Grammar:Tutorial/Positions of words in a sentence

If a predicate is expressed with a declined form of a verb, then the personal pronoun is most often omitted (and is implied). If the pronoun is present in this case, it means that it has a logical accent.

The predicate most often is placed at the first or the second place in a sentence. If the predicate is expressed as an adverb or a noun with preposition, it usually is placed at the second place in the sentence (after the subject).

However a interrogative adverb is always placed as the first word in a sentence.

Note that unlike English there is no need for a linking verb (“to be”).

The predicate-verb is in the first or the second position of a sentence. (Below we will see that in the most often encountered in Tanakh type of sentences (sentences with “reversed imperfect”) the predicate is the first word in a sentence.

A subject is most often in the first or the second position in a sentence. Sometimes (TODO: When?) a sentence starts with an object or an adverb, then a subject can be on the third place.

A subject may be put first in start of a new episode.

The verb is made agree with the subject in person, number, and gender.

If the subject is a personal preposition, the preposition is most often omitted (and is implied from the form of the verb).

Negation of a verb is formed adding the word לא (translated “not” in English) before the verb. (With some forms of a verb an other negation word is used, see below.)

If a phrase has both a direct object and an indirect object, the direct object is placed before the indirect object.

An exception: If an indirect object is expressed by the preposition ל with a pronoun suffix (see below) and a direct object is expressed with a noun, this noun is placed after the preposition ל with a pronoun suffix.

Sentences with predicate-noun

A predicate can be expressed with a noun without a linking verb (without “to be”).

In this type of sentences often a demonstrative pronoun is added (הוא, היא, הם, הן) in the same form as the subject.

The linking word היה is only necessary to modify the time (or the aspect) of the sentence.

When there is linking word היה, the words יש and אין are skipped.