[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/סטרס-#.m4a” /]לַחַץ, סְטְרֶס The proper Hebrew word for stress is לחץ[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/סטרס-#.m4a” /] – literally, pressure. For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/סטרס-#.m4a” /]היא עושה את העבודה הכי טובה שלה בתנאי לחץ. She does her best work under pressure (in conditions of stress). But since לחץ can mean either pressure or stress, Israelis have borrowed the English word to… stress its…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מוצרי-חשמל-1.m4a” /]מוּצָרֵי חַשְׁמַל Suppose you’re in an Israeli department store, and you want to buy a vacuum cleaner. You might ask for the electronics section, using either אלקטרוניקה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מוצרי-חשמל-2.m4a” /] or מוצרי חשמל[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מוצרי-חשמל-1.m4a” /] – literally, electronic products. When you ask the attendant, you might hear: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מוצרי-חשמל-3.m4a” /]אפשר למצוא שואב אבק במחלקת מוצרי החשמל. You can…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/כיבוד-קל-1.m4a” /]כִּבּוּד קַל Serving food to guests is an act of honor – כבוד[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/כיבוד-קל-2.m4a” /]. Thus refreshments are called in Hebrew כיבוד[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/כיבוד-קל-3.m4a” /] – literally, honoring. And light refreshments are כיבוד קל[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/כיבוד-קל-1.m4a” /]. For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/כיבוד-קל-4.m4a” /]יוגש כיבוד קל בתחילת האירוע. Light refreshments will be served at the start of the event. Note that כיבוד…
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/2019/07/כרם-#.m4a” /]כֶּרֶם Here’s another beautiful Hebrew name: כרם[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/כרם-#.m4a” /]. But departing from the trend, this one’s for girls (at least usually). Grammatically, though, כרם (meaning vineyard) – is masculine. That’s why the following sentence uses היה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/כרם-#.m4a” /] (a masculine conjugation) and not הייתה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/כרם-#.m4a” /] (a feminine conjugation) for was: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/כרם-#.m4a” /]לשלמה…
Conversation based on this Dose of Hebrew