Modern Hebrew Grammar - Miscellaneous - Subordinate Clauses

Subordinate Clauses

Like English, Hebrew allows clauses פסוקיות (/psukiˈjot/) to serve as parts of a sentence. A sentence containing a subordinate clause is called a משפט מורכב /miʃˈpat murˈkav/. Subordinate clauses almost always begin with the conjunction ש /ʃe-/ (usually that), which attaches as a prefix to the word that follows it. For example, in the sentence יוסי אומר שהוא אוכל /ˈjosi oˈmer ʃe-ˈhu oˈχel/ (Yosi says that he is eating), the subordinate clause שהוא אוכל /ʃe-ˈhu oˈχel/ (that he is eating) serves as the direct object of the verb אומר /oˈmer/ (says). Unlike English, Hebrew does not have a large number of subordinating conjunctions; rather, subordinate clauses almost always act as nouns and can be introduced by prepositions in order to serve as adverbs. For example, the English As I said, there's nothing we can do in Hebrew is כפי שאמרתי, אין מה לעשות /keˈfi ʃe-ʔaˈmaʁti, e(j)n ma laʕaˈsot/ (literally Like that-I-said, there-isn't what to-do).

That said, relative clauses, which act as adjectives, are also formed using ש /ʃe-/. For example, English Yosi sees the man who is eating apples is in Hebrew יוסי רואה את האיש שאוכל תפוחים /ˈjosi roˈe et ha-ˈiʃ ʃe-oˈχel tapuˈħim/ (literally Yosi sees the-man that-eats apples). In this use ש /ʃe-/ sometimes acts as a relativizer rather than as a relative pronoun; that is, sometimes the pronoun remains behind in the clause: היא מכירה את האיש שדיברתי עליו /hi makiˈra et ha-ˈʔiʃ ʃe-diˈbarti ʕaˈlav/, which translates to She knows the man I talked about, literally means She knows the-man that-I-talked about him. This is because in Hebrew, a preposition (in this case על /ʕal/) cannot appear without its object, so the him יו (/-av/) could not be dropped.