A-level Hebrew (Biblical)₇₆₇₇

Students must study the grammar below.

The general principle of this list is to cover all forms which may be examined in Paper 1: Language.

Students will be expected to be able to identify and explain more complex forms where they appear in the set texts for Papers 2 and 3.

3.3.1 Accidence

3.3.1.1 Formation of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns

• Gender, number and state of regular and irregular nouns
• Nouns formed with preformative letters א, מ and ת, and afformative letter נ
• Agreement of adjectives with nouns
• Formation of comparatives and superlatives of adjectives
• Cardinal and ordinal numbers
• Pronominal suffixes attached to nouns, verbs and prepositions

3.3.1.2 Formation of verbs

• Weaknesses in verb roots
• All persons and numbers of the perfect and imperfect tenses /aspect , including the imperative
• Cohortative, jussive and polite imperative
• Participles in all conjugations, used as verbs, nouns or adjectives, including the qal passive participle
• Formation and function of qal, niphal, piel, hiphil and hithpael (in the prescribed tenses /aspect )
• The following contracted/irregular forms of verbs: פ''י; פ''נ; ע''ו; ל''ה; פ and ע guttural; geminate; irregularities of first root letters in hithpael
• Commonly occurring formations of hophal and pual
• Commonly occurring formations of polel, hithpolel, pilpel and hithpalpel
• Infinitive construct
• Infinitive absolute

3.3.1.3 Formation of words with prefixed and suffixed morphemes

• Inseparable prepositions and the preposition ‘from’
• Definite article
• Interrogative ה
• Vav conjunctive
• Vav conversive/consecutive
• Gentilic י
• Locative ה
• Paragogic letters

3.3.1.4 Pointing

• Syllables and vowels, including sheva and hataf vowels
• Weak dagesh and strong dagesh, including euphonic dagesh
• The effect of the guttural and labial letters on pointing
• The effect of the accents milra/milei on pointing
• Pausal form

3.3.1.5 Syntax

• Word order
• Relative clauses
• Oath clauses
• Interrogative clauses

In addition, passages selected for examination in Component 1 may contain any of the following syntactical constructions for translation:

• Relative clauses
• Common types of conditional sentence
• Common temporal, concessive and causal clauses
• Purpose clauses
• Result clauses
• Verbless clauses
• Asseverative clauses
• Common negative clauses (including legal prohibitions)
• Common oath clauses
• Common interrogative clauses

3.3.2 Grammatical terminology

Students should be able to recognise and accurately use appropriate grammatical terminology from the following list.

The Term column in this list defines the vocabulary that will be used in examination, either within the question asked, or as part of the answer required.

Students will not be penalised for correctly using any of the acceptable alternative terms from the list but they should not use unacceptable alternatives.

Phonetic spellings in English letters will be accepted as long as the intended meaning is clear.

3.3.2.1 Nouns, adjectives and pronouns

3.3.2.2 Verbs

3.3.2.3 Prefixed and suffixed morphemes

3.3.2.4 Pointing

3.3.2.5 Syntax