how to say “to improvise” in Hebrew
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/לאלתר-#.m4a” /]לְאַלְתֵּר
The Hebrew word for to improvise is לאלתר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/לאלתר-#.m4a” /], a פיעל verb of the four-letter root א.ל.ת.ר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/לאלתר-#.m4a” /].
For example:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/לאלתר-#.m4a” /]כשאין ברירה, חייבים לאלתר.
When there’s no choice, we must improvise.
You may be thinking, what kind of Hebrew verb has a four-letter root? Don’t they all have three-letter roots?
Yes, verbs coming from Biblical Hebrew do have three-letter roots. But many post-biblical roots have an added letter, and words coming from foreign languages simply use the consonants of the word to form a root (take לפסבק[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/לאלתר-#.m4a” /] – to Facebook, for example, whose root is פ.ס.ב.ק[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/לאלתר-#.m4a” /]).
There are also words that the Academy of the Hebrew Language made up. לאלתר is one example, where the Academy took the expression על אתר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/לאלתר-#.m4a” /] – on the spot – and created a verb out of it, לאלתר: to improvise is to make something up on the spot.
Likewise, אלתור[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/לאלתר-#.m4a” /] is an improvisation.