6.4 Inseparable prepositions

  • Like וְ for the word “and,” an inseparable preposition is a one-letter prefix affixed to its object

Three Hebrew prepositions are ALWAYS inseparable

  • בְּ - in, at, with, by, against
    • בְּמֶ֫לֶךְ - With a king
  • כְּ - as, like, according to
    • כְּמֶ֫לֶךְ - Like a king
  • לְ - to, toward, for
    • לְמֶ֫לֶךְ - To/towards a king

A mnemonic to remember these three inseparable prepositions is “BucKLe”

  • The first word of the Bible contains an inseparable preposition: בְּרֵאשִׁית = “In (the) beginning”
  • In the lexical form of these prepositions, there is a Vocal Sheva vowel under the “buckle” consonant
  • If there is a Sheva or Hateph vowel in the next letter, that indicates the Rule of Sheva came into play (see Lesson 4)
    • Before another Vocal Sheva, the preposition usually takes a Hireq
    • Before a Guttural with a Hateph vowel, the preposition takes the corresponding short vowel
    • As we mentioned in Lesson 4, the names of God again receive special treatment: לֵאלֹהִים and לַיהוָה
  • Finally, the ב and כ when they are the first letter of a word (as they usually will be), will take a Dagehsh Lene giving them the “hard” pronunciation
    • We actually saw this last lesson, but in a different context
    • It’s בֵּן, (between), but it’s וּבֵן (and between)
      • The conjunction ו becomes a וּּ before a BuMP letter
      • In this same example, you can see that בֵּן (between) HAS the Dagesh Lene, butוּבֵן (and between) does not and is pronounced with a “v” sound