Sometimes when people translate from their native language to one they didn’t grow up on, what they say sounds a bit clumsy. For example, you might hear Israelis say “I did a lot of stuff today.” This is a direct translation of עשיתי הרבה דברים היום, which sounds perfectly fine in Hebrew, since דברים means either “stuff” or “things” (as in the title of Idan Amedi’s song דברים יפים לראות – Beautiful Things to See).
Here’s דברים where “stuff” is appropriate:
יוני, יש לך יותר מדי דברים בארון, כדאי לעבור עליהם.
Yoni, you have too much stuff (things) in your closet, you should (it’s worth it to) go over it.
דברים is the plural of דבר. Today we use it to mean thing, but its original meaning is word, so that in Biblical Hebrew, דברים are words.
