Hebrew Modal Verbs

Question

I'm absolutely lost. I have here a few Modal verbs, and I'm trying to figure out what classification belongs to each of them. Have To - חיב (khayav) Supposed To - אמור (amur) Must Not - אסור (asur) Recommended - מומלץ (mum'latz) Might, May - עשוי (asuy) Permitted - מותר (mutar) Can - יכול (yakhol) Allowed - אפשר (ef'shar) As I understand it, יכול is a qal verb; חיב is an adjective. אמור is an adjective; מומלץ is an adjective; עשוי is an adjective; מותר is an adjective and אפשר is an adjective. I can't find any verification anywhere. Hebrew modals make little sense to me. Nothing like German or Dutch. Thanks for your time. Kind regards

Answer 1

Hello,

Modal Verbs in Hebrew are similar to English. Here are some examples:

need, should, ought (to) tsa-rikh צריך

must, have (to) mukh-rakh מוכרח

must, have/required (to) kha-yav חייב

can, able to ya-khol יכול

likely, liable (to) a-su-i עשוי

likely to, could [negative actions] a-lul עלול

should, supposed (to) a-mur אמור

expected (to) tsa-fu-i צפוי

about (to) o-med עומד

ready, willing (to) mu-khan מוכן

ready,prepared (to) a-rukh ערוך

preparing (for) mit-ko-nen מתכונן

intend (to) mit-ka-ven מתכוון