HEBREW · STEP 31
They said: Read the plural
Read amru, identify the plural subject in Exodus, and keep the speakers distinct from the recipient.
In this lesson
Keep the stem; read a new ending
In am-RA, she said, you read sheva under mem without adding a vowel. Keep that local modern reading as you meet a form for more than one subject.
am-RU
They said
- Alef with qamats and mem with sheva give am. In this word’s modern Israeli-style reading, mem’s sheva adds no extra vowel.
- The last spelling is shuruk: vav with its inside dot, giving u. You met it in הוּא, hu.
- Resh followed by shuruk gives ru. Read am-RU, two syllables, with the stronger one last.
Shuruk supplies a vowel here, not v or a separate word hu. Compared with amra, the qamats under resh and final he give way to shuruk. Read the points and ending together.
Amru is third-person plural: it reports the saying of people being discussed. This same form serves masculine and feminine subjects. In examples about people, it can describe men, women or a mixed group. The form does not give their names or exact number.
1. Cover the aid. Read אָמְרוּ, give its meaning, syllables and stress, and explain mem’s sheva and the final spelling.
am-RU, they said: two syllables, final stress. Mem’s sheva adds no vowel in this modern model. Final shuruk gives u after resh, not v, hu or another syllable.
The subject is plural. Read the whole form rather than treating every final vav as a word for they.
Distinguish one from several
- אָמַר · a-MAR · he said
- אָמְרָה · am-RA · she said
- אָמְרוּ · am-RU · they said
The last two share sheva under mem. Their final vowel and spelling distinguish the feminine singular form from the plural form. An ending helps identify a grammatical subject; context identifies the actual speaker or speakers.
2. Read the three forms. Which are singular and which is plural? Explain the change under mem and the two different endings.
a-MAR: third-person masculine singular. am-RA: third-person feminine singular. am-RU: third-person plural, for either gender.
Amar has patah under mem; amra and amru have sheva there. Amra ends in a written with resh’s qamats and final he. Amru ends in u written with shuruk. In our model, neither sheva adds an extra vowel in these two words. Plural does not specify two, ten or any other exact count.
Find the group in the Exodus story
Exodus 12 describes the night of our departure from Egypt. After the death of the firstborn, the Egyptians urge the people of Israel to leave quickly. The verse reports the Egyptians’ words of fear about their own lives.
אָמְרוּ
they said
Read am-RU. As in the previous lesson, the simplified display leaves out chanting marks and meteg, an additional reading mark, while preserving the letters and vowel points.
The narrator reports what the Egyptians said. The Israelites are the people being urged to leave. After the selected verb, the verse gives the group’s own fearful words: “We are all dying.” That short English rendering belongs to the surrounding quotation, not to amru by itself.
There are two points of view: narration describes they; within their quoted words, the speakers refer to themselves as we. The reporting verb remains they said.
3. Read the selected word. Which group is its subject, and which group is being urged to leave? Why can the following quotation use we without making amru mean we said?
am-RU, they said. The Egyptians are the subject; the Israelites are being urged to leave. The surrounding story supplies those identities.
The narrator calls the speakers they. Inside their quoted statement, those speakers call themselves we. The quotation changes viewpoint, not the person of the preceding verb. The card selects one verb, not the fearful message or a name for either group.
Use the plural without inventing a gender contrast
Constructed practice, not biblical quotation. Consider two situations: a narrator reports words from two women; another narrator reports words from two men. The learned plural form works in both.
4. Which learned Hebrew form fits both situations? What can it tell you, and what must the situation supply?
אָמְרוּ, am-RU, they said, fits both. It gives third-person plural subject information without choosing masculine versus feminine.
The supplied situations identify the people and their exact number. The form alone does not tell you their names, whether the group contains men or women, or that there are precisely two speakers.
Follow the recipient separately
You learned li, to me, in Ruth’s report about a gift. It can also identify the person receiving someone’s words. Watch the subject and recipient separately.
Constructed practice, not biblical quotation. A speaker reports words received from one woman:
hi am-RA li
She said to me.
Hi and amra concern the woman who spoke. Li points to the present reporter as recipient. Being the recipient does not make that reporter the subject of amra.
Read before revealing
Constructed practice, not a biblical quotation. Miriam is recounting messages from several friends. Read this new line before opening the answer.
אָמְרוּ לִי
5. Read and translate the line. Identify its subject group and recipient. Is a separate word for they printed? What would be lost if li were omitted?
am-RU li, “They said to me.” The friends are the plural subject. Li points to Miriam, the current speaker, as the recipient of their words.
No separate they pronoun is printed: amru already carries plural subject information. Omitting li would remove the explicit to-me relationship, not change the subject from plural to singular. The supplied practice scene, not the verb ending alone, gives the names and roles.
Keep the reporting level clear
6. Repair these claims: “Amru means we said because the Egyptians’ quotation says we”; “its u is only for male speakers”; “the verb always means the Egyptians said.”
Amru means they said here. We belongs to the speakers’ own quoted words after the reporting verb. The narrator and the quoted group use different points of view.
This plural form serves either gender. The u ending does not restrict its subject to men.
The Exodus context identifies the Egyptians. The same form can concern a different group elsewhere. Learn the whole form and read its setting.
Compare two reports
Write or say two or three sentences explaining how Genesis 20:5 and Exodus 12:33 report someone’s words. Use אָמְרָה and אָמְרוּ, identify the subjects and reporters, and explain one thing the one-word excerpts leave out. Attempt your account before revealing the guide.
7. Check your comparison against the evidence
- am-RA is feminine singular. Sarah’s saying appears within Avimelekh’s report to Hashem.
- am-RU is plural. The narrator reports the Egyptians’ words; Israel is the group urged to leave.
- Neither one-word selection prints a proper name, a recipient expression or the quoted message. Those details come from the surrounding passage.
Your account should connect the grammatical difference with the two reporting situations, while keeping the source words distinct from their supplied context.
Next session: recover the endings
At your next session, keep models and answers closed. Reconstruct she said and they said in pointed Hebrew, read them, and describe their endings. Then identify each subject from these references: Genesis 20:5 and Exodus 12:33. Can either verb alone identify a recipient?
8. Check the forms, source subjects and missing relationship
- אָמְרָה, am-RA: she said. Resh’s qamats and final he write the final a; Genesis 20:5 identifies Sarah.
- אָמְרוּ, am-RU: they said. Shuruk writes the final u; Exodus 12:33 identifies the Egyptians.
Both have mem’s sheva, with no extra vowel in our modern reading. Neither verb alone identifies a recipient. A recipient expression such as li or the surrounding passage supplies that different relationship.
If you try the cue today, return for a fresh attempt next session. Note whether you needed help with a vowel, an ending or the people in the scene.
Explore the sources
Exodus 12 with surrounding English · Amru: form and meaning · Plural ending and stem vowels, Gesenius §44
Locate the selected word in verse 33. Follow the wider scene in English; the other Hebrew forms are not new decoding assignments. The short quotation and context explanation here are original Messianic Yeshiva English.
Try the forms in fresh passages
Next, bring all five saying forms together. Read two new source excerpts and use their contexts to identify who speaks, who is addressed and whose earlier words are being recalled.