how to say “a statement” in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/אמירה-#.m4a” /]אֲמִירָה

How do you say to go in the past tense in English, speaking for yourself? It’s I went. This can be confusing for adults who are just learning English, since they might expect it to be I goed.

Hebrew does this too, sometimes. Take for example to say – in colloquial Hebrew this is להגיד[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/אמירה-#.m4a” /], so that I’ll tell you guys is אני אגיד לכם[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/אמירה-#.m4a” /] (אני אומַר לכם[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/אמירה-#.m4a” /] more formal). But what about I’m telling you guys? It’s אני אומֵר לכם[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/אמירה-#.m4a” /] – a completely different verb, based on the root א.מ.ר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/אמירה-#.m4a” /] and the verb לומר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/אמירה-#.m4a” /] – or its even less-spoken version לאמור[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/אמירה-#.m4a” /].

Now let’s go to the word for statement as in she’s making a statement of importance. The word is אמירה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/אמירה-#.m4a” /], based on the א.מ.ר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/אמירה-#.m4a” /] root of saying.

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/אמירה-#.m4a” /]ראית את הציור הזה, שרה? יש לו אמירה!

Have you seen this painting, Sarah? It makes (has) a statement.

(see full conversation)

We might have thought to use the word הגדה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/אמירה-#.m4a” /] for a statement, based on להגיד[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/אמירה-#.m4a” /] – to say. But when people were crafting Modern Hebrew, הגדה was already being used every Passover for a different purpose.