# Placement of גם



## sawyeric1

Can anyone explain all of the rules for where to place גם in phrases? It seems to randomly go in different places and it doesn't make sense to me.

Thanks


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## aavichai

it is better if you write few sentences so it would be more specific
and from that you will get the way


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## sawyeric1

כן, גם אני רוצה לאכול משהו
כן. אני רוצה גם לשתות
אני גם בסדר


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## aavichai

כן, גם אני רוצה לאכול משהו

this sentence mean
I also want to eat
(for example, like the others who ate)

כן. אני רוצה גם לשתות

and this could be understood in two ways
it depens on how you say it

it can mean
I want to drink too
(i ate and now i want to drink too)

or
i want to drink too
(everybody drank and i want to drink too)
this is if you say it while putting the stress  on the word גם
ani rotse GAM lishtot

and the first one you don't put stress on the GAM
but even run with it to the word after it
ani rotse gam-lishtot

but in writing, it is better to use
גם אני רוצה לשתות for the first meaning (i want to dring like the others)
and
אני רוצה גם לשתות for the second one

and anyway - you will understand it from the context (if it has one)


אני גם בסדר

same here

ani gam-beseder
I'm fine too (as well as i'm smiling or loughing or anything else)

i'm fine too (like the others)
ani GAM beseder
and it is better here to use גם אני בסדר

the form of stressing the GAM is kinda chidish
and when you write -
it is nicer to put the Gam befor the Ani אני when you want to say

me too (like him or she or they)
and גם לשתות drink too (will direct us to the other verbs/acts - like eat or some action that is in the  similar area of the act)

so put the Gam before the word you want to direct from it to the other close word

i hope i succeeded to explain myself


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## sawyeric1

That was hard to follow. I guess what I was ideally looking for is some kind of official grammar explanation, like if a Hebrew speaker could look up the topic in some resource written in Hebrew and translate the explanation. There aren't a lot of Hebrew grammar resources in English. I mean, maybe there are several with basic stuff, but not comprehensive more detailed grammars with this kind of stuff. Thanks if anyone can do that


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## aavichai

I will shorten it to few sentences

when you say
i also want to drink
and you mean that you want to be like the others who drank

so the closest word in your sentecne to - them, she, he or any person
is the I
I also want to drink

the "I" stands in the same group of "persons"

therefore
you put the גם before the I אני

גם אני רוצה לשתות


and if you mean by saying
i also want to drink (after you ate or something)

So the closest word to the "EATING" is the "DRINK"

so you put the גם before that word

אני רוצה גם לשתות

the ALSO refers to something that happened before

and the question is to what it refers to
if it means the the talker wants to be like the others
so the GAM will be put before himself
because
I,You, They and people are in the same group

if he ate
and now he want too drink
so the DRINK and ATE are in the same group

so he will say אני רוצה גם לשתות
because it refers to the action he want to do after he did an (close) action before

i hope this is better


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## sawyeric1

Yeah, that makes more sense. Thank you


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## aavichai

Noooooo Problem


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## sawyeric1

Okay, so I was talking to a native speaker in Hebrew, and he asked me how I was doing. I said that I was fine and then asked how he was. He said, "אני גם בסדר". I asked him, shouldn't he have said "גם אני בסדר"? He said he was still correct. Why is that correct? Is that just one common exception to the rules of גם, since it's a common phrase?


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## aavichai

same thing

it is nicer to say גם אני בסדר

but there is no problem to play with the word גם
and the sentence is understood as well

and when people talk, they use tone to empesize the meaning if it can be meant in two different ways

for example
if i want to say
I'm fine too (like you)
then
i can say גם אני בסדר like we said

or אני גם בסדר when the GAM is connected in the tone to the ANI
and even the word GAM is pronounced with a tone
Ani GAM Beseder

and if i would say
Ani gam-beseder
when the GAM is connected to the Beseder without a speciel tone on it

then it sound like:
I'm fine too (as i'm feeling other positive things as well)

but the tone is for the speaking of-course
and in writing it is nicer and more accurate as גם אני בסדר
so the meaning can be one

and when people write in chats or in simple "places", they write like they speak
and you sould understand through the context

in this case, the context is very clear
so there isn't a problem to understand the meaning


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## Eredin

sawyeric1 said:


> Okay, so I was talking to a native speaker in Hebrew, and he asked me how I was doing. I said that I was fine and then asked how he was. He said, "אני גם בסדר". I asked him, shouldn't he have said "גם אני בסדר"? He said he was still correct. Why is that correct? Is that just one common exception to the rules of גם, since it's a common phrase?



Both ways are correct since its like saying in English: "I am also good" - אני גם בסדר!
or saying: "I am good too"- גם אני בסדר! ---> Here you can see the different sentence structure,
in Hebrew the "too" came in the beginning of the sentence and in English at the end.
Of course I prefer the second option, both in Hebrew and in English.


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## rebecka

Is the rule that גם is placed immediately before the word that it refers to? I remember someone told me he was a PhD student. When I asked him what his friend Jonathan did, he replied, "יונתן גם תלמיד לדוקטורט, הוא בשנה רביעית של הלימודים.". I wonder why he didn't put גם before "Jonathan". He might have been a native speaker, but to be honest, his Hebrew didn't seem to be that great. For instance, he omitted the ה before רביעית.

[Moderator note: this post and replies to it were moved here from other thread. --amikama]


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## Albert Schlef

rebecka said:


> Is the rule that גם is placed immediately before the word that it refers to?



That's correct! It should have been "גם יונתן תלמיד".

Unfortunately, it's common with most speakers to put it after the word (which is wrong). You see a similar situation with English's "also".

Tip: You can use "גם כן" instead of "גם", in which case you put it *after* the word: "גם יונתן תלמיד" = "יונתן גם כן תלמיד".‎



rebecka said:


> his Hebrew didn't seem to be that great. For instance, he omitted the ה before רביעית.



Well... most speakers would pronounce it this way, if they're speaking quickly, in casual situations. Sorry to break it to you. The "ha" often gets silenced. "pshana rviit shlalimudim" (note how the "b" may turn to "p", because "sh" is voiceless).


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## rebecka

Thank you, albert.


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