how to say “middle school” in Hebrew
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/חטיבת-הביניים-#.m4a” /]חֲטִיבַת הַבֵּינַיִים
Yesterday we saw that the Hebrew expression for high school is בית ספר תיכון[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/חטיבת-הביניים-#.m4a” /]. There actually is another term – החטיבה העליונה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/חטיבת-הביניים-#.m4a” /] – the upper division.
Likewise, חטיבת הביניים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/חטיבת-הביניים-#.m4a” /] – meaning literally the division of between – is what Israelis use to refer to middle school.
For example:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/חטיבת-הביניים-#.m4a” /]היא סיימה כיתה ו’ וממשיכה לחטיבת הביניים.
She finished 6th grade and is continuing to middle school.
The word חטיבה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/חטיבת-הביניים-#.m4a” /] itself (also a military brigade) comes from the root ח.ט.ב[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/חטיבת-הביניים-#.m4a” /] meaning cutting, to chop: a חטיבה is piece cut out of something larger, so that middle school is cut out of school in general.
