Your Daily Dose of Hebrew

Today's Video Below ⬇️ מִלְּכַתְּחִילָּה If you’ve had some experience with Hebrew, you probably know the word התחלה - beginning, as in: ספר לי שוב, מההתחלה. Tell me again, from the beginning. התחלה comes from the הפעיל verb להתחיל - to start, whose root is ת.ח.ל. This root gives us a more sophisticated word, מלכתחילה [...]

Today's Video Below ⬇️ קָרַחַת Hair loss in Hebrew is נשירת שיער, or simply נשירה (literally, falling out). For example: היום יש דרכים שונות להתמודד עם נשירה. Today there are different ways to deal with hair loss. Another word for hair loss is התקרחות, which is related to קרח - bald, and קרחת - baldness, [...]

Today's Video Below ⬇️   יוֹשְׁרָה Let me be honest with you. The Hebrew word כן - yes - also means honest, as in: אם אהיה איתכם כן…  If I’ll be honest with you guys… (Most people say כנֶה instead of כן - I explain why in today’s video.) Another word for honest is ישר - literally, straight.  Likewise, honesty is either כנות [...]

Today's Video Below ⬇️ אֵתִיקָה, מוּסָר אתיקה - basically ethics in Hebrew letters (well, ethica) - refers to a specific branch of ethics. Another word captures ethics in the broader sense, which includes morals as well: מוסר. מוסר appears dozens of times in the biblical Book of Proverbs, in such well-known verses as: שְׁמַע בְּנִי מוּסַר אָבִיךָ וְאַל תִּטֹּשׁ [...]

Today's Video Below ⬇️ לְדַגְדֵּג Are you ticklish? Hebrew doesn't have a word for it exactly - rather, when playing with kids (or adults) we skip the question altogether and just use the verb לדגדג - to tickle. For example: לילי, אני אדגדג אותך... Lily, I'm gonna (I will) tickle you... You may be looking [...]

Today’s Video Below ⬇️

Today's Video Below ⬇️ אַרְצִי One of my favorite Israeli musicians is Shlomo Artzi - שלמה ארצי, whose last name was changed to a Hebrew one from Herzig when the artist's family emerged from the flames of the Holocaust and settled in what is today called Israel. ארצי is composed of the word ארץ - [...]

Today's Video Below ⬇️ סוֹף הַדֶּרֶךְ Truth is, there's more than one way of saying "da best" (which Israelis tend to pronounce as "de best") in Hebrew: there's הכי טוב and הטוב ביותר, both literal translations of the best. There's the slightly exaggerated slang אין דברים כאלה - there's nothing like this. And there's another slang [...]