how to say “pandemic” in Hebrew

ByAmi Steinberger

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/מגפה-#.m4a” /]מַגֵּפָה

The Hebrew word מגפה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/מגפה-#.m4a” /] can mean either epidemic or pandemic, but to reflect that it is global, we say מגפה עולמית[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/מגפה-#.m4a” /] – literally, world pandemic.

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/מגפה-#.m4a” /]מתי כבר תיגמר המגפה העולמית הזאת?

When will this global pandemic end already?

מגפה comes from the root נ.ג.פ[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/מגפה-#.m4a” /], one of the roots meaning plague. The נ[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/מגפה-#.m4a” /] gets swallowed up by the next letter ג[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/מגפה-#.m4a” /], since it’s hard to pronounce מנגפה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/מגפה-#.m4a” /] (for which reason the word does not exist).

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