Hiking is to Israelis as playing soccer (futbol) is to South Americans… or as dipping in ice water is to Russians. It’s just what they do. So there isn’t really a word in Hebrew that communicates the rigors of hiking. Instead, a hike is usually referred to in the broader sense of the…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/החוף-המערבי-#.m4a” /]הַחוֹף הַמַּעֲרָבִי Although I now live in Israel, I grew up on the west coast – החוף המערבי[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/החוף-המערבי-#.m4a” /] – of the United States. חוף[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/החוף-המערבי-#.m4a” /] means coast. It also means beach, but the preferred term for beach in going to the beach is ים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/החוף-המערבי-#.m4a” /] – literally, sea. For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/החוף-המערבי-#.m4a” /]בואו ניסע לים!…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/חיי-היומיום-1.m4a” /]חַיֵּי הַיּוֹמְיוֹם So far this week we’ve focused on two expressions using the word חיים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/חיי-היומיום-2.m4a” /] – life. Day-to-day life, in, Hebrew, is חיי היומיום[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/חיי-היומיום-1.m4a” /] – literally, life of the day-to-day. חיי[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/חיי-היומיום-3.m4a” /] is the form of חיים when attached to another word in an of relationship (the construct state). For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/חיי-היומיום-4.m4a” /]חיי…
לשבות You’re all familiar with the Hebrew word שָׁבָּת (Shabbat, Shabbos, whatever), or its English equivalent, Sabbath (as in Black Sabbath). The root of the this word is .ש.ב.ת (sh.b.t.), which is also used in the word שְׁבִיתָה (shvee-TAH), or a strike. This word is so common in Israel that I consider it core…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לגמור-1.m4a” /]לִגְמוֹר, לְסַיֵּם Modern Hebrew has two common words for to finish. לגמור[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לגמור-2.m4a” /], the word used in the Bible, is probably the better-known one to people who are familiar with Hebrew but who are not native speakers. לגמור is used in Modern Hebrew primarily to mean to finish something – it is a transitive verb, one…