how to say “data” in Hebrew

נְתוּנִים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/נתונים-1.mp3″ /]

I remember from high-school geometry that we had to rely on the givens to solve or a problem or to prove something. With my family’s moving to Israel and then back to the States, I benefited from taking geometry twice, thus learning the terms in both languages.

Givens in Hebrew is a literal translation – נְתוּנִים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/נתונים-1.mp3″ /]. Likewise, one given is a נָתוּן[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/נתונים-2.mp3″ /].

נתונים are also data – so that נתון can also refer to a datum.

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/נתונים-3.mp3″ /]יֵשׁ פֹּה יוֹתֵר מִדַּי נְתוּנִים – אֲנִי לֹא מַצְלִיחַ לְהִשְׁתַּלֵּט עַל הַכֹּל.

There’s too much data here – I’m not able to get my head around (gain control over) it all.

נתון is a passive participle of the root נ.ת.נ (n.t.n) meaning give, just as כָּתוּב[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/נתונים-4.mp3″ /] – written – is a passive participle of the root כ.ת.ב (k.t.b) meaning write.