how to say “expectations” in Hebrew

צִפִּיּוֹת[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ציפיות-1.mp3″ /]

The simple verb לִצְפּוֹת[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ציפיות-2.mp3″ /] means to watch or look out on, so that while the male colloquial-Hebrew speaker will say…

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ציפיות-3.mp3″ /]אֲנִי רוֹאֶה טֶלֶוִיזְיָה.

I’m watching (literally, I see) TV.

The Israeli man speaking in a higher register would mean the same thing by saying:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ציפיות-4.mp3″ /]אֲנִי צוֹפֶה בַּטֶּלֶוִיזְיָה.

Likewise, הַר הַצּוֹפִים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ציפיות-5.mp3″ /] is Mount Scopus – literally, the Mountain of the Scouts, the mountain where pilgrims from northern Israel would first catch a glimpse of ancient Jerusalem; and מִצְפֵּה יְרִיחוֹ[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ציפיות-6.mp3″ /] – Jericho Outlook, is a town overlooking that Biblical city, today an Arab municipality.

So that’s לִצְפּוֹת[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ציפיות-2.mp3″ /], the simple verb of the root צ.פ.ה (ts.p.h).

Then there’s the intensive version of the root, לְצַפּוֹת[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ציפיות-7.mp3″ /] – to expect.

If you’re familiar with Hebrew grammatical patterns, you might predict that the word for expectation would be צִפּוּי[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ציפיות-8.mp3″ /]. But this is not the case, as צִפּוּי is already taken: לְצַפּוֹת also means to coat or to cover, so that ציפוי means a coating or a covering, as in צִפּוּי לְעוּגָה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ציפיות-9.mp3″ /] – cake frosting. Though לְצַפּוֹת with both meanings has root צ.פ.ה, the two words are not necessarily related, since the visual letter צ represents several sounds uttered in Biblical Hebrew and thus לְצַפּוֹת may have sounded quite different, depending on whether the speaker meant to expect or to coat something.

So what’s the word for expectation? צִפִּיָּה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ציפיות-10.mp3″ /].

You’ll see the word in action in tomorrow’s post.