נוֹשֵׂא Can’t read Hebrew yet? The Hebrew root נ.שׂ.א (n.s.a) means lifting up. Thus a topic or a subject – something raised for discussion – is a נוֹשֵׂא . For example: אֲנִי צָרִיךְ לְדַבֵּר אִתָּךְ עַל נוֹשֵׂא חָשׁוּב. I need to speak with you (a female) about an important topic. …
having trouble seeing the print? לִרְזוֹת Get talking… in Hebrew. Class starts next Sunday, October 30 around the country with Ulpan La-Inyan. Yesterday I wrote about the tendency to gain weight – לְהַשְׁמִין – over the holidays. As Ktzat Ivrit subscriber Debby pointed out to me, professionals and people being more polite are likely to use לַעֲלוֹת…
אנוכיות If you know a bit of Hebrew, you’re familiar with the word אֲנִי (ah-NEE – I). A synonym for אני is אָנֹכִי (ah-noh-KHEE). It’s used in more formal contexts, when someone really want to draw attention to who’s talking (the royal me). Therefore, a Modern-Hebrew invention is the word אֲנוֹכִיוּת (ah-noh-khee-YOOT) – or…
הִתְלַהֲבוּת This one’s for Yehoshua. A while ago I did a piece on the Hebrew word for exciting. The word for excitement is הִתְרַגְּשׁוּת (heet-rahg-SHOOT), employing the root ר.ג.ש (r.g.sh), the Biblical Hebrew concept of emotion. When people get excited, they’re filled with emotion. לְהִתְרַגֵּש (leh-heet-rah-GHESH) is to get excited, but also to…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/צלם-אנוש-#.m4a” /]צֶלֶם אֱנוֹשׁ This expression doesn’t have a direct parallel in English. It’s צלם אנוש[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/צלם-אנוש-#.m4a” /], and it means literally the image of human. It means something like humanness, as in: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/צלם-אנוש-#.m4a” /]הנאצים איבדו כל צלם אנוש. The Nazis lost every (trace) of humanness. Broken down: צלם[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/צלם-אנוש-#.m4a” /] – image אנוש[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/צלם-אנוש-#.m4a” /] – humanity. The…
having trouble seeing the print? גָּמוּר, מַסְטוּל This one’s for Ilana in NYC. While some refrain from excessive celebration on פּוּרִים (poo-REEM), others… just go for it. Once they’ve done so, many of them find themselves passed out on the couch. One might point to him and say, הוּא גָּמוּר לְגַמְרֵי (hoo gah-MOOR leh-GAHM-reh –…