[b-hebrew] Learning weak verbs.
Dave Washburn
dwashbur at nyx.net
Sat May 22 14:06:51 EDT 2004
On Saturday 22 May 2004 08:51, wattswestmaas wrote:
> Dear Most experienced scholars,
>
> A rather quick question about 'The Learning Methodology' for mastering weak
> verbs. Are there any tips and tricks (apart from having a book with the
> complete conjugations) about grasping them OR is it a simple case of
> "forget it, just learn how to recognise them in their various forms"
>
> What do the majority of you do - if I may ask?
Chris,
I learned a handful of rules regarding things like vowel lengthening, open and
closed syllables, and the like, that I was able to use in reading to make at
least an educated guess about the form of a word. In the case of T"LED that
someone else brought up, for example, the tsere under the preformative tells
me at once that there's a reason for the lengthening: most likely, an
assimilated yod that is probably part of the root. That gives me a root YLD,
which I can then look up if I don't already know it. The beginning grammar I
learned from was Marks and Rogers, and it spent a lot of time on such things,
showing typical vowel lengthening and reducing patterns in various kinds of
weak verbs. I can highly recommend this kind of approach, because it not
only avoids memorizing those godawful paradigm lists, but it gives you visual
cues for spotting unorthodox forms as well.
>From there I can offer three pieces of advice: read, read, read.
--
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
Learning about Christianity from a non-Christian
is like getting a kiss over the telephone.
More information about the b-hebrew
mailing list