how to say “fighter” in Hebrew

ByAmi Steinberger May 8, 2019August 9, 2022

לוֹחֵם

Hebrew’s word for warrior or fighter is לוחם
when referring to a male and לוחמת
when referring to a female. Israelis use the term to distinguish combat soldiers from non-combat soldiers, whom they call (not always with admiration) jobniks:

הוא היה בצבא לוחם או ג’ובניק?

In the army, was he a fighter or a jobnik?

You might also hear the term לוחם קרבי
– combat fighter or simply קרבי
.

You may have noticed that the root of לוחם is the same as the word for bread – לחם
. That’s because war – מלחמה
– was seen in biblical times as an act of eating one’s enemy. לחם, in Biblical Hebrew, means food in the general sense.

Today is יום הזיכרון
– Memorial Day for Israel’s fallen. Here’s a song that has won over the hearts of the IDF soldiers: כאב של לוחמים
– The Pain of Fighters, by Idan Amedi.

how to say “humanity” in Hebrew

ByAmi Steinberger April 7, 2013December 11, 2018

having trouble seeing the print? אֱנוֹשׁוּת Hebrew Class Starts Today In Jerusalem and Tel Aviv Tonight and tomorrow being יוֹם הַשּׁוֹאָה – Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Day – the Hebrew word for humanity comes to my mind: אֱנוֹשׁוּת . אנושות derives from the name of Biblical Adam’s grandson, אֱנוֹשׁ , a word also sometimes used to refer to humanity. אנושות is also related…

how to say “decoration” in Hebrew

ByAmi Steinberger October 7, 2014October 24, 2018

קִשּׁוּט Can’t read Hebrew yet? The Hebrew word for to decorate first appears in the Mishnah, where it refers to people adorning themselves, using the reflexive verb לְהִתְקַשֵּׁט . Since then, the word has taken on the meaning of decorating objects as well, employing the active-intensive verb, לְקַשֵּׁט . The word…

how to say “giant” in Hebrew

ByAmi Steinberger July 19, 2018October 17, 2018

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ענק-#.m4a” /]עֲנָק The word ענק[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ענק-#.m4a” /] refers to a giant person: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ענק-#.m4a” /]האם באמת מצאו שלד של ענק? Did they really find a skeleton of a giant? Israelis also use it as an expression of enthusiasm and great approval: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ענק-#.m4a” /]הוא סיים קורס טייס? ענק! He finished the pilots’ course? Amazing! (Giant!)…

how to say “a leak” in Hebrew

ByAmi Steinberger January 24, 2011November 5, 2018

Over the past few months Wikileaks has been hovering ominously over the heads of various heads of state. Here’s how to say a leak in Hebrew: דְּלִיפָה (de-lee-FAH). It’s the noun form (gerund) of לִדְלוֹף (leed-LOHF) – to leak. This is a simple (פעל – קל) verb. דליפה can mean either a…

how to say “there’s something to that” in Hebrew

ByAmi Steinberger October 14, 2015October 23, 2018

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/יש-בזה-משהו-1.m4a” /]יֵשׁ בְּזֶה מַשֶּׁהוּ Your friend goes on and on about their new business idea. You fade in an out of concentration, until you hear a nugget of wisdom, at which point you might say, there’s something to that. The equivalent Hebrew expression is יש בזה משהו[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/יש-בזה-משהו-1.m4a” /]. For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/יש-בזה-משהו-2.m4a” /]מה שאת…

how to say “a difference” in Hebrew

ByAmi Steinberger September 5, 2018October 17, 2018

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/הבדל-#.m4a” /]הֶבְדֵל We’ve seen that לשנות[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/הבדל-#.m4a” /] means to change something. Thus a change is שינוי[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/הבדל-#.m4a” /]. But what about a difference? That’s הבדל[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/הבדל-#.m4a” /]. For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/הבדל-#.m4a” /]מה ההבדל בין קברנה למרלו? מה זה משנה? What’s the difference between Cabarnet and Merlot? What does it matter? הבדל is related to the הפעיל…

לוֹחֵם

Hebrew’s word for warrior or fighter is לוחם when referring to a male and לוחמת when referring to a female. Israelis use the term to distinguish combat soldiers from non-combat soldiers, whom they call (not always with admiration) jobniks:

הוא היה בצבא לוחם או ג’ובניק?

In the army, was he a fighter or a jobnik?

You might also hear the term לוחם קרבי – combat fighter or simply קרבי.

You may have noticed that the root of לוחם is the same as the word for bread – לחם. That’s because war – מלחמה – was seen in biblical times as an act of eating one’s enemy. לחם, in Biblical Hebrew, means food in the general sense.

Today is יום הזיכרון – Memorial Day for Israel’s fallen. Here’s a song that has won over the hearts of the IDF soldiers: כאב של לוחמים – The Pain of Fighters, by Idan Amedi.

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Hebrew’s word for warrior or fighter is לוחם
when referring to a male and לוחמת
when referring to a female. Israelis use the term to distinguish combat soldiers from non-combat soldiers, whom they call (not always with admiration) jobniks:

You might also hear the term לוחם קרבי
– combat fighter or simply קרבי
.

You may have noticed that the root of לוחם is the same as the word for bread – לחם
. That’s because war – מלחמה
– was seen in biblical times as an act of eating one’s enemy. לחם, in Biblical Hebrew, means food in the general sense.

Today is יום הזיכרון
– Memorial Day for Israel’s fallen. Here’s a song that has won over the hearts of the IDF soldiers: כאב של לוחמים
– The Pain of Fighters, by Idan Amedi.