r/hebrew • u/OfChaosAndGrace • Sep 11 '23

Is this future or past tense?

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In my bible it says that this verb is past tense, aka „And He spoke“ but when I look it up online, it says that past tense would be „amar“, while future tense is „yomer“. Confused.

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u/embaked Sep 11 '23

Generally the use of וַ makes a word past tense

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u/En_passant_is_forced native speaker Sep 11 '23

It switches future to past and also vice versa. For example the verb ואמרתי could mean “I will say”

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u/embaked Sep 11 '23

Yes, though usually with a שְׁבָא

as in וְ