how to say “it’s complicated” in Hebrew

ByAmi Steinberger

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מסובך-1.m4a” /]זֶה מְסֻבָּךְ

For those of you who don’t know, Facebook allows people to show their relationship status with tags like “single”, “married”, “divorced”, and others. The one that might spark the most curiosity is the status, “it’s complicated.”

In Hebrew, that’s זה מסובך[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מסובך-1.m4a” /].

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מסובך-2.m4a” /]סטטוס מערכת היחסים שלי? זה מסובך.

My relationship status? It’s complicated.

מסובך[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מסובך-3.m4a” /] derives from the passive-intensive פועל verb form. Its root is ס.ב.כ[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מסובך-4.m4a” /], which means entanglement and first appears in Genesis, in the story of the binding of Isaac.

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