How to say “flood” in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/הצפה-#.m4a” /]הֲצָפָה

While שיטפון[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/הצפה-#.m4a” /] is a flash flood, the Hebrew word for a standard flood is הצפה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/הצפה-#.m4a” /].

For example:

ההצפות בארץ בשבוע שעבר גבו קרבנות.[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/הצפה-#.m4a” /]

The floods in Israel last week claimed victims.

הצפה is a noun coming from the הפעיל verb, להציף [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/הצפה-#.m4a” /] – to flood. The root is צ.ו.פ[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/הצפה-#.m4a” /] meaning float.

* After having published a Dose of Hebrew about floods earlier this week, subscribers pointed out to me that I forgot to discuss the classic biblical Hebrew word for flood – מבול[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/הצפה-#.m4a” /].