how to say “my grandmother” in Hebrew

ByAmi Steinberger

סָבְתָא שֶׁלִּי

The Hebrew word סבתא
means grandmother – or more accurately, grandma. The proper term, which you’ll only find in formal settings, is סבה
. Likewise, grandfather or grandpa is סבא
, while סב
is the obscure, technically-correct term for grandfather.

Here’s a colloquial example:

סבתא שלי הייתה ניצולת שואה.

My grandmother was a Holocaust survivor.

Now, סבתא שלי
– my grandmother – means literally, the grandmother of mine. It’s the same construction as that of הספר שלי
– my book (the book of mine) and האחיות שלי
– my sisters (the sisters of mine). So why is there no ה
(the) before the word סבתא in סבתא שלי?

That’s because סבתא comes from Aramaic, where the א
at the end of the word indicates the – סבתא שלי already means the grandmother of mine, so there’s no need to add a ה to the beginning of the word.

The same is true of אבא
– father/dad, אמא
– mother/mom and of course סבא
– grandfather/grandpa.

For example:

סבא שאול הוא אבא של אמא שלי.

Grandpa Shaul is my mother’s father.

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