how to say “two weeks ago” in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/לפני-שבועיים-#.m4a” /]לִפְנֵי שְׁבוּעַיִם

Words like on, in, of and from – prepositions – can be quite a pain to translate, especially between languages as different as English and Hebrew. 

Take, for example, the word on. In Hebrew, this could be על[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/לפני-שבועיים-#.m4a” /] – physically on something, but it could also be -ב[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/לפני-שבועיים-#.m4a” /] – such as on Herzl Street – ברחוב הרצל[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/לפני-שבועיים-#.m4a” /].

Another example is the English word ago. In Hebrew, it’s לפני[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/לפני-שבועיים-#.m4a” /], which also means before.

Here’s לפני as ago, in context:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/לפני-שבועיים-#.m4a” /]חזרנו מהטיול לפני שבועיים.

We came back from the trip two weeks ago.

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Notice that שבועיים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/לפני-שבועיים-#.m4a” /] means two weeks. This יים-[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/לפני-שבועיים-#.m4a” /] ending doubles the word it’s attached to, in this case שבוע[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/לפני-שבועיים-#.m4a” /] – week.

More than two weeks is שבועות[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/לפני-שבועיים-#.m4a” /], as in שלושה שבועות[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/לפני-שבועיים-#.m4a” /] – three weeks.