This post will help you understand directions given to you, as well as provide them yourself when asked in Israel. It’s material we empower our students with in our Level 1 class.

We saw last week that the Hebrew terms for right and left are יָמִין and שְׂמֹאל, respectively.

That’s right and left by themselves. But when giving and receiving directions – where in English we talk about to the right and to the left, Hebrew adds the ah vowel to the end of the word, so that we have:

יְמִינָה – to the right

and

שְׂמֹאלָה – to the left

For example:

You have to (literally, one must) turn right at the traffic light, and then left at the roundabout.

This ah ending, used in Biblical Hebrew, gives a noun a directional sense. Some other examples in contemporary use are:

צָפוֹנָה – to the north/northward 
דָּרוֹמָה – to the south/southward
מִזְרָחָה – to the east/eastward
מַעֲרָבָה – to the west/westward

And of course, one of the political parties in this week’s election:

קָדִימָה – forward

Another great way to build your Hebrew vocabulary:

with a special discount for YDDH enthusiasts like yourself