how to say “to put” in Hebrew
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/לשים-2-#.m4a” /]לָשִׂים
This is one of those basic words that I’ll use to show you an interesting Hebrew tidbit.
לשים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/לשים-2-#.m4a” /] means to put or to place, as in:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/לשים-2-#.m4a” /]דוד, שמתי לך תנור חימום בחדר כדי שלא יהיה לך קר.
David, I put a space heater in your room so you won’t be cold.
לשים is a simple verb of the hollow variety. That means that its middle root letter is either ו[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/לשים-2-#.m4a” /] or י[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/לשים-2-#.m4a” /] – or both, as in לשים, which shows up in Biblical Hebrew at times as לשום[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/לשים-2-#.m4a” /]. The verb structure is called hollow because that ו or י, historically a w or y sound, tends to drop off in the past and present tenses, such as in the example above.
