To cry, in Hebrew, is the simple verb לבכות

. Likewise, crying or weeping is בכי

, a word that features beautifully in this Idan Raichel classic.

But what about to whine? That’s להתבכיין

, as in:

הוא לא באמת עצוב, הוא רק מתבכיין.

He isn’t really sad, he’s just whining.

להתבכיין

is a התפעל verb of the root ב.כ.י

. The התפעל

verb form has a reflexive quality – when someone whines it’s as if they’re crying over and over to themselves.