how to say “heartbreaker” in Hebrew
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שׁוֹבֵר לְבָבוֹת, שׁוֹבֶרֶת לְבָבוֹת
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| highly recommended for further vocabulary growth |
There are heartbreakers, and there’s everybody else. Sometimes there’s crossover.
The Hebrew term for heartbreaker when referring to a male is שׁוֹבֵר לְבָבוֹת (listen and repeat). Referring to a female, it’s שׁוֹבֶרֶת לְבָבוֹת (listen and repeat).
שובר (listen and repeat) and שוברת (listen and repeat) come from the active-simple פָּעַל verb, לִשְׁבּוֹר (listen and repeat) – to break.
לבבות (listen and repeat) is the plural of the word for heart – לֵב (listen and repeat).
You may have noticed that לבבות has one ב (b) more than the word לב. That’s because the root of לב is actually ל.ב.ב (l.b.b), but the second ב usually falls off when not followed by another letter.
The ב nevertheless appears in certain expressions such as רַךְ לֵבָב (listen and repeat) – soft-hearted and בַּר לֵבָב (listen and repeat) – upright (literally, one of heart). And when לב has a possessive suffix, the ב is accentuated, “compensating” for the missing extra ב, in words such as לִבִּי (listen and repeat) – my heart, לִבּוֹ (listen and repeat) – his heart, etc.
Heartbreak is שִׁבְרוֹן לֵב (listen and repeat). And to break the (someone’s) heart is לִשְׁבּוֹר אֶת הַלֵּב (listen and repeat).
For example:
לְמִי שָׁבַרְתְּ אֶת הַלֵּב?
Whose heart have you (a female) broken?
or
לְמִי שָׁבַרְתָּ אֶת הַלֵּב?
Whose heart did you (a male) break?
