5.8 Translate the Article

ARTICLE

  • Hebrew just has one article for definiteness
  • It is often simply called the “Article”
  • The Hebrew “Article” is equivalent to the English “Definite Article”

The Hebrew (definite) article has many translations: “the”, “this”, “o” (as in “O king”), “his”, “her”, “my”.

  • In English, we have two “indefinite articles” = “a” or “an”, and one “definite article” = “the”
  • Strictly speaking, Hebrew has no “indefinite article”
  • הַיּוֹם is literally “the day”; however, a better translation is “today”, or sometimes “this day”
  • The Hebrew article can also make an adjective superlative: הַתּוֹב is literally “the good”, but can mean “the best”.