a special expression for “he couldn’t” in Hebrew

ByAmi Steinberger

נִבְצַר מִמֶּנּוּ

The simple way of saying he couldn’t or he wasn’t able to is הוא לא היה יכול
.

But Hebrew has a more eloquent expression for he couldn’t in the sense of he was prevented from being able to: נבצר ממנו
.

For example:

בגלל אפליקציית עיצוב ישנה, נבצר ממנה לייצר תמונה באמת טובה.

Because of an old design app she wasn’t able to produce a truly good image.

Note that in this example the word is ממנה
– literally, from her – and not ממנו
– from him.

נבצר
is a נפעל verb meaning fortified – נבצר ממנו creates the mental picture of one unable to gain access to something because it’s locked up, behind fortification.

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