how to say “to get angry” in Hebrew

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

In English, most emotion words are adjectives: sad, happy, angry, afraid, excited, etc.

In Hebrew, most of these words either are verbs or could be verbs, so that we have:

לשמוח[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לכעוס-2.m4a” /] – to rejoice or to be happy (להיות שמח[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לכעוס-3.m4a” /] – literally, to be happy – is more common)

לפחד[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לכעוס-4.m4a” /] – to fear or to be afraid

and the active-simple verb for to be angry is לכעוס[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לכעוס-1.m4a” /].

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לכעוס-5.m4a” /]כעסתי על בעל הבית, ואז התחרטתי.

I got angry with (on) the landlord, and then I regretted (it).

Note that in Hebrew we talk about being angry on someone.

Anger itself is כעס[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לכעוס-6.m4a” /]. But if it’s more than anger, you might use the word לזעום[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לכעוס-7.m4a” /] – to rage, whose noun form is זעם[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לכעוס-8.m4a” /].