Your Daily Dose of Hebrew

חֹמֶר לְשִׁנּוּן[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/review-1.mp3″ /] Review Material Can’t read Hebrew yet? You spent time on your Hebrew this week. Use these review materials to make it yours to keep. Flashcards . Scatter . Gravity . Test [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/review-2.mp3″ /]שבת שלום, וסוף שבוע נעים! Shabbat Shalom, and have a nice weekend!

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מעשי-1.m4a” /]מַעֲשִׂי, פְּרַקְטִי We’ve seen the word מעשה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מעשי-2.m4a” /] (related to the Yiddish bubbe meise) meaning act or action. מעשה generates מעשי[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מעשי-3.m4a” /] – practical or doable. For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מעשי-4.m4a” /]זה רעיון טוב בתיאוריה, אבל הוא לא מעשי. It’s a good idea in theory, but it’s not practical. מעשי is a proper Hebrew word of the root…

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מה-זאת-אומרת-1.m4a” /]מַה הַכַּוָּנָה? מַה זּׁאת אוֹמֶרֶת? Text has dominated among the communication media in recent decades. But key elements of communication are lost in text – body language and tone of voice. Thus the question, What do you mean? could sound genuinely curious, or it could sound argumentative or dismissive. Hebrew’s מה הכוונה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מה-זאת-אומרת-2.m4a” /] – literally, what’s the…

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ארצנו-הקטנטונת-1.m4a” /]אַרְצֵנוּ הַקְּטַנְטוֹנֶת The word ארץ[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ארצנו-הקטנטונת-2.m4a” /] means earth as well as country or land. For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ארצנו-הקטנטונת-3.m4a” /]ארץ ישראל יפה. The land of Israel is beautiful. The word for small is קטן[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ארצנו-הקטנטונת-4.m4a” /]; little, said in a loving way, is קטנטן[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ארצנו-הקטנטונת-5.m4a” /] for a masculine object and קטנטונת[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ארצנו-הקטנטונת-6.m4a” /] for a feminine object such as…

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מעשה-גבורה-1.m4a” /]מַעֲשֵׂה גְּבוּרָה If you know a bit of Yiddish, you’ve probably heard the term bubbe meise. Meise, which means fable, comes from the Hebrew word מעשה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מעשה-גבורה-2.m4a” /] which means tale or story… as well as action and act. Perhaps you’ve spotted the root ע.ש.ה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מעשה-גבורה-3.m4a” /] – doing – in the word מעשה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מעשה-גבורה-4.m4a” /]. Thus an act of courage is מעשה גבורה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/מעשה-גבורה-1.m4a”…

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/דוגמה-1.m4a” /]דֻּגְמָה The root ד.ג.מ[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/דוגמה-2.m4a” /] spawns many words in Hebrew, including דוגמן/דוגמנית[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/דוגמה-3.m4a” /] – model (as in Bar Refaeli), דגימה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/דוגמה-4.m4a” /] – sampling and דגם[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/דוגמה-5.m4a” /] – model (think BMW i8). But perhaps the most common word derived from ד.ג.מ is דוגמה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/דוגמה-1.m4a” /] – example. For example (לדוגמה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/דוגמה-6.m4a” /]): [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/דוגמה-7.m4a” /]אני לא…

חֹמֶר לְשִׁנּוּן[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/review-1.mp3″ /] Review Material Can’t read Hebrew yet? You spent time on your Hebrew this week. Use these review materials to make it yours to keep. Flashcards . Scatter . Gravity . Test [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/review-2.mp3″ /]שבת שלום, וסוף שבוע נעים! Shabbat Shalom, and have a nice weekend!

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/בטח-קרוב-1.m4a” /]בֶּטַח Israelis do not like to express doubt. So their word for probably… well, there isn’t a single word for probably. There’s קרוב לוודאי[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/בטח-קרוב-2.m4a” /] – close to certain, as in: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/בטח-קרוב-3.m4a” /]קרוב לוודאי שהלהקה תגיע לארץ בשנה הבאה. The band will probably (almost certainly) come to Israel next year. There’s also ככל הנראה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/בטח-קרוב-4.m4a”…

  [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/תצטרך-1.m4a” /]תִּצְטָרֵךְ… To say, I need in Hebrew, it’s either אני צריך[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/תצטרך-2.m4a” /] if you’re a male or אני צריכה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/תצטרך-3.m4a” /] if you’re a female. Technically, these words are not verbs – so they don’t move smoothly into the past and future tenses. In the past, it’s הייתי צריך[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/תצטרך-4.m4a” /] or…

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/משרד-החוץ-1.m4a” /]מִשְׂרַד הַחוּץ Whereas English tends to be long-winded, Hebrew is concise. English has the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but Hebrew has משרד החוץ[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/משרד-החוץ-1.m4a” /] – literally, the office of the outside (to understand what “the outside” refers to, see yesterday’s dose). For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/משרד-החוץ-2.m4a” /]היא קיבלה עבודה טובה במשרד החוץ. She got a…

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/בחול-1.m4a” /]בְּחוּ”ל They love going to Thailand, South America and Berlin, but for Israelis there really are only two location categories in the world: Israel and everywhere else. Israel is called הארץ[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/בחול-2.m4a” /] – the land (yes, it’s the same name as the newspaper). Everywhere else is called חו”ל[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/בחול-3.m4a” /], an abbreviation of חוץ…