how to say “totally” in Hebrew
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/לגמרי-#.m4a” /]לְגַמְרֵי
If you remember when in the nineties Americans would say things like totally radical, dude!, raise your hand with me.
Hebrew has a few words for totally and completely (one of them is בהחלט[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/לגמרי-#.m4a” /], made famous by Shulem Shtisel), but the one that best matches the slangy tone of totally is לגמרי[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/לגמרי-#.m4a” /].
For example:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/לגמרי-#.m4a” /]אני לגמרי אוהב את השיר הזה.
I totally love this song.
But לגמרי isn’t only slang, as you can see here:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/לגמרי-#.m4a” /]מה שהוא אומר זה לגמרי ברור ושקוף.
What he’s saying is totally clear and transparent.
לגמרי, used in the Mishnah, is a shorthand version of the Aramaic word to its completion – לגמריהּ[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/לגמרי-#.m4a” /]. The root is ג.מ.ר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/לגמרי-#.m4a” /], which in both Aramaic and Hebrew means finishing.
