שיר ילדים על ארץ ישראל היפה

What does the “-ti” ending mean in Hebrew verbs?

This classic children’s song is a stealth grammar drill. Verse by verse, someone declares what they did: בניתי בית “I built a house,” נטעתי עץ “I planted a tree,” סללתי כביש “I paved a road.” Every verb ends in ־תי (-ti) — Hebrew’s unmistakable signature for “I did.” No pronoun needed: the ending alone tells you who.

Hear it once and you’ll start hearing it everywhere: אכלתי “I ate,” ראיתי “I saw,” אהבתי “I loved it” — that last one is how Israelis praise anything. The song then flips the ending into a question — מי בנה ומי נטע? “who built and who planted?” — and answers: כולנו ביחד, “all of us together.”