how to say “to inform” in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ליידע-1.m4a” /]לְיַדֵּעַ

This week we’ve seen the root י.ד.ע[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ליידע-2.m4a” /] meaning knowledge put to use in a variety of words, including להודיע[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ליידע-3.m4a” /] – to notify, מודעה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ליידע-4.m4a” /] – advertisement and ידיעות[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ליידע-5.m4a” /] – one of the words for news.

Plugging this root into the active-intensive verb form, we get ליידע[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ליידע-1.m4a” /] – to inform.

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ליידע-6.m4a” /]רציתי ליידע אתכם שאני לא אגיע לפגישה.

I wanted to inform you that I won’t be coming to the meeting.

That’s to inform in the purely informational sense. A very common synonym for ליידע is לעדכן[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ליידע-7.m4a” /] – literally, to update.

To inform in the political or tattle-tale sense is להלשין[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ליידע-8.m4a” /].

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ליידע-9.m4a” /]לא יפה להלשין על ילדים אחרים בכיתה.

It’s not nice to tell on other kids in your (the) class.