how to say “to spill” in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/לשפוך-#.m4a” /]לִשְׁפּוֹךְ, לְהִישָּׁפֵךְ

The word לשפוך[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/לשפוך-#.m4a” /], a פעל verb, is to spill something, as in:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/לשפוך-#.m4a” /]אוי, שפכתי את החלב על הרצפה!

Oh no, I spilled the milk on the floor!

But that’s when we actively spill something. The thing that gets spilled is נשפך[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/לשפוך-#.m4a” /] (if it’s grammatically masculine), as in:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/לשפוך-#.m4a” /]אין בוכים על חלב שנשפך.

(We) don’t cry over spilled milk.

נשפך is a form of the נפעל verb להישפך[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/לשפוך-#.m4a” /] – to spill in the sense of being spilled.

The verb forms פעל[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/לשפוך-#.m4a” /] and נפעל[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/לשפוך-#.m4a” /] tend to go together as active and passive, respectively.