having trouble seeing the print? קְנִיּוֹת Conversational-Hebrew classes in Jerusalem – Tel Aviv RBS – Rehovot – everywhere else Whereas שׁוֹפִּינְג is still the term that refers to that activity that my mother loves so much, shopping for clothes, Israelis call general shopping – like for food and electronics – קְנִיּוֹת . קְנֵה פָּחוֹת, חְיֵה יוֹתֵר buy less, live more (picture taken at a…
לְבוּשׁ הוֹלֵם Can’t read Hebrew yet? Someone pointed out that in my entry last week on different articles of clothing, I neglected to mention the word for clothing itself. The simple word is בֶּגֶד , meaning garment. In the plural it’s בְּגָדִים . For example: הִיא לָבְשָׁה בְּגָדִים יָפִים. She wore nice clothes. …
Correction: In yesterday’s post, I wrote that organized crime is פשע ארגוני[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/פשע-2.m4a” /]. I’m not sure why I wrote that. In any case, the correct term is פשע מאורגן[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/פשע-מאורגן-1.m4a” /]. [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מערכת-משפטית-1.m4a” /]מַעֲרֶכֶת מִשְׁפָּטִית The Hebrew word for system is מערכת[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מערכת-משפטית-2.m4a” /], of the root ע.ר.כ[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מערכת-משפטית-3.m4a” /] meaning order. For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מערכת-משפטית-4.m4a” /]איזו מערכת…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מתבייש-1.m4a” /]מִתְבַּיֵּשׁ The Hebrew word for shame is בושה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מתבייש-2.m4a” /]. For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מתבייש-3.m4a” /]בושה וחרפה. A disgrace. (literally, shame and dishonor) בושה also means embarrassment, with its root ב.ו.ש[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מתבייש-4.m4a” /] (interchangeable with ב.י.ש[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מתבייש-5.m4a” /]) plugging into the reflexive-intensive התפעל verb form, producing להתבייש[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מתבייש-6.m4a” /] – to be embarrassed. For example, a Bar…
having trouble seeing the print? רַעַם, לְהַרְעִים Yesterday we discussed lightning and related words. That’s the visual element in thunderstorm. Today we’ll discuss the sound element – thunder. The word for thunder itself is רַעַם (RAH-ahm). It appears in the Bible, notably in Psalm 104 (verse 7): מִן גַּעֲרָתְךָ יְנוּסוּן, מִן קוֹל רַעַמְךָ יֵחָפֵזוּן – from Your reprimand do they flee,…
having trouble seeing the print? כְּדַאי, כְּדָאִי, מִשְׁתַּלֵּם highly recommended for further vocabulary growth Hebrew has a few ways of saying worthwhile, depending on what you mean. To use worthwhile in a general sense, as one would say in English, it’s worth it, the word is כְּדַאי ( ). It’s not an adjective, but a modal verb, much like אֶפְשָׁר ( ) – it’s possible. For…