how to say “quantity” in Hebrew
מְלוֹן פְּאֵר A Hebrew student recently said to me, over lunch, אני אוהב לאכול מָלון. He meant to tell me that he’s likes eating melon (מֶלון), but what came out was I like eating a hotel. We had a good laugh. A luxury hotel is מלון פאר, as in: אין לנו תקציב למלונות פאר! We don’t…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/שוקיים-1.m4a” /]שׁוקָיִם In this post I’m not discussing the kind of calf that grazes – that’s an עגל[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/שוקיים-2.m4a” /]. Rather, I’m following yesterday’s post about the upper-body limb, moving now to the lower. רגל[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/שוקיים-3.m4a” /] is the word that refers to the whole leg and foot, from the pelvis downward. But just as English…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/עוד-מעט-#.m4a” /]עוֹד מְעַט, בְּקָרוֹב Hebrew has two ways of saying soon. Which one to choose depends on whether you want to sound casual or a bit formal. עוד מעט[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/עוד-מעט-#.m4a” /] is the more casual version. It means something like in a little bit (literally it’s a bit more). For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/עוד-מעט-#.m4a” /]סבלנות,…
having trouble seeing the print? לְהִתְפַּכֵּחַ Check out our spring coursesin Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Raanana, Efrat and Ramat Beit Shemesh For those celebrating Purim outside of Jerusalem, this word is relevant. For those where I’m at… well, we’re not quite ready for it. To become sober is the reflexive-intensive התפעל verb, לְהִתְפַּכֵּח (leh-heet-pah-KEH-ahkh). Its root, פ.כ.ח (p.k.kh), from Aramaic, is nearly identical…
Conversation based on this Dose of Hebrew
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מראה-1.m4a” /]מַרְאָה, רְאִי Non-human and non-animal things in English have no grammatical gender. You wouldn’t say “she’s a nice shirt” or “he’s a big house.” Most other Western and Middle-Eastern languages do have such gender assignments, and Hebrew is no exception. For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מראה-2.m4a” /]היא חולצה יפה. It’s a nice shirt. and [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מראה-3.m4a”…