how to say “child’s play” in Hebrew

מִשְֹחַק יְלָדִים

As the 2017 version of the movie It (in Hebrew, זה

) has generated clown terror around the world with Israel being no exception, I’ll take this opportunity to remind at least some of you of another movie from about 30 years ago: Child’s Play, rendered in Hebrew as משחק ילדים.

This expression existed even before the movie did.

Here’s an example:

חזאות זה לא משחק ילדים.

Meteorology (forecasting) is not child’s play.

The word משחק

also means game, and comes from the root ש.ח.ק meaning play. This root is closely related to צ.ח.ק meaning laugh, and in Biblical Hebrew the two roots are synonymous.

משחק ילדים also means a children’s game.