how to say “to dare” in Hebrew
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/להעיז-1.m4a” /]לְהָעִיז
I attended an all-boys high school – it housed nearly double the testosterone found at a coed school, with the grief caused to staff following a similar proportion. One time, several boys from another class decided to play a daring prank on a teacher: they lifted his car from his normal spot in the parking lot and moved it to another spot. The teacher suffered several minutes of agony before finding his car.
The Hebrew word for to dare is the active-causative להעיז[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/להעיז-1.m4a” /]. It takes its three-letter root from the word עוז[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/להעיז-2.m4a” /] meaning strength or might. (bear in mind that the letter ו[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/להעיז-3.m4a” /] once represented the w sound, which easily switches with י[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/להעיז-4.m4a” /], the y sound, in many languages).
For example, the teacher might have said to the boys:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/להעיז-5.m4a” /]אל תעיזו להזיז את הרכב שלי שוב!
Don’t you dare to move my car again!