Holidays, Days Off

Free Hebrew lessons – December 2010 – Training – Day 48

Shalom le’kulam (Hi everyone),

In our previous lesson we talked about the websites I build and I taught you some useful sentences in Hebrew. On the same day (last Thursday), a big blaze started in Israel and killed 42 people. Five million trees went up in flames.

My brother (a^ sheli) who lives very near (she’gar meod karov) took some photos (tsilem kama tmunot). Here is one of them:

If you (plural) would like to see more photos (im atem rotsim lirot od tmunot), click here: Moments. 

Today, we will talk about happy things. 

Today’s menu: Holidays and Days Off

Attention: The underlined letters represent the accent.

We use the word holiday to describe time we spend touring or for national or religious events:

I went on holiday to Israel last year. Businesses were closed during Yom Ha’atsmaut (Independence Day), which is a national holiday.

In Hebrew “holiday” is ^ag, but when you say “I went on holiday,” you should say “yatsati (I went) le’^ufsha.”  Hey, where is the word ^ag?

What we can learn here is, that when we say “holiday,” the simple translation is ^ag, but when you use it to describe a time you spend traveling and sightseeing, the word you want to use is ^ufsha.

In other words, ^ufsha is a vacation.

We use days off to talk about time we use for things other than work:

I am taking a couple of days off to visit my parents.

In Hebrew “day off” is yom ^ufsha and “days off” is yemey ^ufsha

Most Israelis say it incorrectly.
For “day off” they say yom ^ofesh and for “days off” they say yemey ^ofesh.

The word ^ofesh means freedom…
Maybe because the Israelis think a lot about freedom, they use it incorrectly when they just take a day off.  Although… a day off from work is definitely a sort of “freedom.”

Happy Holidays!

Lehitraot in lesson 49…

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Let’s talk

Free Hebrew lessons – December 2010 – Training – Day 47

Shalom talmidim (Hi students),

Today we will talk again…

In our previous lesson we learned about the b, p and k special letters. I showed you that sometimes we have two sounds for b (b & v), for p (p & f) and for k (k & ^).
I also said that I would not teach you the special conditions which cause these letters to be pronounced differently.

But… (there is always a “but” in life, isn’t there?…) I can teach you one condition:
When these letters are at the beginning of the word, they have their own sounds: b, p or k.
That is to say, the b sounds like a “b,” the p sounds like a “p,” and the k sounds like a “k” when they are the first letters of the word.

Sigh… now we can go ahead and start our 47^th lesson

Today, we will talk.

Today’s menu: Let’s talk

Attention: The underlined letters represent the accent.

Let’s start:

- I build websites – Ani bone atarim (website – atar)

- Why are you building a website? – Lama ata bone atar?    

- Because I (m) want to teach you (plural) Hebrew – Ki ani rotse lelamed et^em Ivrit.

- We like your website – Ana^nu ohavim et ha’atar shel^a.

- Really? – Be’emet?

That’s it (zehu ze), this is our lesson for today.

Now, let’s see what we have here…

I build websites – Ani bone atarim.
The word “website/s”, atar/atarim, is the only new word for you, since we’ve already learned the word “build” – bone, in lesson 46.

Why are you building a website? – Lama ata bone atar?
Here you see that in Hebrew “build” and “building” is the same word, since in Hebrew there is only one present tense (present simple); we don’t have present progressive.
As we only have present simple, you can understand that our lives are very simple here…  

Because I (m) want to teach you (plural) Hebrew – Ki ani rotse lelamed et^em Ivrit.
“Because” in Hebrew can be either “ki,” “keivan she’…” or “mipney she’…”
As in English you can use “because” and “since” to show that “there is a reason” – in Hebrew it’s the same.
In a matter of fact, there are more words for “because” in Hebrew, but it would be too much for one lesson.

The only thing I want to stress is, when I use “keivan she’…” or “mipney she’…” for the word “because,” the “she’ ” (remember the “e” sound) becomes the prefix of the next word. 
For example:
Why did you (f) give me more food – lama natat li od o^el?  (leave the translation now, look at the next line) Because you are hungry – Keivan she‘ata raev.
Can you see that?  ”Because” = “keivan she’…” “you are hungry” = “ata raev.“ 

We like your website – Ana^nu ohavim et ha’atar shel^a.
Here, I want to talk about the word “like”.

When speaking English, if you bought a beautiful jewel you probably “like” it, but if you are talking about a man you love, you say “I love him”

In Hebrew I usually say “I love it” and “I love her.” We don’t use the word for “like,” which is “me^abev (m) or me^abevet (f). You don’t have to remember these words, we don’t really use them.

When I “like” something, or “love” someone, I say ani ohev (m) or ani ohevet (f), but when I just “like” a person, I say “he is nice”… ;-/

And the last sentence for today was:
Really? – Be’emet?
Both “e” have the same sound. I placed an apostrophe between them, just to keep you from reading the double “e” as “ee” in English (like in “sheep”)

Emet, is “truth” in Hebrew.

That’s it!  A lesson that won’t stress our brains…  I’m sure after the Thanksgiving holiday, and looking forward to even more holidays this month, we can all use a little breathing room.

Lehitraot in lesson 48…

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Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

You know there is no lesson today because of the holiday… BUT, I would like to invite you to check out the tremendous Black Friday Sale on Goood. 

Some of the items are marked down as much as 50%, for just 24 hours, on Friday, November 26th 12:01 A.M.
 
Enjoy your day off and take advantage of the opportunity to start your holiday shopping at Goood.
 
Lehitraot on December 2nd.