Blog – Your Daily Dose of Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/נמאס-לי-#.m4a” /]נִמְאַס לִי To say I’m sick and tired in English, we need five syllables. Hebrew’s equivalent נמאס לי[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/נמאס-לי-#.m4a” /] – literally, it’s become repulsive to me – is only three syllables. Well, to be fair, there’s also I’m fed up, also three syllables. Anyway, here’s the Hebrew expression in context: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/נמאס-לי-#.m4a” /]נמאס לי מכל הדיבורים האלה….

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/דיבורים-#.m4a” /]יֵשׁ דִּבּוּרִים If you’ve taken our Level 1 course, you know the Hebrew word for to speak – לדבר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/דיבורים-#.m4a” /], a פיעל verb. Taking the verb and plugging into noun form, we get דיבור[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/דיבורים-#.m4a” /] – speech in the general sense, as in: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/דיבורים-#.m4a” /]בעברית, לא מדברים על חופש הדיבור אלא על חופש…

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/משטר-#.m4a” /]מִשְׁטָר The Hebrew word for regime – משטר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/משטר-#.m4a” /] – is related to the word משטרה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/משטר-#.m4a” /], police. When we think of a regime, we tend not to think of fair democracies, but rather of something closer to tyranny, or tyranny itself. For example: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/משטר-#.m4a” /]המשטר הסובייטי הותיר אחריו מיליוני הרוגים חפים מפשע….

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/חף-מפשע-#.m4a” /]תָּמִים, חַף מִפֶּשַׁע The Hebrew word תמים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/חף-מפשע-#.m4a” /], in Biblical Hebrew, means complete, finished. It later came to be used as innocent, though often with a connotation of naivete. Take the words of the woman to her man with big plans, in this song: [audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/חף-מפשע-#.m4a” /]אל תהיה כל כך תמים. Don’t be so naive. Then there’s innocent…