how do you say “science” in Hebrew?
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מדע-1.m4a” /]מַדָּע
If you’ve got basic Hebrew, you know the expressions אני יודע[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מדע-2.m4a” /] and אני יודעת[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מדע-3.m4a” /] – I know, spoken by a male and a female, respectively.
The root of these words is י.ד.ע[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מדע-4.m4a” /], which appears in other words such as להודיע[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מדע-5.m4a” /] – to inform, מודיעין[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מדע-6.m4a” /] – information and מדע[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מדע-1.m4a” /] – science.
For example:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מדע-7.m4a” /]היא הולכת ללמוד מדעי הטבע.
She’s going to study life sciences.
You may have noticed that the י[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מדע-8.m4a” /] of the root י.ד.ע doesn’t appear in any of the examples above – להודיע, מודיעין and מדע. The letter י, indicating a sound that is sometimes like y in yellow (a consonant) and other times like y in very (a vowel), tends to disappear in some words and morph into an oh sound in others.
Try saying מידע[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מדע-9.m4a” /] three times quickly: the י sound tends to disappear from the spoken word, so we leave it off in the visual representation, the spelling, as well.
