how to say “to climb” in Hebrew
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/לטפס-1.m4a” /]לְטַפֵּס

One of my Arik Einstein favorites, אוהב להיות בבית [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/לטפס-2.m4a” /] (I Like to Be Home) is a gem of a song for people looking to get a sense of Hebrew’s so-called present tense (I say so-called, because really such “present-tense verbs” in Hebrew are participles).
The song begins:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/לטפס-3.m4a” /]יש אנשים שמטפסים על הרים…
There are people who climb mountains…
מטפסים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/לטפס-4.m4a” /] is a variety of the active-intensive verb לטפס[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/לטפס-1.m4a” /] – to climb.
For example:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/לטפס-5.m4a” /]אני אוהב לטפס על הרים.
I like to climb mountains.
Likewise, the act of climbing is טיפוס[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/לטפס-6.m4a” /], as in טיפוס הרים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/לטפס-7.m4a” /] – mountain climbing.
The homograph טיפוס[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/לטפס-8.m4a” /] meaning type is not related to טיפוס[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/לטפס-6.m4a” /] meaning climbing.