נאָך פּרטים

Table of Contents

The Role of a Noun in a Sentence

In this lesson we begin to discuss how some nouns and related words (pronouns, articles, adjectives) change in Yiddish according to their role in the sentence.

You might already be familiar with the grammatical terms that are commonly used to describe the major roles a noun can play in a sentence. Before delving into the changes mentioned above, we provide here a summary of these terms together with a Yiddish example sentence. In these examples we have chosen nouns and related words that are familiar to you from YiddishPOP and that do NOT change according to their role in these sentences.

Role of Noun in Sentence Example
Subject

נעמי ברענגט קיכעלעך.

Nomi brings cookies.
Predicate noun
(e.g. following the verb זײַן)

נעמי איז אַ מיידל.

Nomi is a girl.
Direct object

נעמי ברענגט קיכעלעך.

Nomi brings cookies.
Indirect object

נעמי ברענגט קיכעלעך די חבֿרים.

Nomi brings her friends cookies.
Object of a preposition

נעמי ברענגט קיכעלעך אין פּאַרק.

Nomi brings cookies to the park.

Cases: Nominative, Accusative, Dative

In some languages, such as Latin, German, or Russian, the terminology of cases is used to describe changes that occur in nouns and related words. This terminology is also used for Yiddish. Consider this sentence from the movie:

איך זע פּערלען!

I see Perl!

The subject of the sentence, איך, is said to be in the nominative.

The direct object of the sentence, פּערל, is said to be in the accusative. The ending ען– marks the accusative form of the name (see below).

Three cases, nominative, accusative, and dative, are used to describe the changes that occur in some nouns, and in most pronouns, adjectives and articles in Yiddish. For now, we will limit ourselves to those uses of the cases that correspond to the grammatical roles included in the table above. They can be found in the table below.

Role of Noun in Sentence Case
Subject Nominative
Predicate noun Nominative
Direct object Accusative
Indirect object Dative
Object of a preposition Dative

When a word changes according to case, we say that it declines. Remember, most nouns in Yiddish do not decline (do not change according to their role in the sentence)! However, there are some important groups of nouns and related words that do change. You are already familiar with the nominative forms of the personal pronouns, names of people and the definite article since we have been using them since the first unit of YiddishPOP. In the coming lessons we will consider the accusative and dative forms of:

For the curious reader – a declined adjective you already know:

Here is an example of an adjective in the dative from an idiom we taught in lesson 1.4:

מיט אַ גוטן אַפּעטיט!

The phrase אַ גוטן אַפּעטיט is the object of the preposition מיט and thus in the dative case. There is no change in אַ and אַפּעטיט; however, the dative is indicated by the ן– ending on the adjective גוט.

Personal Pronouns in the Accusative

The form of the personal pronouns that we taught in the first lesson of YiddishPOP is the nominative. Here we introduce the accusative forms. As indicated in our discussion of the cases above, the primary function of the nominative case is to mark the subject of the verb, while the primary function of the accusative case is to mark the direct object of the verb.

Nominative
Pronoun		 Accusative
Pronoun		 Sentence with
Nominative Pronoun		 Sentence with
Accusative Pronoun
איך מיך

איך זע אַ וועווריק.

I see a squirrel.

דו זעסט מיך?

Do you see me?
דו דיך

דו זעסט די פֿייגעלעך.

You see the birds.

איך זע דיך.

I see you.
ער אים

מאָבי? ער ברענגט מײַן ברודער.

Moby? He is bringing my brother.

מײַן ברודער? מאָבי ברענגט אים.

My brother? Moby is bringing him.
זי זי

ליבע? זי זינגט.

Libe? She is singing.

ליבע זינגט. דער טאַטע הערט זי.

Libe is singing. Dad hears her.
עס עס

דאָס וואַסער… עס איז קאַלט.

The water... It is cold.

דאָס וואַסער... פּערל וויל עס טרינקען.

The water... Perl wants to drink it.
מיר אונדז

מיר זוכן די מאַמע.

We are looking for Mom.

די מאַמע זוכט אונדז.

Mom is looking for us.
איר אײַך

איר האָט ליב דאָס הינטל.

You like the dog.

דאָס הינטל האָט אײַך ליב.

The dog likes you.
זיי זיי

די ציבעלעס? זיי זײַנען דאָ.

The onions? They are here.

די ציבעלעס? מאָבי עסט זיי!

The onions? Moby is eating them!

Note:

  • The pronouns זי,‎ עס, and זיי are the same in the nominative and the accusative.
  • Pronouns that replace a singular noun retain the grammatical gender of the noun (see ‏4.1 נאָך פּריטים‏). Just as in the nominative the noun is replaced by ער,‎ זי, or עס according to the noun’s gender, in the accusative the noun is replaced by אים,‎ זי, or עס. For example:

  • מיר האָבן אַ קוגל. מאָבי וויל אים עסן.

    We have a kugel. Moby wants to eat it.

  • נעמי ברענגט אַ פּיזשאַמע אָבער יאַנקל וויל זי נישט אָנטאָן.

    Nomi brings pajamas but Yankl doesn’t want to put them on.

  • Word Order. Look at the example sentences above with an accusative pronoun: the accusative pronoun is in its usual position, directly after the conjugated verb. For more about the personal pronouns and word order, see ‏4.4 נאָך פּרטים. For a general description of word order, including personal pronouns, see ‏5.3 נאָך פּריטם.
  • The dative forms of the personal pronouns can be found in the next lesson (4.3).

Declension of People’s Names: Accusative

  • מאירקע וועט קומען. איך זע איצט מאירקען!

    Meyerke is going to come. I see Meyerke now!

  • וווּ איז פּערל? איך זע פּערלען.

    Where is Perl? I see Perl.

  • איך זוך יאַנקלען. זעסט אים?

    I’m looking for Yankl. Do you see him?

When a person’s name is the direct object, it is declined in the accusative. That is: the ending ן– (less frequently ען–) is added to the name.

When ן– and when ען–? See the table below. (Compare also with the verbal ן– ending, see ‏2.3 נאָך פּרטים.)

Name ends in... –⁠ען / –⁠ן Example names Example names with ending
–⁠ם –⁠ען פֿרויעם איך זע פֿרויעמען.
–⁠ן סוזאַן איך הער סוזאַנען.
Stressed vowel
or diphthong		 אַנדריי די מאַמע זוכט אַנדרייען.
Consonant + ל פּערל, יאַנקל נעמי האָט ליב יאַנקלען.
All others –⁠ן נעמי, מאָבי, מאירקע,
ליבע, סענדער		 נעמי פֿאַרשטייט מאָבין.
פּערל מאָלט נעמין.
איך פֿרעג סענדערן װאָס ער דאַרף.

Note:

  • This rule does not apply to names of places:
    • מיר זעען אַמעריקע!
  • This rule does apply to creatures that are seen as individuals like people:
    • [a robot] איך זוך מאָבין.
    • [a dog] מיר האָבן ליב פּינטלען.
  • If a name has more than one part, the ending only comes on the last one:
    • איך זע הערש־בערן.
  • The same endings are added to names with a loshn-koydesh spelling. There follows a list of names (pronunciation in parentheses) and a sentence showing the names in the accusative.
    • חײם (/כאַיִם/)
    • נתן (/נאָסן/)
    • רחל (/ראָכל/)
    • יחיאל (/יעכיִעל/)
    • שׂרה (/סאָרע/)
    • אסתּר (/עסטער/)
    • איך זע חײמען, נתנען, רחלען, יחיאלן, שׂרהן, און אסתּרן.
  • If the name is accompanied by articles, adjectives, or nouns, it does not decline:
    • איך האָב ליב מײַן ברודער יאַנקל.

The Infinitive זײַן

  • פּערל און מאירקע זײַנען אין וואַלד.

    Perl and Meyerke are in the woods.

  • איך וויל אויך זײַן אין וואַלד!

    I want to be in the woods too!

In lesson 2.3 we learned that the infinitive is usually the same as the מיר/זיי form of the verb and we listed several verbs with an irregular infinitive (see ‏2.3 נאָך פּרטים). The infinitive זײַן is also irregular because it is not the same as the מיר/זיי form זײַנען. (The conjugation of the verb זײַן in the present tense can be found in lesson 1.1.)

The infinitive זײַן is used like all other infinitives, for example with a modal verb, in the future tense and with the verb ליב האָבן:

  • דו הערסט? וואָס קען דאָס זײַן?

    Do you hear? What can that be?

  • ווען וועלן פּערל און מאירקע זײַן אין פּאַרק?

    When will Perl and Meyerke be in the park?

  • מיר האָבן ליב צו זײַן צוזאַמען.

    We like to be together.

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