how to say “out of nowhere” in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/משום-מקום-#.m4a” /]מִשּׁוּם מָקוֹם

If you’ve got some basic Hebrew under your belt, you may know how to say nothing – כלום[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/משום-מקום-#.m4a” /] or שום דבר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/משום-מקום-#.m4a” /].

Out of nowhere is משום מקום[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/משום-מקום-#.m4a” /] – literally, from no place.

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/משום-מקום-#.m4a” /]הוא הופיע משום מקום והתחיל להיות חלק מהמשפחה.

He appeared out of nowhere and starting being part of the family.

People tend to think of כלום and שום דבר as negative in themselves, but the truth is that they actually mean something, so they require a לא[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/משום-מקום-#.m4a” /] nearby to make them negative.

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/משום-מקום-#.m4a” /]לא הבנתי כלום.

I didn’t understand anything.

But since משום מקום is an expression that stands on its own, it doesn’t require the negating לא.