Prepositions in Hebrew: Prefixes and Free Words | Hebrew Grammar

Hebrew prepositions do three things English prepositions do not: some of them are letters rather than words, the everyday ones absorb their pronoun object into a single word, and none of them can be left dangling at the end of a clause. This page maps the whole group so the individual pages have something to hang on.

Two shapes

Four are single letters, written solid with the word that follows — no space, no hyphen.

Letter	Means	Written	Reads
ב־	in, at; with (an instrument)	בבית	babáyit — in the house
ל־	to, for	לבית	labáyit — to the house
כ־	like, as	כרגיל	karagíl — as usual (כ + הרגיל)
מ־	from	מהבית	mehabáyit — from the house

These four are traditionally grouped as בכל״ם, and they behave alike in every respect but one. ב, ל and כ swallow the definite article's ה and keep only its vowel, so ב + הבית comes out as בבית. מ does not — מהבית keeps its ה in plain sight. That one asymmetry is responsible for a good deal of A1 spelling trouble, and it is set out in full on article fusion. The wider family of attached letters, including ש־ and ו־, is on the prefix letters.

אנחנו נפגשים בבית קפה ליד התחנה.

anákhnu nifgashím bevéit kafé leyád hatakhaná

We're meeting at a café near the station.

יצאנו מהבית בשש בבוקר.

yatsánu mehabáyit beshésh babóker

We left the house at six in the morning. (מ keeps the ה; ב fuses with it)

The rest are ordinary words with a space in front of them. There is nothing to attach and nothing to fuse.

Preposition	Means	Example	Reads
על	on; about	על השולחן	al hashulkhán — on the table
עם	with (accompaniment)	עם חברים	im khaverím — with friends
של	of (possession)	הבית שלי	habáyit shelí — my house
את	marks a definite direct object	את הספר	et haséfer — the book, as object
אל	to, towards	אל הים	el hayám — towards the sea
אצל	at someone's place	אצל סבתא	étsel sávta — at grandma's
בין	between	בין הבתים	bein habatím — between the houses
עד	until, as far as	עד מחר	ad makhár — until tomorrow
לפני	before; in front of	לפני השיעור	lifnéi hashi'úr — before the lesson
אחרי	after	אחרי העבודה	akharéi ha'avodá — after work
בשביל	for (someone's sake)	בשבילך	bishvilkhá — for you
בלי	without	בלי סוכר	bli sukár — without sugar
כמו	like (free-standing twin of כ־)	כמו אתמול	kmo etmól — like yesterday
ליד	next to, by	ליד התחנה	leyád hatakhaná — next to the station

Each of the core ones has its own page — ב, ל, מ, על, עם, של and את — and nothing here goes deeper than a line.

ראית את המפתחות שלי?

ra'íta et hamaftekhót shelí?

Have you seen my keys? (to a man — את because the object is definite)

תשלח לי הודעה כשאתה מגיע.

tishlákh li hoda'á kshe'atá magía

Text me when you get there. (to a man)

The pronoun goes inside the preposition

This is the structural fact that surprises English speakers most. Hebrew does not say "to me" with two words. The pronoun is a suffix, and the result is a single word with its own stress. Here is ל־ as the taster:

Person	Form	Reads
to me	לִי	li
to you (m.)	לְךָ	lekhá
to you (f.)	לָךְ	lakh
to him	לוֹ	lo
to her	לָהּ	la
to us	לָנוּ	lánu
to them (m.)	לָהֶם	lahém

Two of those cells are spelled identically — לך is both lekhá to a man and lakh to a woman, and unpointed writing does not separate them. The same suffixes attach to ב (בי, בך), to מ (ממני, ממך), to על (עליי, עליך), to את (אותי, אותך) and to the rest of the everyday ones; the full machinery is on inflected prepositions, with the ל paradigm worked through on לי, לך, לו.

קיבלתי ממנה מתנה ליום ההולדת.

kibálti miména mataná leyóm hahulédet

I got a present from her for my birthday.

אין לי מושג, תשאל אותו.

ein li muság, tish'ál otó

I've no idea — ask him. (to a man)

💡

There is no register in which the pronoun stays separate. *ל אני is not casual, not literary and not old — it is simply not Hebrew, in the way that English has no to I. If you know a preposition, you have to learn its suffix set with it.

A second consequence: because the preposition and its object are welded together, a Hebrew preposition cannot be stranded. English happily says who are you talking to; Hebrew moves the preposition to the front along with the question word — עם מי אתה מדבר. That constraint has its own page, no preposition stranding.

The preposition belongs to the verb, not to the meaning

Here is the point that decides everything downstream in this group, and it is worth taking seriously at A1 rather than discovering at B1. Which preposition a verb takes is a lexical fact about that verb. It is not derivable from the English translation, and translating the English preposition is the single most reliable way to get it wrong.

Hebrew	English	What transfers wrongly
השתמש ב־	use something	English has no preposition here at all
עזר ל־	help someone	English has a direct object; Hebrew has "to"
נהנה מ־	enjoy something	English has a direct object; Hebrew has "from"
התעלם מ־	ignore someone	English has a direct object; Hebrew has "from"
חיכה ל־	wait for someone	English has a preposition too, but a different one

אפשר להשתמש במטען שלך רגע?

efshár lehishtamésh bamat'én shelkhá réga?

Can I use your charger for a second? (to a man)

עזרתי לשכן להעביר ארון.

azárti lashakhén leha'avír arón

I helped the neighbour move a wardrobe.

נהניתי מהערב, תודה שהזמנת.

nehenéti meha'érev, todá shehizmánta

I enjoyed the evening — thanks for having me. (to a man)

הוא התעלם ממני לגמרי בישיבה.

hu hit'além miméni legamréi bayeshivá

He completely ignored me in the meeting.

חיכינו לך שעה בגשם, איפה היית?

khikínu lekhá sha'á bagéshem, éifo hayíta?

We waited an hour for you in the rain — where were you? (to a man)

💡

Never learn a verb on its own. Learn עזר ל־, נהנה מ־, השתמש ב־ as two-part units, the way you would learn a German verb with its case. A vocabulary list that gives you only עזר = "help" has handed you a word you cannot yet use in a sentence. The errors this prevents are collected on choosing the wrong preposition.

Common Mistakes

1. Leaving the pronoun as a separate word. The suffix is not an option or a contraction; it is the only form.

❌ ל אני

Incorrect — the pronoun is a suffix on the preposition: לי. There is no spaced version in any register.

✅ תגיד לי אם משהו לא ברור.

tagíd li im máshehu lo barúr

Tell me if anything isn't clear. (to a man)

2. Giving a Hebrew verb the English argument structure. נהנה is "derive enjoyment from", so its object arrives with מ.

❌ נהניתי את הסרט

Incorrect — נהנה takes מ, not a direct object: נהניתי מהסרט.

✅ נהנינו מהסרט, אבל הסוף היה חלש.

nehenénu mehaséret, avál hasóf hayá khalásh

We enjoyed the film, but the ending was weak.

3. Helping someone with את instead of ל. In Hebrew you give help to a person.

❌ עזרתי אותו

Incorrect — עזר takes ל: עזרתי לו. את would mark a direct object, and עזר does not have one.

✅ עזרתי לו למצוא את הכתובת.

azárti lo limtsó et haktóvet

I helped him find the address.

4. Stranding the preposition at the end. Natural English, impossible Hebrew.

❌ מי אתה מדבר עם?

Incorrect — the preposition moves to the front with the question word: עם מי אתה מדבר?

✅ עם מי את הולכת למסיבה?

im mi at holékhet lamsibá?

Who are you going to the party with? (to a woman)

Key Takeaways

Four prepositions are single letters written solid with the next word: ב, ל, כ, מ (בכל״ם). Everything else is a free-standing word.
ב, ל and כ fuse with the definite article (ב + הבית = בבית); מ does not (מהבית). This is the commonest source of A1 spelling errors.
Every everyday preposition takes its pronoun as a suffix: לי, לך, לו, לה, לנו, להם. *ל אני exists in no register, and לך is one spelling for both lekhá and lakh.
Because preposition and pronoun are one word, Hebrew cannot strand a preposition: עם מי אתה מדבר, never *מי אתה מדבר עם.
A verb's preposition is lexical. השתמש ב, עזר ל, נהנה מ, חיכה ל, התעלם מ — memorise the pair, never the English gloss.
This page is a map. The core prepositions each have a full page, and the suffix paradigms live in the Inflected Prepositions subgroup.

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