A crane or a lever in Hebrew is a מָנוֹף
(mah-NOHF).
To leverage – to use resources to gain a desired outcome (rough definition) – is לְמַנֵּף
(leh-mah-NEF) in Hebrew. It’s an active-intensive פיעל (pee-EL) verb.
Check out our Summer 2011 classes
for adults as well as teens in our four locations:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/על-שפת-הנהר-1.m4a” /]עַל שְׂפַת הַנָּהָר The Hebrew word for lip is שפה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/על-שפת-הנהר-2.m4a” /]. Believe it or not, this word is quite versatile: it also means language and bank (of a river, a sea, etc). In a connected “of” (construct) state, שפה becomes שפת[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/על-שפת-הנהר-3.m4a” /], so that a river bank is שפת נהר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/על-שפת-הנהר-4.m4a” /] – literally, a bank…
תַּקָּלָה Suppose you’re standing in a line at the bank that seems abnormally slow. Within a few minutes the reason becomes apparent when someone behind the glass tells another customer, “there’s a glitch in the system.” In Hebrew, the teller would say, יֵשׁ תַּקָּלָה בַּמַּעֲרֶכֶת (yesh tah-kah-LAH bah-mah-ah-REH-khet).
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/פשלה-#.m4a” /]פַשְׁלָה The Hebrew-slang word פשלה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/פשלה-#.m4a” /], like many (but certainly not all) Hebrew-slang words, comes from Arabic (فشلة). It means literally failure, but Israelis use it to refer to a mess-up or mistake, as in: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/פשלה-#.m4a” /]עשיתי פשלה, אבל אני מקווה שהחומוס בכל זאת יצא טעים! I messed up (did a mess-up),…
