Refresher

Free Hebrew lessons – August 2010 – Training – Day 35:

Hi,

It’s still hot outside, and I hope that most of you are sitting beside an air conditioner. (mazgan, in Hebrew).

In our previous lesson we learned that verbs in the present tense singular form remain the same, like:
I sit, you sit, he sits -
Ani yoshev,
ata yoshev,
hu yoshev or, in the feminine form:

I sit, you sit, she sits:  
Ani yoshevet,
at yoshevet,
hi yoshevet.

It’s almost the middle of August and some of you will be taking a short vacation… and I will, too.  Soooo, this lesson will be the last lesson for August, and it will be a refresher from our first lessons. I think it will be great to look backward and see how far we’ve come…

Today’s menu: some antique (old AND valuable) words…

Attention: The underlined letters represent the accent.

First, let’s watch the video for the “e” sound: The sound of the vowel E (13 seconds).
Wherever I use an “e,” this is the sound I want you to remember.

And now we’ll do the same for the “i” sound: The sound of the vowel I (18 seconds).

You can find a more detailed explanation for the above sounds in lesson 4.

Now, let’s see if you remember the following words from our first lessons:

Test yourself  (the answers are below):

1. Boker tov

2. Shalom

3. Lehitraot

4. Laila tov

5. Toda

6. Beseder

7. Eifo

8. Bevakasha

9. Sherutim (I’m sure you forgot the meaning of this word…)

10. Telephone

Answers:

1. Good morning – Boker tov.

2. Hello / hi – Shalom / hi (slang).

3. See you – lehitraot.

4. Goodnight – laila tov.

5. Thanks – toda.

6. Alright / OK – beseder.

7. Where – eifo.

8. Please – bevakasha.

9. Toilet – sherutim.

10. Telephone – telephone.

Not bad at all…

Now, let’s see how to pronounce the “a” sound in Heblish?
Watch this video: The sound of the vowel A (16 seconds)

And the “o” sound: The sound of the vowel O (14 seconds)

Hey, what about the “u” sound?
Watch this short video on YouTube: The sound of the vowel U (20 seconds)

Vocabulary:
   Meat – basar
   Side dishes – tosafot
   Fish – dag

   French fries – chips
   Pasta – pasta
   Vegetable salad – salat (or salat yerakot)
  
   Egg – beitsa
   Juice – mits
   Bracelet – tsamid

Now listen to the most important sound: The “het” and “haf” sounds:
In this video you will hear the ^ (het/haf) pronounced with each of the vowels. ^, ^a, ^e, ^I, ^o, ^u (12 seconds on Youtube)

Toda raba (thanks a lot)…

Personally, I think our little “refresher” today has been refreshing!  It’s good to go back and read over things you have already learned. 

While I’m gone, I would like for you to think about things you want to learn on free-Hebrew.  For instance, would you like to learn some simple Israeli songs?  Would you like to learn how to negotiate a price (bargain/haggle), in Hebrew?  That could come in handy when you visit Israel. Let me know your thoughts – because this website is all about YOU! 

Although I will be gone for two weeks, you might want to check our website during my vacation. You just might find I’ve left a little surprise for you… So don’t forget to look for it, next Thursday…  

Lehitraot in lesson 36…

You are welcome to join our group on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=230884728509.

Preposition

Free Hebrew lessons – July 2010 – Training – Day 32:

Hi,

I hope you have recovered from last week’s lesson…

In our previous lesson we learned some basics on how to use the preposition “from” in Hebrew.

As promised, today we’ll continue to look at the word “from” and expand our knowledge of this very important preposition. We will also begin to study word endings, which is critical in Hebrew. 

Today’s menu: Preposition “from” & personal “endings”

Attention: The underlined letters represent the accent.

From

We already know that for from you should say “min” in Hebrew, but actually we don’t really say “min.”  In Heblish we use “me” or “mi” for that word.

We learned that when I say “I took the book from Susan,” I say
laka^ti et ha’sefer mi‘Susan, and when I say “I took the book from the library” I say
laka^ti et ha’sefer me‘ha’sifriya.

Let’s see more examples:
- I asked for the guitar from John – bikashti et ha’gitara mi‘John.
- I drank from the bottle – shatiti me‘ha’bakbuk.
- I drank from a bottle – shatiti mi‘bakbuk.
- From me to you (masculine) – mi‘meni ele^a.
But when you say “from the United States,” I say “mi‘artsot ha’brit.”
 

As I said, there are no rules that I can teach you to know when to use “me” and when to use “mi,” but how do you say: I took the book from him, from her or from them?…

That’s what we’re going to learn today, and I will also add (for the first time in our Heblish lessons) the words written in Hebrew.

Pay close attention to the endings of the words in the table above.  We will now start to learn personal word endings (suffixes). These endings give us important information:
 

For the first person (I am/me) “ani“, the end of the word is “i” (sounds like “ee”).
Let’s place it on a table:

The above table will help us during our next lessons. Just keep the “ending sounds” in your mind.

I know this looks daunting, but it will become clearer as we progress through our lessons. Just stick with me and you will be surprised at how much you really CAN learn!

Lehitraot in lesson 33 …

You are welcome to join our group on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=230884728509.

Meeting

Free Heblish Challenge – January 2010 – Training – Day 2

Shalom everybody!

Day 2 of the Heblish Challenge.

How are you and how were your Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s celebrations?

Now that the holidays are behind us, and we are happy and focused… we can start the day.

In our previous lesson we talked about “good” and “goodbye,” so you already know that good is tov and goodbye is lehitraot (3 seconds on YouTube).

Attention Students: Upcoming Lessons 4, 5, and 6 are a “must,” foundational information. Please do not try to go on to future lessons without mastering these three important lessons (4, 5, 6).

Today we’ll continue with our first subject, “Meeting,” so let’s see what’s cooking…

Morning

In December we learned what you say at the beginning of your morning, “Boker tov.”

English: Good morning.

Hebrew: Boker tov.

Morning – Boker.

The “e” sounds like the “e” in the word “egg”.

Here are more examples, using the word “Morning”:
- We have had a wonderful morning – Haya lanu boker nifla
- They are drinking juice in the morning – Hem shotim mits ba’boker
- What a beautiful morning – Eize’ boker yafe
- I have a meeting in the morning – Yesh li pgisha ba’boker

You may have already noticed that after we learn a new Heblish word, it is written in “blue.”
This is so you can see what you have learned – the more “blue” words we have, the more Hebrew you already know…

Night

In English you say “goodnight,” a combination of the words “good” and “night”.

In Hebrew we say: Laila tov – two separate words.

Here are more examples, using the word “Night”:

- It was a short night – Ze haya Laila katsar 

- It was very cold last night – Haya Meod kar Ba’laila hakodem

- This is a beautiful night – Ze laila yafe

Thank you

The word “thanks” in Hebrew is “toda“.

You say “thanks” or “thank you” and we say “toda“.

Usually we don’t say “you” after “thank,” however, sometimes we need to use it.  We will talk about it in another lesson, when we teach you the difference between male and female words in Hebrew…

For now, “thanks” and “thank you” in Hebrew will be only toda, that’s the common usage here in Israel.

Before we go on, let’s make an agreement: every time I write “e” in a Heblish word, the sound will be like the “e” in the word “egg”, “exercise” or “example”.

Alright & OK

“Alright” or “ok” are very useful words and expressions in English and also in Hebrew.

The Hebrew word for “okay” and for “alright” is “beseder” (be-se-der).

- Remember our remark above; the “e” sounds like the “e” in the word “egg”.

Examples:

- It is Ok – ze beseder

- That’s OK – ze beseder

- Everything is alright - hakol beseder

But, if you forget the word “beseder,” in Israel you can also say “OK”; it’s a common word here.

Beseder?

Now you can say laila tov when you are going to sleep and boker tov in the morning.

When someone says “How are you?” you can respond: Toda (thank you), I’m feeling tov (good) and everything is beseder (OK).

Today we have learned some easy and useful Hebrew words. For the next lesson, we will take a BIG step ahead, because we’ll try to build a sentence. It will be easy – just keep going and see how fast you can speak Hebrew.

Lehitraot in lesson 3!