# I write Hebrew much better than I speak it



## girloncrack

Ani kotevet et ha'ivrit harbe yoter tov m'ani medaberet otto?

Is there a vowel in the m' when you say "yoter ... m' ... "?


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## yotg

girloncrack said:


> Ani kotevet et be'ivrit harbe yoter tov me'asher medaberet otta?
> 
> Is there a vowel in the m' when you say "yoter ... m' ... "?


 
Yes, either מִ, "mi", [יָפִים מִמֵנִי וּמִמְךָ הָאֲדָמָה לָקְחַה], or מֵ, "me" [מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ ]

The natural form is מִ and the letter that follows it gets a Dagesh. מִ becomes מֵ when it comes before the letters that cannot get a dagesh: אהח"ע and ר:
מֵאֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל
מֵחֵיפָה
מִצָּרְפַת
מִבֵּית הַסֵפֶר
מֵרֹב שִׁעֲמוּם
מִגֶּרְמַנְיָה
מֵעָלֶיךָ​


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## girloncrack

Thanks yotg. Is the rest of the sentence correct? I wasn't sure about using "otto" vs. "et hi"


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## Nunty

Girlon, look at the corrections in red. It's actually otta, because ivrit is feminine. Your intuition is correct: "et hi" contracts to "otta".


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## girloncrack

Thanks Nun-Translator!

Is the form most commonly used "yoter... me'asher..." then?  Is the contraction "yoter... me'..." ever used?  (I think it was in one of my Hebrew books)


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## yotg

girloncrack said:


> Is the form most commonly used "yoter... me'asher..." then? Is the contraction "yoter... me'..." ever used? (I think it was in one of my Hebrew books)


 
Both "me'asher" and "mi" are widely used, but they are seldom interchangeable.​ 
I think that "me'asher" is often used with verbs:
אני אוהבת את שמוליק יותר מאשר את חיים
בחופש, אני נמצא בים יותר מאשר בבית שלי
עדיף לך לנסוע הביתה מאשר סתם לשבת כאן כל היום
אני מתנסח יותר טוב בכתב מאשר בבעל פה​ 
Whereas "mi" and "me" are used with adjectives and everything else:
תמונה אחת שווה יותר מאלף מילים
אני יותר חכם ממנו
לפעמים תל אביב חמה הרבה יותר מאוסטרליה
ההתנסחות העברית שלי בכתב טובה הרבה יותר מההתנסחות שלי בעל פה
יש לה יותר אומץ מלכל הגנרלים ביחד!​


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## Nunty

If I were to try to formulate a rule, I think I'd say that מאשר is used before an independent clause and the prefix -מ before dependent clauses and single words. But there may be exceptions to that.


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## girloncrack

Nun,
Could you explain or give examples of what you mean by independent clauses vs. dependent clauses or single words?  My grammar terminology is pretty slim and I just can't think right now...


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## Nunty

I'm sorry, girloncrack. Here, it's easy:

An *independent* clause can stand on its own as a complete sentence. It as a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought.

A *dependent* clause is missing one or more of those elements and cannot be "legal" sentence on its own. A single word is, well... a word. 

Here is an example  in English:

*1.* *Drusilla loves dragons* *more than she loves knights in shining armor.

*"Drusilla loves dragons" is an independent clause, and so is "she loves knights in shining armor".

*2. Drusilla, who will run after any knight in shining armor she sees, loves dragons*.In this sentence, "who will run after any knight in shining armor" is a dependent clause; it cannot stand up on its own, which is why it is set off by commas. We can lift it right out of the sentence, and that will leave us with "Drusilla loves dragons", an independent clause.

Does this help at all?


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