[net.religion.jewish] "Divrei Torah" - quick grammar lesson

dave@lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman) (04/01/86)

In article <16323@rochester.UUCP> is written:
> Ps: Keep those D'varim Torah (did I get that right?) coming! They're great!

The plural of d'var is d'varim, but not when it's in the
conjunct form. As you may know, Hebrew lets you put two words
together ("A B") to get the meaning "A of B". The two main shifts
that occur are that a closing -ah (kamatz-hey) for a feminine
gender becomes 'at (or -as if you're Ashkenazic) -- thus
Torah of Life is Torat Chayim -- and a masculine plural -im
becomes -ey. Hence Children (banim) of Israel becomes B'nei Yisrael.

Therefore, it's
	Divrei Torah

(Hope this is useful to some. Understanding how the conjunct,
or whatever its proper name is, works to link Hebrew nouns is
useful in parsing a lot of names and phrases.)

Dave Sherman
The Law Society of Upper Canada
Toronto
-- 
{ ihnp4!utzoo  pesnta  utcs  hcr  decvax!utcsri  } !lsuc!dave