TODAY’S OUR BIRTHDAY – and here’s how to say “thank you” in Hebrew
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Learn to Speak Hebrew
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having trouble seeing the print? חַג הַסֻּכּוֹת Dear Ktzat Ivrit enthusiast, I am minimizing the amount of work I’m doing during the Sukkot festival – חג הסוכות, so there will be no new posts until next Tuesday. In the meantime, enjoy this heartwarming film about the people of Haredi Jerusalem and חג הסוכות, and learn…
having trouble seeing the print? לְחַיֵּג Check out our spring and summer courses in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Raanana, Efrat, Ramat Beit Shemesh and Tzfat As language develops, words sometimes depart from their original meaning to take on a similar but new meaning. Take, for example, the English verb to dial meant something else to do with the word day in its original…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/כדור-1.m4a” /]כַּדּוּר In Hebrew, the word for pill, ball and bullet are all the same: כדור[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/כדור-1.m4a” /]. Here’s an example of the first on the list: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/כדור-2.m4a” /]היא התחילה לקחת כדורי שינה. She started taking sleeping pills. While we’re at it, here are examples of the other usages of כדור: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/כדור-3.m4a” /]הם משחקים…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/פרצוף-#.m4a” /]פָּנִים, פַּרְצוּף You may know the Yiddish expression א שיינע פנים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/פרצוף-#.m4a” /] – a pretty face, with פנים pronounced POH-nim. Modern Hebrew renders the word pah-NEEM, and this is likely closer to how the Israelites of the Bible pronounced the word. It means face and can be masculine or feminine but always plural as in: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/פרצוף-#.m4a”…
הַקְּהִלִּיָּה הַבֵּינְלְאֻמִּית Can’t read Hebrew yet? The common Modern Hebrew word for community is קְהִלָּה . This word appears in Biblical Hebrew, but there the more common word is קָהָל or עֵדָה . Now קהילה refers to a community of people, linked by common interests or geography. But to describe…
מָלוּחַ My סַבְתָּא (SAHV-tah) grandmother is a great cook. She learned how to prepare delicious dishes from her mother back in Hungary before the war. סבתא has Hungarian taste in food. So from time to time she asks me, אֲתָּה אוֹהֵב דָּג מָלוּחַ (ah-TAH oh-HEV dahg mah-LOO-ahkh) – Do you like salty fish?…