" (Genesis 10:10) and מַמְלַכְתְּךָ "your kingdom" (1 Samuel 13:13).

Feminine plurals in ־וֹת keep the ־וֹת and then add the plural-noun set of suffixes, with its yod: סוּסוֹתַי "my mares," סוּסוֹתֶיךָ, סוּסוֹתָיו, סוּסוֹתֵינוּ, סוּסוֹתֵיהֶם (Gesenius, section 91). Real forms: תּוֹרֹתָיו "his laws" (Exodus 18:16) and, in pause, וְתוֹרֹתָי "and my laws" (Genesis 26:5).

עֵקֶב אֲשֶׁר־שָׁמַע אַבְרָהָם בְּקֹלִי וַיִּשְׁמֹר מִשְׁמַרְתִּי מִצְוֺתַי חֻקּוֹתַי וְתוֹרֹתָי׃

Genesis 26:5, Westminster Leningrad Codex

"Because Abraham listened to my voice and kept my charge: my commandments, my statutes and my laws." Count the suffixes: בְּקֹלִי "in my voice" (singular noun, ־ִי), then מִשְׁמַרְתִּי "my charge" (feminine singular, t restored), then three feminine plurals with ־וֹתַי. One small spelling detail: the WLC prints מִצְוֺתַי with the holem written over the vav's left corner, because here the vav is a consonant followed by an o vowel [mits-vo-TAI].

Suffixes on prepositions

Prepositions take the same suffixes. Some use the singular-noun set, some the plural-noun set, and a few have special forms you simply learn (Gesenius, section 103). These are among the most frequent words in the language, so they pay back the time spent.

לְ "to, for" and בְּ "in, with"

A few things to watch:

• לָךְ is normally "to you" said to a woman. But in pause, "to you" said to a man also becomes לָךְ. God says to Abram אָנֹכִי מָגֵן לָךְ "I am a shield to you" (Genesis 15:1). Abram is a man; the form is pausal. Context always settles it.
• לוֹ "to him" is spelled with holem-vav; do not confuse it with לֹא "not," which sounds the same.
• Poetry also uses לָמוֹ [la-MO] for "to them" (Genesis 9:26).
• The 2nd feminine plural is very rare: the only example is לָכֶנָה (Ezekiel 13:18). Genesis and Ruth often use the masculine forms for groups of women: Naomi asks her daughters-in-law וְהָיוּ לָכֶם לַאֲנָשִׁים "that they could be husbands for you" (Ruth 1:11), with masculine לָכֶם.
• With a dagesh after a word ending in a vowel you will also see לִּי, לּוֹ: the same words (a joining dagesh, Gesenius, section 20).

עִם "with," and the object marker אֵת

Every form in this table is attested in the books our tool covers; for example עִמִּי Genesis 39:7, עִמּוֹ Genesis 13:1, עִמָּהּ Genesis 3:6, אֹתִי Genesis 4:14, אוֹתִי Deuteronomy 32:51, אֹתוֹ and אֹתָם Genesis 1:27, אֶתְהֶן Genesis 19:8. Notes:

• The dagesh in the mem of עִמִּי shows that the m of עִם is really doubled (Gesenius, section 103).
• עִמָּךְ is "with you" to a woman, and also the pausal form for a man, just like לָךְ.
• A longer form עִמָּדִי [i-ma-DI] "with me" also occurs: הָאִשָּׁה אֲשֶׁר נָתַתָּה עִמָּדִי (Genesis 3:12) and כִּי־אַתָּה עִמָּדִי "for you are with me" (Psalm 23:4).
• The object marker before a suffix changes its vowel to o: אֹתִי, sometimes written full אוֹתִי. Before the heavy suffixes it goes back to e: אֶתְכֶם, אֶתְהֶם. With a suffix, the object marker is simply the Hebrew way to say "me, you, him, her, us, them" as the object of a verb.
• Do not confuse the object marker with the preposition אֵת "with," which is spelled the same without a suffix but takes an i vowel with one: אִתִּי "with me," אִתּוֹ "with him" (Genesis 8:1), אִתָּם "with them" (Genesis 42:7).

Prepositions with plural-type suffixes: אֶל and עַל

אֶל "to, toward" and עַל "on, over, about" take the plural-noun suffixes, yod and all (Gesenius, section 103). So do תַּחַת "under" and אַחֲרֵי "after."

Jonah 1:2 has וּקְרָא עָלֶיהָ "and call out against it (the city)," and Jonah 1:9 וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵיהֶם "and he said to them." The construct לִפְנֵי "before" is really "to the face of," so it naturally takes plural suffixes: לְפָנַי "before me" (in pause לְפָנָי, Jonah 1:2).

מִן "from" and כְּ "like"

מִן doubles itself before singular suffixes, which gives some surprising shapes: מִמֶּנִּי [mi-ME-ni] "from me," מִמְּךָ [mi-me-KHA] "from you," מִמֶּנּוּ [mi-ME-nu] "from him" and also "from us," מִמֶּנָּה [mi-ME-na] "from her." The plural forms are simpler: מִכֶּם "from you," מֵהֶם "from them." God asks Adam הֲמִן־הָעֵץ אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִיךָ לְבִלְתִּי אֲכָל־מִמֶּנּוּ אָכָלְתָּ, "Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from it?" (Genesis 3:11). Whether מִמֶּנּוּ means "from him/it" or "from us" is always clear from context. כְּ "like" takes a longer base כָּמוֹ: כָּמוֹנִי "like me," כָּמוֹךָ "like you" (Genesis 41:39). כָּמוֹנִי is in Isaiah 38:19.

The relative: אֲשֶׁר and שֶׁ

אֲשֶׁר [a-SHER] means "who, whom, which, that." It never changes: the same word serves for men and women, singular and plural, subject and object (Gesenius, sections 36 and 138). You have already seen it in הָאִשָּׁה אֲשֶׁר נָתַתָּה עִמָּדִי "the woman whom you gave (to be) with me" and in Jonah's אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה אֶת־הַיָּם "who made the sea."

The resumptive pronoun

Because אֲשֶׁר itself does not show who does what to whom, Hebrew often adds a pronoun inside the relative clause that points back to the noun. English leaves it out; translate it away.

הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה שֹׁכֵב עָלֶיהָ לְךָ אֶתְּנֶנָּה וּלְזַרְעֶךָ׃

Genesis 28:13 (end), Westminster Leningrad Codex

Word for word: "the land which you (are) lying on-it, to-you I-will-give-it and to-your-offspring." In English: "The land on which you are lying I will give to you and to your offspring." The ָהּ of עָלֶיהָ is the resumptive pronoun, pointing back to הָאָרֶץ (a feminine noun). A second one is in Joseph's words to his brothers:

וַיֹּאמֶר יוֹסֵף אֶל־אֶחָיו גְּשׁוּ־נָא אֵלַי וַיִּגָּשׁוּ וַיֹּאמֶר אֲנִי יוֹסֵף אֲחִיכֶם אֲשֶׁר־מְכַרְתֶּם אֹתִי מִצְרָיְמָה׃

Genesis 45:4, Westminster Leningrad Codex

"Joseph said to his brothers, 'Come near to me, please.' And they came near. And he said, 'I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.'" Literally "whom you sold me." Notice also אֶחָיו "his brothers" (plural suffix), אֵלַי "to me" and אֲחִיכֶם "your brother" (singular אָח with the long i before the suffix).

Relative clauses without a head noun, and compounds

אֲשֶׁר can stand without a noun before it: "the one who, that which, where." Ruth's אֶל־אֲשֶׁר תֵּלְכִי is "to (the place) where you go." It also joins with prepositions to make conjunctions: כַּאֲשֶׁר "as, when" (Genesis 21:1: כַּאֲשֶׁר אָמָר "as he had said"), בַּאֲשֶׁר "where" (Ruth 1:16 and 1:17).

The short relative שֶׁ

A short form שֶׁ [she] is joined to the next word and doubles its first consonant with a dagesh. It is rare in the older prose and common in Ecclesiastes and some psalms; it became the normal relative of later Hebrew and of modern Hebrew (Gesenius, section 36).

מַה־שֶּׁהָיָה הוּא שֶׁיִּהְיֶה וּמַה־שֶׁנַּעֲשָׂה הוּא שֶׁיֵּעָשֶׂה וְאֵין כָּל־חָדָשׁ תַּחַת הַשָּׁמֶשׁ׃

Ecclesiastes 1:9, Westminster Leningrad Codex

"What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun." Four שֶׁ clauses, two verbless clauses with הוּא as the link, and אֵין at the end. Psalm 146:5 has אַשְׁרֵי שֶׁאֵל יַעֲקֹב בְּעֶזְרוֹ, "Happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob."

Asking questions

Hebrew questions use a small set of question words, all placed first in the clause (Gesenius, sections 37 and 150).

The shapes of מָה

"What" changes its vowel by what follows (Gesenius, section 37). Most often it is מַה־ joined by maqaf, with a dagesh in the next letter: מַה־שְּׁמֶךָ, מַה־מְּלַאכְתְּךָ, מַה־זֹּאת. Before letters that cannot take a dagesh, especially א and ר, it is מָה: מָה אַרְצֶךָ "What is your country?" (Jonah 1:8). Before some throat letters you will also see מֶה. All three are the same word.

The question marker הֲ

A yes/no question is often just a statement with הֲ [ha] stuck on the front (Gesenius, section 100). It is written with hatef patah: הֲיֵשׁ "Is there?", הֲשֹׁמֵר "Is (I) a keeper?" Before a throat letter or a shewa it usually becomes הַ, and before a throat letter with qamets it becomes הֶ: הַעוֹד אָבִי חָי "Is my father still alive?" (Genesis 45:3). Do not mistake that הַ for the article. The article doubles the next letter or lengthens its vowel; the question marker does neither, and the sense of the clause tells you which you have. Ruth 1:19 has the women of Bethlehem asking הֲזֹאת נָעֳמִי "Is this Naomi?", a verbless question.

New words for this lesson

Updated October 28, 2026.