how to say “to talk business” in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לדבר-לעניין-1.m4a” /]לְדַבֵּר לָעִנְיָן

When I was looking for an adequate translation for לדבר לעניין[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לדבר-לעניין-1.m4a” /] to English, Google Translate gave me to talk turkey – an expression I must have missed, having grown up in the 80s and 90s. In any case, to talk turkey means to talk business – to talk in a way that gets to the point.

לדבר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לדבר-לעניין-2.m4a” /] means to speak. It’s a classic active-intensive verb.

And לעניין[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לדבר-לעניין-3.m4a” /] means to the matter or, colloquially, to the point. I identify with that word so much that I named my Hebrew-language program after it – אולפן לעניין[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לדבר-לעניין-4.m4a” /] – Ulpan La-Inyan.

The phrase in context:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לדבר-לעניין-5.m4a” /]סוף סוף איש מכירות שמדבר לעניין!

Finally a salesman who talks business!

Other usages of לעניין, other than Ulpan La-Inyan, include:

ישר ולעניין[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לדבר-לעניין-6.m4a” /] – straight (and) to the point

and

זה לא לעניין[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לדבר-לעניין-7.m4a” /] – this is not what we’re looking for (literally, this is not to the point)

עניין[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לדבר-לעניין-8.m4a” /] means matter or issue and forms the root of the word for interesting – מעניין[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לדבר-לעניין-9.m4a” /].