Your Daily Dose of Hebrew

לְהִתְנַצֵּל The Hebrew word for to apologize is the התפעל verb להתנצל. The word first appears in Biblical Hebrew in the context of removing jewelry in an act of shame and submission. This very physical act was down in the presence of someone else, so the word is followed with a form of בפני – in the […]

לְפָנֶיךָ The Hebrew word for before – in the physical sense of being before someone in line as well as on a timeline of before and after – is לפני. For example: לומדים לזחול לפני שלומדים ללכת. (We) learn to crawl before (we) learn to walk. To say before you in Hebrew, we add a kh sound to the end of […]

סְלִיחָה If you’ve taken our Level 1 course or Pimsleur’s, the first Hebrew word you learned was that for excuse me – סליחה. סליחה means literally forgiveness. The simple verb לסלוח means to forgive, so that to forgive and forget is לסלוח ולשכוח. Here’s סליחה in context: אני רוצה לבקש ממך סליחה. I (a male) want to ask forgiveness […]

חֹמֶר לְשִׁנּוּן Review Material You spent time on your Hebrew this week. Use these review materials to make it yours to keep.      To take full advantage of the review material, click on “Choose a study mode” in the bottom right corner of the box above. שבת שלום, וסוף שבוע נעים! Shabbat Shalom, […]

לְהַשִּׂיג The word להשיג means to reach or to catch up with, for example: השוטרים רדפו אחרי הגנב עד שהשיגו אותו בסמטה. The police ran after the thief until they caught up with him in the alley. It also means to attain, to achieve: לא קל להשיג ציונים גבוהים בשיעור שלה. It’s not easy to achieve high grades […]

צִיֻּנִים Americans call them grades, but elsewhere in the English-speaking world they’re called marks. The Hebrew word for these indications that cause joys and woes, can make or break, is ציונים – while one grade or mark is ציון. For example: לא מספיק שיהיו ציונים טובים, חשוב גם אישיות. (It’s) not enough that there are good grades, it’s important […]

חֹמֶר לְשִׁנּוּן Review Material You spent time on your Hebrew this week. Use these review materials to make it yours to keep.      To take full advantage of the review material, click on “Choose a study mode” in the bottom right corner of the box above. שבת שלום, וסוף שבוע נעים! Shabbat Shalom, […]

הֶבְדֵּל שֶׁל שָמַיִם וָאָרֶץ Hebrew borrows some expressions from other languages in order to keep with 2000 years of cultural development that it missed out on while virtually unspoken in the Diaspora. But many expressions go back to Mishnaic and even Biblical times. One such expression is הבדל של שמים וארץ – as different as (a […]

הֶבְדֵל We’ve seen that לשנות means to change something. Thus a change is שינוי. But what about a difference? That’s הבדל. For example: מה ההבדל בין קברנה למרלו? מה זה משנה? What’s the difference between Cabarnet and Merlot? What does it matter? הבדל is related to the הפעיל verb להבדיל – to differentiate, whose noun form is הבדלה, the […]

לֹא מְשַׁנֶּה One of the Hebrew words for different is שונה. Taking its root ש.נ.ה and plugging it into the פיעל verb form, we get לשנות – to change something. For example: עלינו על הכביש הלא נכון – צריך לשנות כיוון. We got on the wrong road – we need to change course. לשנות also can mean to […]