how to say “successful” in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מוצלח-1.m4a” /]מֻצְלָח

If you’ve got basic Hebrew down, you’re likely familiar with the active-causative verb for to succeed – להצליח[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מוצלח-2.m4a” /]. It appears in Hebrew literature for the first time in the Torah portion to be read this week, where no matter how much he’s thrown into pits and tossed around as a slave, Joseph ends up on top – מצליח[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מוצלח-3.m4a” /] – succeeding.

The root of להצליח is צ.ל.ח[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מוצלח-4.m4a” /], which is, ironically and consistent with Biblical Hebrew’s way of having one root (or two very similar ones) mean two opposite things, quite close to the root meaning to plummet – צ.נ.ח[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מוצלח-5.m4a” /].

To say that someone is successful or accomplished, the word is מוצלח[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מוצלח-1.m4a” /] for a male or a masculine noun, and מוצלחת[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מוצלח-6.m4a” /] for a female or a feminine noun.

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מוצלח-7.m4a” /]היא אדם מוצלח.

She is a successful person.

Note that אדם[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מוצלח-8.m4a” /] is a masculine noun, so the person in the sentence is referred to as מוצלח even though she’s female.

Thus another version of this sentence might be:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מוצלח-9.m4a” /]היא אישה מוצלחת.

She is a successful woman.

מוצלח speaks about a person’s past accomplishments, but Israelis also use the word to refer to potential, future success, for example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מוצלח-10.m4a” /]זה לא רעיון מוצלח.

That’s not a good (successful) idea.

מוצלח is a variety of the passive-causative verb structure.