two ways to say “last year” in Hebrew

ByAmi Steinberger

בַּשָּׁנָה שֶׁעָבְרָה, אֶשְׁתָּקַד[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/אשתקד-1.mp3″ /]

In spoken Hebrew, the way to say last year is בַּשָּׁנָה שֶׁעָבְרָה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/אשתקד-2.mp3″ /] – literally, in the year that has passed.

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/אשתקד-3.mp3″ /]בַּשָּׁנָה שֶׁעָבְרָה הָיִינוּ בְּצָרְפַת.

Last year we were in France.

A more literary way of saying this is אֶשְׁתָּקַד[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/אשתקד-4.mp3″ /]. Here’s an example taken from the Haaretz online newspaper:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/אשתקד-5.mp3″ /]הַשֶּׁלֶג דְּאֶשְׁתָּקַד סִפֵּק לְתוֹשְׁבֵי צְפַת תֵּרוּץ לְהִשָּׁאֵר בַּמִּטָּה.

The snow of last year gave residents of Safed an excuse to stay in bed.

Use the word only in writing or when speaking in front of an audience of PhDs.

אשתקד comes from Aramaic and is a compound of the words שַׁתָּא[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/אשתקד-6.mp3″ /] – the year (in Hebrew, הַשָּׁנָה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/אשתקד-7.mp3″ /]) and קַדְמָאָה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/אשתקד-8.mp3″ /] – the previous (in Hebrew, הַקּוֹדֶמֶת[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/אשתקד-9.mp3″ /]).

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