What’s the difference between all these ways of saying “you”?

Question

את, אתה, אתן… What’s the difference? And are there any other forms of “you” I should know about?

Answer 1

In English we say "you" whether it's objective or subjective, but in Hebrew it specifies. For example, "I love you" would be "Ani ohev otcha". And "You love me" would be "Ata ohev oti". So in the first sentence "you" is objective. In the second example sentence "you" is subjective.

These are all of the subjective forms

את - you (feminine)

אתה - you (masculine)

אתם - you (masculine/plural)

אתן - you (feminine/ plural)

These are all of the objective forms

אותך - you (singular, direct object pronoun) Pronounced "otcha" for the masculine form, and "otach" for the feminine form.

אתכם - (direct object, masculine/plural pronoun)

אתכן - you (direct object, feminine/plural pronoun)

Just be aware that with certain verbs, we use a different preposition, which requires the word which is a combination of the preposition and the suffix denoting the pronoun. ie.

לך - to you

בך - in you

עליך - on/about you

etc.