לִשְׂמוֹחַ Today was Purim in Jerusalem, so I’m just getting around to the word of the day now. You’ve all got the benefit of reading the product of my imagination as I’m sobering up – almost there, but not quite. In English, emotional reactions are typically adjectives – such as angry and…
מְבַדֵּחַ There are a few words for entertaining in Hebrew. There’s מְבַדֵּר (meh-vah-DEHR), coming from the more common word, בִּדּוּר (bee-DOOR). There’s מַצְחִיק (mahts-KHEEK), meaning funny. There’s מְשַׁעְשֵׁע (meh-shah-ah-SHEH-ah), meaning amusing (I did an entry on משעשע this past January). Here’s a word that doesn’t get used as often as the others… except for Purim. On Israeli radio…
לְהַגְדִּיל Eliyahu, one the students in my Level 5 class at AACI Jerusalem was trying to say to enlarge something, but used the word for to raise instead. It’s an excellent error for a budding Hebrew speaker, as it presents the opportunity to distinguish between not only two different words, but two different word types….
לְהִתְחַפֵּשׂ Purim‘s coming up on Sunday in most of Israel and the world and on Monday in Jerusalem. Among other traditions kept, Jews throughout the world will be dressing up in costumes. A costume or disguise is a תַּחְפֹּשֶׂת (tahkh-POH-set). To dress up in a costume is לְהִתְחַפֵּש (leh-heet-khah-PES). For example, כָּל הַיְּלָדִים הִתְחַפְּשׂוּ לַמּוֹרִים שֶׁלָּהֵם…
הִזְדַּהוּת רִגְשִׁית This entry is for our students, Toshy and Lucas. As yours likely does as well, my heart goes out to the people of Japan. הזדהות Identity in Hebrew is זֵהוּת (zeh-HOOT). The root is ז.ה.ה (z.h.h), the concept of identity or identical. To identify with someone or something is לְהִזְדַּהוֹת (leh-heez-dah-HOHT). This is the…
קִדֹּמֶת הַקִּדֹּמֶת בְּאֵזוֹר יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, יְהוּדָה וְשֹמְרוֹן הוּא אֶפֶס שְׁתַּיִם (hah-kee-DOH-met beh-eh-ZOHR yeh-roo-shah-LAH-yeem, yeh-hoo-DAH veh-shohm-ROHN hoo EH-fes SHTAH-yeem) – the area code in the Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria region is 02. הקידומת באיזור הַמֶּרְכַּז הוא אפס שָׁלוֹש (hah-kee-DOH-met beh-eh-ZOHR hah-mehr-KAHZ hoo EH-fes shah-LOHSH) – the area code in the center region (of Israel) is 03. הקידומת באיזור…
בִּלְתִּי נִסְלַח The butchering of an innocent family is an unforgivable act – מַעֲשֶׂה בִּלְתִּי נִסְלַח (mah-ah-SEH beel-TEE nees-LAHKH). נסלח falls into the נפעל (neef-AHL) verb pattern, though the word itself functions as an adjective. The root is ס.ל.ח (s.l.kh) – forgiveness. May the week bring a turn of events for the better.
עֹמֶק Last night I stayed up late with my roommates translating the Irish band U2’s hit from the 90’s, “One.” Here’s what we came up with. The lyrics to the song display depth – עומק (OH-mek) – יֵשׁ לָשִּׁיר הַזֶּה עֹמֶק (yesh lah-SHEER hah-ZEH OH-mek) – this song has depth. We plan to perform our…
רֶשֶׁת חֶבְרָתִית This one’s for EL – thanks for introducing me to The Social Network! The aforementioned is the Oscar-winning film you’ve more than likely heard of, about Mark Zuckerberg and his monumental contribution to the world, Facebook. My roommates and I found the movie exciting, even inspiring – we…
בִּלְתִּי הָפִיךְ How you can help a family of orphans THANK YOU to those who have already helped! The word בִּלְתִּי (beel-TEE) comes before another word to do what the prefixes “un-” and “in-” do in English. Some examples of such phrases that have already appeared on Ktzat Ivrit are בִּלְתִּי חֻקִּי (beel-TEE…
אַדְרַבָּה One way of saying on the contrary in Hebrew is לְהֶפֶך (leh-HEH-fekh) – literally, to the opposite. A word that will make you sound really smart is אַדְרַבָּה (AHD-rah-bah). It comes from Babylonian Aramaic and is used mostly in academic circles… and in the בֵּית מִדְרָש (beit meed-RAHSH) – religious house of study, where it…