how to say “at the end of the day” in Hebrew
בְּסוֹפוֹ שֶׁל דָּבָר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בסופו-של-דבר-1.mp3″ /]
Translated literally, at the end of the day is בסוף היום[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בסופו-של-דבר-2.mp3″ /] in Hebrew.
But that phrase is generally used in the figurative sense, not the literal. In the expression, “the day” really means “the matter at hand.”
Hebrew’s equivalent expression is בסופו של דבר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בסופו-של-דבר-1.mp3″ /] – literally, at the end of the matter.
For example:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בסופו-של-דבר-3.mp3″ /]ראינו הרבה דירות, אבל בסופו של דבר נשארנו בדירה שלנו.
We saw lots of apartments, but at the end of the day we stayed in ours.
Broken down, the expression is:
בסופו[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בסופו-של-דבר-4.mp3″ /] – at its end – could be further broken down to בסוף שלו[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בסופו-של-דבר-5.mp3″ /].
של[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בסופו-של-דבר-6.mp3″ /] – of
דבר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בסופו-של-דבר-7.mp3″ /] – matter
You may have noticed that בסופו של דבר – even more literally, it’s at its end of the matter – is redundant. This is a style used in the Talmud, that made it into Modern Hebrew.