Structural focus
Master יש / אין + ל constructions like יש לי and אין לי.
Objective
Express possession/absence via existential particles and directional pronouns.
Deconstruction
Relate modern מאוד to liturgical מאדך and its semantic expansion.
Key points · 6
- Hebrew has no verb 'to have'. Possession is expressed existentially with the preposition ל ('to'): יֵשׁ לִי = 'there is to-me' → 'I have'.
- This is the modern form of the classical dative of possession — Harrison (Ch. 11) gives בַּת לָאִישׁ, literally 'there is a daughter to the man' = 'the man has a daughter'. Modern Hebrew just prepends יֵשׁ: יֵשׁ לְאִישׁ בַּת.
- Negate with אֵין, the opposite of יֵשׁ: אֵין לִי = 'I don't have' ('there-is-not to-me').
- The possessed thing is the grammatical subject, and definiteness flips the construction (this week's article rule, Harrison Ch. 7 / OHT L4): indefinite → יֵשׁ לִי סֵפֶר ('I have a book'); definite → הַסֵּפֶר שֶׁלִּי ('my book / the book is mine').
- ל inflects for person: לִי (to me), לְךָ / לָךְ (to you m/f), לוֹ (him), לָהּ (her), לָנוּ (us), לָכֶם, לָהֶם.
- Degree/quantity words stack onto the sentence: רַק (only), עוֹד (more/still), יוֹתֵר (more), מְאוֹד (very); כַּמָּה asks 'how much?' and means 'some' in a statement.