how to say “a waste of time” in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/בזבוז-זמן-#.m4a” /]בִּזְבּוּז זְמַן

You may know the Hebrew expression חבל על הזמן[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/בזבוז-זמן-#.m4a” /], which means either this is awesome! or this is a waste of time, depending on the speaker’s tone of voice (here’s our slang page). These usages notwithstanding, חבל על הזמן means literally it’s a shame for the time.

So how do you say a waste of time and mean it literally? That’s בזבוז זמן[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/בזבוז-זמן-#.m4a” /], as in:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/בזבוז-זמן-#.m4a” /]איזה בזבוז זמן, כל התורים האלה!

What a waste of time, all these lines (queues)!

בזבוז[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/בזבוז-זמן-#.m4a” /] is a noun form of the פיעל verb לבזבז[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/בזבוז-זמן-#.m4a” /], to waste. It’s a four-letter root (ב.ז.ב.ז[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/בזבוז-זמן-#.m4a” /]), which derives from the three-letter root ב.ו.ז[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/בזבוז-זמן-#.m4a” /] meaning disparagement.