Hebrew prepositions connect words and show relationships in a sentence.

In English, we use separate words to express ideas like “to me” or “with him”.

Hebrew does this a bit differently by attaching endings directly to the preposition itself.

These special endings are called pronominal suffixes.

Learning how these suffixes attach to prepositions is a huge step in your Hebrew journey.

I’ll explain exactly how these preposition suffixes work and show you the most common ones.

How Hebrew prepositions work

Some Hebrew prepositions are single letters that attach to the front of a word like a prefix.

Other prepositions are separate, standalone words.

When you want to say “to me” or “for him”, you don’t place the pronoun after the preposition.

Instead, you attach a suffix right onto the end of the preposition.

This changes the way the word looks and sounds.

Once you memorize the basic suffix pattern, you’ll notice that it repeats across many different words.

The preposition “to” or “for” (ל)

The letter ל (lamed) means “to” or “for”.

When we add suffixes to it, we get words that translate to “to me”, “for you”, and so on.

Here’s how the preposition ל looks with all of its pronoun suffixes.

Here are a few examples of how to use these suffixes in a conversation.

The preposition “in” or “at” (ב)

The letter ב (bet) means “in”, “at”, or “with” (when using an instrument or tool).

It takes the exact same suffix endings as the letter ל.

You’ll often use words like בו (bo) and בה (bah) to say “in it” when talking about objects.

The preposition “of” (של)

The word של (shel) means “of” or “belonging to”.

By adding suffixes to של, you create possessive pronouns like “mine”, “yours”, and “theirs”.

This is the most common way to show possession in modern Hebrew.

Here are examples of showing possession with these suffixes.

The preposition “with” (עם)

The word for “with” in Hebrew is עִם (im).

However, when you add a suffix to this preposition, the root spelling changes to אִת (it).

This change happens to make the word easier to pronounce.

Here’s how you might invite someone to do something with you.

The preposition “on” or “about” (על)

The word עַל (al) means “on”, “upon”, or “about”.

This preposition uses a slightly different set of endings that sound a bit like plurals.

You’ll notice an extra “yod” (י) in the middle of these suffix combinations.

This preposition is heavily used when talking about thoughts, feelings, or physical location.

Mastering these preposition suffixes is essential for building natural sentences in Hebrew.

Try replacing English pronouns with these suffixes during your daily practice.