# גרה



## Ali Smith

שלום

I always thought that גרה (as in איפה את גרה?) was stressed on the last syllable. However, today I heard a native speaker stress it on the first syllable. Are both correct? I know you always stress the last syllable in the masculine and feminine plural forms: גרים and גרות.

תודה!


----------



## slus

I'm not sure about the formal pronounciation, but no native speaker stresses the last syllable on גרה.
As you said, with the plural forms there is no question. The stress is on the last syllable.

Same for
חיה (live)
שרה (sing)
רצה (run)
Etc.


----------



## Ali Smith

אני מודה לך!

But what about the feminine of בא? You always say אני באה with the stress on the last syllable.


----------



## slus

באה is the same. Stress on the first syllable if you want to sound like a native speaker.


----------



## amikama

slus said:


> The stress is on the last syllable.


In both present and past?


----------



## slus

Yes, again - this is how we speak, not the formal pronounciation.


----------



## Ali Smith

slus said:


> באה is the same. Stress on the first syllable if you want to sound like a native speaker.


Thanks. I guess I was confusing באה with the past tense. I thought someone told me that the only way to tell "She came." from "She is coming." is the difference in stress: hi b*a*'a vs hi ba'*a*. I guess he was wrong!


----------



## Drink

Ali Smith said:


> Thanks. I guess I was confusing באה with the past tense. I thought someone told me that the only way to tell "She came." from "She is coming." is the difference in stress: hi b*a*'a vs hi ba'*a*. I guess he was wrong!



In proper Hebrew, that is completely correct. What slus is saying is that in colloquial pronunciation, that is not the case.


----------



## utopia

גרה can be pronounced both GAra (in the past) and gaRA (in the present).

All the verbs which have vav or yod in the middle as a root, conjugate the same.

As for pronounciation, well, in colloquial Hebrew you almost don't hear gaRA, but on the radio and in formal speeches you do.

The same is with many other formal features like the conjugation of verbs in second person plural: אכלתם

that is almost always pronounced aCHALtem, but according to its nikkud, it should be pronounced achalTEM.


----------



## Ali Smith

Even my textbook doesn't teach the formal pronunciations for באה and גרה!


----------



## Drink

Strange. You can't even say your textbook is teaching only colloquial Hebrew, because it uses אנו instead of אנחנו.


----------



## Ali Smith

But isn't אָנוּ colloquial? It certainly isn't Classical (Biblical) Hebrew. None of my Biblical Hebrew textbooks have it.


----------



## Drink

It is not colloquial. It is formal. It's actually not unusual that in many case colloquial Hebrew follows Biblical Hebrew, while formal Hebrew follows Mishnaic Hebrew.

Another example of this phenomenon is הדבר הזה (colloquial and Biblical) vs. דבר זה (formal and Mishnaic).


----------



## Ali Smith

Interesting! Does דבר זה mean "this thing", just like הדבר הזה?


----------



## Drink

Ali Smith said:


> Interesting! Does דבר זה mean "this thing", just like הדבר הזה?



Yes.


----------

