1. תעודת זהות – ID card In Israel, knowing your מספר תעודת זהות – ID card number – is more important than knowing your phone number: you’ll use it all the time, from visiting the doctor to logging into your online bank. People typically shorten the expression, cutting out מספר – number, even though they’re…
שֶׁלֶט חוּצוֹת If you’ll be in Jerusalem in August, don’t miss חוצות היוצר – the Artist’s Colony fair, where you’ll find artwork from around the world as well as concerts by some of Israel’s rock stars. חוצות isn’t exactly a colony – the word refers to the outdoors in a poetic sense (בחוץ is outdoors or outside in…
בְּדִידוּת The Hebrew word for lonely is בודד when referring to a male, and בודדת or בודדה when referring to a female. For example: לפעמים אני מרגיש בודד. Sometimes I feel lonely. Likewise, בדידות is loneliness, as in: אם אתה חווה בדידות, אתה לא לבד. If you experience loneliness, you aren’t alone. The root of these…
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…
סְכוּם נִכְבָּד Suppose you’ve received a nice fat check as a gift. In Hebrew, you could say: קיבלתי סכום ממש נכבד. I received a really nice amount. סכום means amount or sum. It’s related to סך הכול – the total, as well as לסכם – to summarize. נכבד means respectable, and is related to כבוד…