Pronominal Suffixes on Nouns and Prepositionsסוּסִי · לִי · בִּשְׁמוֹ — the suffixes that say "my," "to me," "in his"

English uses two separate strategies for pronouns. To say "my horse," English puts a possessive adjective before the noun ("my"). To say "to me," English puts an object pronoun after a preposition ("me"). The two pronouns ("my" and "me") look different, and they sit in different places.

Hebrew uses one strategy for both. A single small ending — a pronominal suffix — attaches to the end of the noun or preposition. The same suffix that means "my" on a noun also means "me" on a preposition. סוּסִי = "my horse"; לִי = "to me." Both end in the same suffix (ִי, hireq-yod), and the suffix is doing the same grammatical work in both: it represents the speaker.

So once you have memorized the ten suffixes, you have memorized two whole pronominal systems at once: all the possessive pronouns on nouns, and all the object pronouns after prepositions. This is one of the great economies of Hebrew grammar.

One small complication: when a suffix is added to a plural noun, the suffix forms shift slightly (because the suffix attaches to the plural marker, not the bare noun). So there are really two parallel paradigms — one for singular-noun bases, one for plural-noun bases — but they share an obvious family resemblance and you'll see them together throughout this lesson.

Notice the pattern: in דָּבָר the stress falls on the second syllable ("da-VAR"). When you add the suffix ִי, the stress moves forward one more syllable ("de-va-RI"), and the first qamatz — now two syllables back from the stress — collapses to a vocal shewa. This is the standard "long → reduced when stress shifts" pattern.

The noun שֵׁם ("name") behaves slightly differently because its base vowel (tsere) is a long, stable e: when the stress moves onto a suffix, the tsere shortens to a hireq, and the form becomes שְׁמִי "my name," שִׁמְךָ "your (m.) name," שְׁמוֹ "his name." These are some of the most common suffixed forms in the entire Hebrew Bible.

The 2mp and 3mp forms — דִּבְרֵיכֶם and דִּבְרֵיהֶם — push the reduction one step further: the first vowel becomes a hireq and the second collapses to a silent shewa. These so-called "heavy suffixes" (ְכֶם, ְכֶן, ֵיכֶם, ֵיהֶם) pull stress so strongly forward that two reductions stack. You'll see this pattern over and over.

Other prepositions that take plural-style suffixes include אֶל ("to, toward"), תַּחַת ("under"), and אַחֲרֵי ("after"). You'll meet them in real text; the suffix-pattern will be familiar once you have עַל down.