Your Daily Dose of Hebrew

  גָּאוֹן, גְּאוֹנִי  listen and repeat Can’t read Hebrew yet?     If you like Israeli music, you’ve likely come across at least a couple of songs by Yehoram Gaon, such as this one.   The name Gaon – גָּאוֹן  listen and repeat – means excellence or majesty in Biblical Hebrew, but in Modern Hebrew it means genius. …

  נְטִיָּה  listen and repeat Can’t read Hebrew yet?     The Hebrew verb לִנְטוֹת  listen and repeat, of the root נ.ט.ה (n.t.h), means to tend or to be inclined.    For example:   אֲנִי נוֹטֶה לְהַצְבִּיעַ לְמִפְלָגוֹת קְטַנּוֹת. I (a male) tend to vote for a small parties.  listen    Likewise, נְטִיָּה means tendency, as…

  אוֹטוֹ, מְכוֹנִית, רֶכֶב  listen and repeat Can’t read Hebrew yet?     1.    In contemporary English we say car, but way back when, people used to call their cars automobiles.   One of Hebrew’s three words for car is an abbreviation of that word: אוֹטוֹ  listen and repeat.   Take the opening line from this children’s song…

  מָבוֹךְ  listen and repeat Can’t read Hebrew yet?     The Hebrew root ב.ו.כ (b.w.k) means confusion, so that someone who is נָבוֹךְ  listen and repeat (or נְבוֹכָה  listen and repeat if she is a female) is confused or perplexed. נבוך and נבוכה also describe someone embarrassed.    This root also gives rise to the word for maze…

  לִמְשׁוֹךְ כֶּסֶף  listen and repeat Can’t read Hebrew yet?     The verb to draw in English might refer to drawing a picture on canvas, water from a well or money from a machine.   Hebrew has different words for each of these.   To draw a picture is לְצַיֵּר צִיּוּר  listen and repeat.  …

  יִצּוּגִי  listen and repeat Can’t read Hebrew yet?     The word לְיַצֵּג  listen and repeat means to represent or to act on behalf of someone, and מְיַצֵּג  listen and repeat is one of the words for representative.    For example:   רוֹאַת הַחֶשְׁבּוֹן שֶׁלִּי הִיא הַמְּיַצֶּגֶת שֵׁלִּי בִּרְשׁוּת הַמִּסִּים. My (female) accountant is my representative at the…

  לְעַכֵּל  listen and repeat Can’t read Hebrew yet?     The basic Hebrew word for to eat is לֶאֱכוֹל  listen and repeat, of the root א.כ.ל (a.k.l).   A word of similar meaning is to digest – לְעַכֵּל  listen and repeat, an active-intensive verb of the similar root ע.כ.ל (a.k.l). In Hebrew, it is used both…

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/media-files/wife-1.mp3″ /]אִשָּׁה, רַעְיָה   The everyday word for wife in Hebrew is אִשָּׁה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/media-files/wife-2.mp3″ /] – literally, woman.   For example:   [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/media-files/wife-3.mp3″ /]אִשְׁתּוֹ עוֹבֶדֶת בְּהַיי-טֶק. His wife works in high-tech.   Indeed, Hebrew jokes about marriage use this word.    Then there’s the more complimentary, dignified word – רַעְיָה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/media-files/wife-4.mp3″ /]. Like אישה, it also…