Chapter 9 — Hebrew Pronominal Suffix Parsing Drill

Chapter 9 — Hebrew Pronominal Suffixes

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Students see 25 Hebrew forms — nouns, prepositions, and the direct object marker with pronominal suffixes — and must identify the base word, isolate the suffix, parse the suffix (PGN), and provide a full translation. The exercise builds the foundational pattern-recognition skill needed for reading Biblical Hebrew prose: strip the suffix, identify the base, read the whole form.

Sample Questions

Q1. 1 סוּסוֹ

A: ✓ Base: סוּס (horse, ms)  |  Suffix: וֹ  |  Parse: 3ms  |  Translation: his horse  ·  The Holem (וֹ) at the end of an otherwise complete noun-stem is the 3ms possessive suffix one of the most common morphological elements in the OT.

Q2. 2 דְּבָרִי

A: ✓ Base: דָּבָר (word, ms)  |  Suffix: ִי  |  Parse: 1cs  |  Translation: my word  ·  The absolute דָּבָר has two Qamets vowels; before the 1cs suffix ִי, both reduce (Shewa + Patach). Standard vowel-reduction pattern when the accent shifts to the suffix.

Q3. 3 מַלְכְּכֶם

A: ✓ Base: מֶלֶךְ (king, ms)  |  Suffix: כֶם  |  Parse: 2mp  |  Translation: your (mp) king  ·  מֶלֶךְ reduces to מַלְכּ- before Type 1 suffixes. Note the Dagesh Forte in the כּ before the suffix.