These Digital Flashcards will help you study and learn the conventional (modern) Hebrew prefixes and suffixes. A more detailed presentation for each can be found below.
Explanations of Prefixes
The prefix א (Alef) means ‘I’.
The original meaning of this letter is ‘source’ which made it ideal for conventional use as a prefix meaning ‘I’ referring to who is the source of what it being spoken.
The prefix ב (Bet) means ‘with’.
The letter Bet was originally a pictograph depicting a tent. The logic behind the prefix is how things can be located relative to a tent. This prefix is often also translated as ‘in’, ‘on’ or ‘by’. However, there is just one prefix used, and for clarity, it is recommended to use the one that covers all four meanings, which is ‘with’, because that was how it was originally understood.
The prefix ה (He) means ‘the’.
The letter He means ‘be’ as in ‘to exist’ or ‘shall be’ as a statement of faith. It is commonly used as a prefix meaning ‘the’ which is the equivalent of saying ‘be’ or ‘exists as’. Consider the following example. The English phrase ‘The tree’ has a Hebrew equivalent that literally means ‘exists as tree’ or more simply ‘be tree’.
The prefix ו (Waw) means ‘and’.
The letter Waw evolved from the pictograph of a tentpeg used to join things together, so it makes sense that it is commonly used as a prefix meaning ‘and’.
The prefix י (Yod) means ‘he’.
The meaning of the letter Yod is to ‘bring forth’ in a sense of creating or making something. This concept is directly related to how the ancient Hebrews defined males. The Hebrew word for son is בן (BN) and it is related to the word בנה (BNH) which means build. Males were considered the builders which is why the letter that basically meant ‘make’ was used to represent the idea of ‘he’.
The prefix כ (Kaf) means ‘as like’.
While uncertain, this particular usage of the letter Kaf may be related to the word meaning ‘appearance’.
הכרה HKRH appearance / expression
‘the… vessel… body… be’
The prefix ל (Lamed) means ‘to/for’.
Both the pictograph and the Biblical Hebrew versions of Lamed depicted an UPSIDE DOWN staff indicating its function of extending one’s reach. The idea of extending involves a point from which something is extended and a point to which it is extending. Thus it would be in a specific direction toward (to) or for something.
The prefix מ (Mem) means ‘from’.
The letter Mem began originally as a pictograph of water. The reason it is used as a prefix meaning from is because in Genesis 1 the first thing that existed when God began creating everything was water. The heaven and dry ground was the result of him dividing the water (in two separate instances) and everything else he crafted from the ground. The idea is that everything originated from the first waters.
The prefix נ (Nun) means ‘we’.
This prefix was most likely derived from the Hebrew word meaning ‘we’ because sometimes the first letter א is dropped and it is simply spelled נחנו .
אנחנו ANChNW we
אני = I + ח = separate + נ = ahead + ו = add to
– meaning: ‘I with others separate of me’.
The prefix ש (Shin) means ‘who’.
The letter shin is attached to a verb to turn it into who (or what) does the action. For example, in English we would say that someone was a ‘maker’ of something, however, in Hebrew the phrase literally says ‘who makes’. The reason the letter Shin is used for this purpose is unclear. It is most commonly found in the scriptures that the method of inserting a Yod or Waw as the second letter of the verb is used to turn the word into a person.
The prefix ת (Taw) means ‘shall / she’.
The meaning of the letter Taw is ‘together’ and its use to mean ‘shall’ is actually spot on. This fact can be seen if you substitute the word ‘together’ for the word ‘shall’ in a sentence. By doing so, the ancient logic becomes apparent, though, the result is poor English. (Of course, the biblical writers weren’t writing in English.) For example, the sentence ‘You shall learn’ can be written ‘You together learn’. And the sentence ‘You shall not wait’ can be stated as ‘You not together wait’.
The use of this prefix to mean ‘she’ may have been a later concept because both the prefix and suffix indicating a female also indicate something else. (All the other ones have just one meaning.)
Explanations of Suffixes
The suffix ה (He) turns a word into a noun and also sometimes means ‘of her’.
The letter He means ‘be’ as in ‘to exist’ (literally: ‘be as’) or ‘shall be’ as a statement of faith. The presence of this letter at the end of a verb turns the word into a noun because, for example, the verb ‘break open’ with the letter He added to the end reads: ‘break open… be as’ and describes a valley or open plain.
The use of this sufix to mean ‘of her’ may have been a later concept because both the prefix and suffix indicating a female also indicate something else. (All the other ones have just one meaning.)
The suffix ו (Waw) means ‘of him’.
This letter was likely chosen for two reasons. First, the letter means ‘add to’ and, as mentioned above, males were considered the builders. Second, it it relative to the word meaning ‘he’ and since the first letter ה was already commonly used for another purpose, the next letter in the word was Waw.
הוא HWA he
‘be… add to… first’
– perhaps reflects the male builder role that facilitates expansion.
The suffix י (Yod) means ‘of me’.
This is most likely derived from the word meaning ‘I / me’.
אני ANY I
‘source… emerging… bring forth’
– means: ‘the source of the speaking (emerging words) that is brought forth‘.
The suffix נו (Nun-Waw) means ‘of us’.
Like the prefix Nun listed above (meaning ‘we’), this suffix is derived from the same Hebrew word that means ‘we’:
אנחנו ANChNW we
אני = I + ח = separate + נ = ahead + ו = add to
– meaning: ‘I with others separate of me’.
The suffix ון (Waw-Nun) means ‘of it’.
The meaning of these letters are ‘add to… ahead’ as well as ‘add to… emerging’. The latter interpretation is likely how this suffix combo came to mean ‘of it’. In the book of Genesis, the letter Nun sometimes means ’emerging’ and refers to actual fruit or the inanimate product of something. Thus it is an apt letter to represent something that is neither male nor female.
The suffix הם (He-Mem) means ‘of them’ (masc.)
This usage is likely related to the word describing great noise, which is a key indicator that more than one person is present.
המה HMH sound / chaos / tumult
‘the… physical… be’
The suffix הן (He-Nun) means ‘of them’ (fem.)
The meaning of these letters are ‘shall be… ahead’ and its usage may be related to the ancient perception of gender purposes. While males were considered builders, females were considered the source of continuance.
The suffix ים (Yod-Mem) indicates a plural (masc.)
The meaning of these letters, ‘bring forth… physical’, indicates the presence of more than one thing as there would need to be the bringer as well as what is brought forth.
The suffix ות (Waw-Taw) indicates a plural (fem.)
The meaning of these letters, ‘add… together’, obviously indicates more than one.
The suffix כם (Kaf-Mem) means ‘of you’ (plural).
The reason these letters mean ‘of you’ is a mystery. The first two occurrences of this word in the scriptures is in Genesis 1:29 as part of the word לכם where God says ‘…I give to you all herbage…’ It occurs twice more in Genesis 3:5 and after that not again until Genesis 9. It may be that the interpretation of ‘you’ was derived from the first passage because that made sense in the context. It also makes sense in the context that the word meant what its letters indicate ‘for… hand… physical’ which corresponds to the common Biblical phrase of something being ‘delivered into one’s hand’.
Genesis 1:29
ויאמר אלהים הנה נתתי לכם את כל עשב זרע זרע אשר על פני כל הארץ ואת כל העץ אשר בו פרי עץ זרע זרע לכם יהיה לאכלה
The suffix ך (Kaf) means ‘of you’ (singular).
Because this suffix doesn’t occur until Genesis Chapter 2:17 in the Story about Adam and Eve, it was likely derived from the word כם that is found in Chapter 1. There are a number of indicators in the Hebrew text that the Creation Story was written well before the rest of the scriptures.
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