תְּכוּנָה I think it’s reasonable to assume that nearly everyone on the planet – if not everyone – has admirable as well as less-than-admirable character traits. The word תְּכוּנָה (te-khoo-NAH) can refer to such traits, as well as non-human traits or features. For example, לַגִּרְסָה הַחֲדָשָׁה שֶׁל “חֲלוֹנוֹת” יֵשׁ תְּכוּנוֹת חֲדָשׁוֹת (la-gheer-SAH hah-khah-dah-SHAH shel “khah-loh-NOHT” yesh…
אֲסִיר תּוֹדָה The night after I fell off my bike, I woke up at 4am with pain that prompted me to get in a cab and head to the טֶרֶם (TEH-rem) urgent care center. They gave me a גֶּבֶס – cast (GHEH-ves) – because it wasn’t yet clear whether my scaphoid bone was broken or sprained. That…
having trouble seeing the print? אוֹפְּטִימָלִי, מֵיטָבִי Check out our spring coursesin Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Raanana, Efrat and Ramat Beit Shemesh The word meaning optimal you’re most likely to hear in Spoken Hebrew is אוֹפְּטִימָלִי (ohp-tee-MAH-lee). But the Israeli media is control of much of public opinion as well as public language, and today I saw an article in a major…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/דגנים-מלאים-1.m4a” /]דְּגָנִים מְלֵאִים A while back I did a post on breakfast cereal – דגני בוקר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/דגנים-מלאים-2.m4a” /]. The word בוקר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/דגנים-מלאים-3.m4a” /] means morning, while דגני[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/דגנים-מלאים-4.m4a” /] is the form of דגנים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/דגנים-מלאים-5.m4a” /] – grains – when it’s attached to another word by what might be the word of in English – so that דגני בוקר means…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ראיון-1.m4a” /]רֵאָיוֹן Yesterday, we saw the Hebrew word for idea – רעיון[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ראיון-2.m4a” /]. Here’s a homophone – a word that sounds the same (in this case almost the same), but has a different spelling and, more importantly, a different meaning: ראיון[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ראיון-1.m4a” /] means interview. Can you spot the root? It’s ר.א.ה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ראיון-3.m4a” /] meaning seeing…
הָרָשׁוּיוֹת Back in June, I introduced the word for authority, as in the Palestinian Authority: רָשׁוּת (rah-SHOOT). So today’s entry isn’t entirely new, since you may already have the word רשות well integrated in your Hebrew vocabulary. Rather, today I’d like to introduce you to a specialized usage of this word, one that…