In short

English says “to me”, “for you”, “with him” — a preposition and then a separate little pronoun. Modern Hebrew refuses to leave the pronoun standing on its own: it fuses it onto the preposition as a suffix. So “to me” is one word, לי (li); “for you” is בשבילך (bishvilcha); “with him” is איתו (ito). You never say ל אני or עם הוא — the pronoun always melts into the preposition. This process is called נטיית מילות היחס (netiyat milot ha-yachas), “the inflection of the prepositions”.

There are two suffix patterns to learn, and the choice depends on the preposition. A singular-base group (ל־, ב־, של, אצל, בשביל) takes the endings לי/לך/לו (li/lecha/lo). A plural-base group (על, אל, אחרי) takes a different, longer set — עליי/עליו/עליה (alai/alav/aleha). Two prepositions are simply irregular and must be memorized on their own: עם “with” (איתי, iti) and מ־ “from” (ממני, mimeni). Good news: you have already met this exact singular-base set on של in lesson 10 and inside יש לי in lesson 14.

The rule

A pronoun after a preposition must fuse — it is never a separate word. The bare prepositions of lesson 13 (ל־, ב־, על, עם, מ־ …) combine with a full noun as usual — לחבר (la-chaver, “to the friend”), על השולחן (al ha-shulchan, “on the table”). But the moment the object is a pronoun (“me, you, him…”), Hebrew drops the standalone pronoun and welds a suffix onto the preposition instead: not ל אני but לי (li), not על הוא but עליו (alav). Memorize the whole fused word, not “preposition + pronoun”.

Pattern 1 — the singular-base set: ל־, ב־, של, אצל, בשביל. These take the suffix family לי/לך/לו/לה/לנו/לכם/להם. The endings are: -i (me), -cha/-ach (you m/f), -o (him), -a (her), -anu/-enu (us), -chem/-chen (you pl), -hem/-hen (them). This is the same set you drilled on של in lesson 10 — שלי/שלך/שלו (sheli/shelcha/shelo) — so most of the work is already done. Watch one wrinkle: for the “them” cells, ל, ב and של keep -hem/-hen (להם/להן, בהם/בהן, שלהם/שלהן), but the longer bases אצל and בשביל switch to -am/-an (אצלם etzlam / אצלן etzlan, בשבילם bishvilam / בשבילן bishvilan).

Pattern 2 — the plural-base set: על, אל, אחרי. These prepositions inflect as if their base were a plural construct, so the suffixes are longer: עליי/עליך/עליו/עליה/עלינו/עליכם/עליהם (alai/alecha/alav/aleha/aleinu/aleichem/aleihem). Two things to flag. First, in ktiv male the 1st-person singular is written with a double yod — עליי (alai), אליי (elai), אחריי (acharai) — never a single yod. Second, the 3rd-person masculine singular is spelled ־יו but read -av: עליו is alav (“on/about him”), אליו is elav (“to him”), אחריו is acharav (“after him”). The spelling looks like it should say “-iyu”; it does not.

עם “with” is suppletive — say איתי, not עמי. In everyday Modern Hebrew, עם swaps to a completely different inflected stem, אית־: איתי/איתך/איתו/איתה/איתנו/איתם (iti/itcha/ito/ita/itanu/itam), “with me / you / him / her / us / them”. The older forms עמי/עמו (imi/imo) still exist, but they belong to literary and formal register — recognize them in reading, but produce איתי/איתו yourself.

מ־ “from” is irregular — ממני, ממך, ממנו. The preposition מ־/מן inflects on its own pattern: ממני (mimeni, from me), ממך (mimcha/mimech, from you), ממנו (mimeno, from him), ממנה (mimena, from her), ממנו (mimenu, from us), מכם (mikem, from you pl), מהם (mehem, from them). Note the built-in ambiguity: ממנו is both “from him” (mimeno) and “from us” (mimenu) — one spelling, two words, told apart only by the vowel and the context.

Same spelling, different vowel, splits masculine/feminine “you”. Just like the free pronouns אתה/את, the 2nd-person suffix has a masculine and a feminine reading that often share their letters: לך is lecha to a man but lach to a woman; likewise בך (becha/bach), שלך (shelcha/shelach), איתך (itcha/itach). The unvocalized spelling hides the difference — the addressee’s gender chooses the vowel.

You have already been using these. יש לי (yesh li, “I have”), אין לו (ein lo, “he doesn’t have”) from lesson 14 are exactly this inflected ל־. And שלי/שלך (sheli/shelcha) from lesson 10 are the same suffix set on של. This lesson simply spreads that machinery across the rest of the common prepositions.

Forms & patterns

Pattern 1 — singular-base, full paradigm on ל־ (to / for):

The same singular-base suffixes on the other prepositions of this group:

Pattern 2 — plural-base, full paradigm on על (on / about):

The same plural-base suffixes on אל and אחרי:

עם (with) — suppletive stem אית־ (literary עמ־ shown for recognition only):

מ־ (from) — irregular; note ממנו does double duty:

Examples

Common mistakes

• ל אני -> לי (li) - the pronoun fuses onto the preposition as a suffix; it is never written as a separate word.
• עם אני / עם הוא -> איתי / איתו (iti / ito) - עם is suppletive: its inflected stem is אית־, so “with me” is איתי and “with him” איתו.
• עלי (single yod, meant “about me”) -> עליי (alai) - the plural-base 1st-person singular is a double yod in ktiv male: עליי, not עלי.
• הם מדברים על אני -> הם מדברים עליי (hem medabrim alai) - “about me” is the fused עליי; you cannot leave על and a pronoun apart.
• מ אני / מן אני -> ממני (mimeni) - “from me” is the single irregular word ממני.
• בשביל אתה -> בשבילך (bishvilcha) - “for you” fuses exactly like שלך; keep it one word.
• לך read as lecha to a woman -> לך read lach - the 2nd person still splits m/f under one spelling: לך = lecha to a man, lach to a woman.

Tips

• Whenever a pronoun would follow a preposition, fuse it. Train the reflex “לי, not ל + אני”.
• Two families to keep apart: the singular-base set (ל, ב, של, אצל, בשביל) with לי/לך/לו, and the plural-base set (על, אל, אחרי) with עליי/עליו/עליה.
• Remember the double-yod ktiv male in the plural-base “me”: עליי (alai), אליי (elai), אחריי (acharai).
• Read the ending ־יו as -av: עליו = alav, אליו = elav, אחריו = acharav. It looks like “-iyu”; it isn’t.
• You already own this suffix set from של (lesson 10) — שלי/שלך/שלו — and from יש לי (lesson 14); the very same endings ride ל, ב and the rest.
• עם is the trap: say איתי/איתו in speech, never עמי. Keep עמי/עמו for reading formal Hebrew.
• ממנו is doubly loaded: “from him” (mimeno) and “from us” (mimenu) share one spelling — the vowel and the context tell them apart.
• One spelling, two vowels for “you”: לך is lecha to a man, lach to a woman — and likewise בך, שלך, איתך.