# Ch8 Pronoun Identification Drill

BBH Chapter 8 — Hebrew Pronouns · 25 items

Instructions: For each item:
(1) Pronoun Type — Personal / Demonstrative / Relative / Interrogative
(2) Pronoun — write out the Hebrew pronoun
(3) Parse (PGN) — give Person, Gender, Number where applicable; for Relative and Interrogative write indecl.
(4) Translation — translate the full phrase

## Items 1–8 — Independent Personal Pronouns

# | Hebrew | Pronoun Type | Pronoun | Parse (PGN) | Translation |
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
1 | אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם |  |  |  |  |
✓ | אֲנִי | Personal | אֲנִי | 1cs | "I am the LORD your God" |
2 | אַתָּה עַבְדִּי |  |  |  |  |
✓ | אַתָּה | Personal | אַתָּה | 2ms | "You are my servant" |
3 | הוּא הַכֹּהֵן |  |  |  |  |
✓ | הוּא | Personal | הוּא | 3ms | "He is the priest" |
4 | הִיא הַמַּלְכָּה |  |  |  |  |
✓ | הִיא | Personal | הִיא | 3fs | "She is the queen" |
5 | אֲנַחְנוּ עֲבָדֶיךָ |  |  |  |  |
✓ | אֲנַחְנוּ | Personal | אֲנַחְנוּ | 1cp | "We are your servants" |
6 | אַתֶּם עֵדַי |  |  |  |  |
✓ | אַתֶּם | Personal | אַתֶּם | 2mp | "You are my witnesses" |
7 | אָנֹכִי הָאִישׁ |  |  |  |  |
✓ | אָנֹכִי | Personal | אָנֹכִי | 1cs (archaic) | "I am the man" |
8 | הֵם הַכֹּהֲנִים |  |  |  |  |
✓ | הֵם | Personal | הֵם | 3mp | "They are the priests" |

## Items 9–15 — Demonstrative Pronouns

# | Hebrew | Pronoun Type | Pronoun | Parse (PGN) | Translation |
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
9 | הָאִישׁ הַזֶּה |  |  |  |  |
✓ | הַזֶּה | Demonstrative | הַזֶּה | ms (near, attributive) | "this man" |
10 | הָאִשָּׁה הַזֹּאת |  |  |  |  |
✓ | הַזֹּאת | Demonstrative | הַזֹּאת | fs (near, attributive) | "this woman" |
11 | הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה |  |  |  |  |
✓ | הָאֵלֶּה | Demonstrative | הָאֵלֶּה | cp (near, attributive) | "these words/things" |
12 | זֶה הָאִישׁ |  |  |  |  |
✓ | זֶה | Demonstrative | זֶה | ms (near, predicate) | "This is the man" |
13 | זֹאת הָאָרֶץ |  |  |  |  |
✓ | זֹאת | Demonstrative | זֹאת | fs (near, predicate) | "This is the land" |
14 | בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא |  |  |  |  |
✓ | הַהוּא | Demonstrative | הַהוּא | ms (far, attributive) | "on that day" |
15 | בָּעֵת הַהִיא |  |  |  |  |
✓ | הַהִיא | Demonstrative | הַהִיא | fs (far, attributive) | "at that time" |

## Items 16–21 — Relative Pronoun אֲשֶׁר

# | Hebrew | Pronoun Type | Pronoun | Parse (PGN) | Translation |
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
16 | הָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר בָּא |  |  |  |  |
✓ | אֲשֶׁר | Relative | אֲשֶׁר | indecl. (subject rel.) | "the man who came" |
17 | הָאִשָּׁה אֲשֶׁר רָאִיתִי |  |  |  |  |
✓ | אֲשֶׁר | Relative | אֲשֶׁר | indecl. (object rel.) | "the woman whom I saw" |
18 | הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר נָתַן יְהוָה לָנוּ |  |  |  |  |
✓ | אֲשֶׁר | Relative | אֲשֶׁר | indecl. (object rel.) | "the land that the LORD gave to us" |
19 | הָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר עָבַד אֶת יְהוָה |  |  |  |  |
✓ | אֲשֶׁר | Relative | אֲשֶׁר | indecl. (subject rel.) | "the man who served the LORD" |
20 | הַמִּצְוָה אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִיךָ |  |  |  |  |
✓ | אֲשֶׁר | Relative | אֲשֶׁר | indecl. (object rel.) | "the commandment that I commanded you" |
21 | הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר שָׁמַעְתָּ |  |  |  |  |
✓ | אֲשֶׁר | Relative | אֲשֶׁר | indecl. (object rel.) | "the word/thing that you heard" |

## Items 22–25 — Interrogative Pronouns (מִי / מַה)

# | Hebrew | Pronoun Type | Pronoun | Parse (PGN) | Translation |
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
22 | מִי אַתָּה |  |  |  |  |
✓ | מִי | Interrogative | מִי | indecl. (persons) | "Who are you?" |
23 | מַה זֶּה |  |  |  |  |
✓ | מַה | Interrogative | מַה | indecl. (things) | "What is this?" |
24 | מִי הָאִישׁ הַזֶּה |  |  |  |  |
✓ | מִי | Interrogative | מִי | indecl. (persons) | "Who is this man?" |
25 | מַה עָשִׂיתָ |  |  |  |  |
✓ | מַה | Interrogative | מַה | indecl. (things) | "What have you done?" |

## Notes on Selected Items

Items 1–8 (Personal pronouns): All function as the copula in verbless predicative clauses — Hebrew has no present-tense form of "to be." The pronoun stands between subject and predicate noun/adjective.
Item 7: אָנֹכִי is the archaic/literary variant of אֲנִי. Both are 1cs; אָנֹכִי appears in the Decalogue (Exo 20:2) and poetic contexts.
Items 9–11 (Near demonstrative, attributive): Both the noun and the demonstrative carry the definite article: הָאִישׁ הַזֶּה. The article on the demonstrative is required — attributive demonstratives must match the definiteness of the noun.
Items 12–13 (Demonstrative, predicate): Without the article on the demonstrative, the construction means "this is the X" — a predicate use.
Items 14–15 (Far demonstrative, attributive): הַהוּא / הַהִיא are the 3rd-person pronouns with the article prefixed. Context and the presence of a modified noun distinguishes them from personal pronouns.
Items 16–21 (Relative אֲשֶׁר): אֲשֶׁר never changes form. It is strictly indeclinable regardless of the gender, number, or syntactic role of its antecedent.
Items 22–25 (Interrogative מִי / מַה): מִי always refers to persons; מַה to things. Item 25 מַה עָשִׂיתָ is one of the most frequent question patterns in the OT (Gen 3:13; 4:10; 12:18).

## Reflection Questions

1. In items 1–8, why does Hebrew use an independent personal pronoun even though no verb is present? What grammatical function does the pronoun serve in each verbless clause?
2. Compare items 9 (הָאִישׁ הַזֶּה) and 12 (זֶה הָאִישׁ). What is the structural difference, and how does it change the meaning from attributive ("this man") to predicate ("this is the man")?
3. In items 16–21, אֲשֶׁר introduces relative clauses with different grammatical functions (subject, object, etc.). For each item, identify whether the antecedent functions as the subject or object within the relative clause. How would you signal a possessive relative clause in Hebrew? (Hint: resumptive pronoun)