how to say “to cause” in Hebrew
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לִגְרוֹם
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Corrections on yesterday’s entry:
The Hebrew sentence and its English translation did not match:
דֶּרֶךְ נִצְּחוֹנוֹ בְּמִשְׂחֲקֵי לוֹנְדּוֹן, נֹעָם גֶּרְשׁוֹנִי מְלַמֵּד מַה זֶּה נִצָּחוֹן אֲמִתִּי.
Through his victory in the London games, Noam Gershony taught the world what true victory is.
The English has been corrected to:
Through his victory in the London games, Noam Gershony teaches what true victory is.
Likewise, the word מְנַצֵּחַ (meh-nah-TSEH-ahkh) introduced yesterday means conductor in Modern Hebrew, and may have meant the same in Biblical Hebrew (as several readers pointed out), as a conductor raises the level of sound to a powerful force.
Now, for today’s entry:
The Hebrew word for to cause is לִגְרוֹם (leeg-ROHM), an active-simple פָּעַל verb of the root ג.ר.מ (g.r.m). In Biblical Hebrew, ג.ר.מ means bone, borrowed from Aramaic, and the root did not appear in Hebrew with the meaning of to cause until the Mishnaic period.
Two types of causing
1.
There’s to cause something directly, for example:
הַכֶּלֶב לֹא גָּרַם נֶזֶק לַמָּקוֹם.
The dog did not cause damage to the place.
And its passive opposite, using the נִפְעַל verb form:
לֹא נִגְרָם נֶזֶק לַמָּקוֹם עַל יְדֵי הַכֶּלֶב.No damage was caused to the place by the dog.
2.
Then, there’s to cause something to happen, for example:
הוּא גּוֹרֵם לָהּ לְחַיֵּךְ כְּשֶׁהוּא מֵבִיא לָהּ פְּרָחִים.
He causes her to smile when he brings her flowers.
Note that in this case there’s a to – ל – prefix in the word after to cause – לגרום.
Listen to this great song by Ehud Banai, trying to spot the variation of לגרום.
Make this dose of Hebrew yours by using it in a sentence. You can write your sentence on the wall of our Facebook page, and we’ll correct it for you if it’s got errors.
שַׁבָּת שָׁלוֹם וְסוֹף שָׁבוּעַ נָעִים לְכֻלָּם!
Shabbat Shalom, and a pleasant weekend to all!
(shah-BAHT shah-LOHM, veh-SOHF shah-VOO-ah nah-EEM leh-khoo-LAHM)
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