Free Hebrew lessons – February 2011 – Training – Day 57

Shalom,

Shalom? I don’t really see any peace or peaceful life around our little country. Everyone against everyone, and the end doesn’t seem very close…

Anyway, between all that mess, and although the world seems to be falling apart, there is a little island of us who want to learn Hebrew …   

In our previous lesson we learned the first, second and third person in masculine form of the word “say,” and we also learned how to say “a lot of, people, chocolate, week, end” and “weekend.”

Today, we will continue with the important word “say.”

Today’s menu: To say

Attention: The underlined letters represent the accent.

Say
For “to say” [please sit… ] we say – lehagid (le-ha-gid), but all the other forms of this word in past simple include the root a.m.r., as we learned before. 

*)  I don’t always teach you “proper” (complex) Hebrew (like a college professor would), but I always teach you the right way to speak Hebrew like an Israeli… words and phrases that any Israeli will understand.  This includes the way we accent certain words. For instance, in perfect “college” Hebrew the accent on the word “amarten” would look like this:  (a-mar-ten), but it is commonly pronounced (a-mar-ten), with the accent on the middle syllable.

I said
- I said I want a cake – Amarti she’ani rotse uga (man speaking).
- I said I want a ring – Amarti she’ani rotsa tabaat (woman speaking).

You said
- You said you will not come – Amarta she’lo tavo (speaking to a man).
- You said you will not come – Amart she’lo tavoi  (speaking to a woman).

He said
- He said he loves you – Hu amar she’hu ohev ota^. (man loves woman)

She said
- She said she loves you – Hi amra she’hi ohevet ot^a. (woman loves man)

We said
- We said it is beautiful – Amarnu she’ze yafe.

You said
- You said you will come – Amartem she’tavou (plural).

They said
- They said goodnight – Hem amru laila tov. (m)
- They said goodnight – Hen amru laila tov. (f)

Isn’t it wonderful to look back and see how much we’ve learned together?!  I hope you are all enjoying studying Hebrew as much as I’m enjoying teaching it. Ok… I might be prejudiced (wink), but I feel like Hebrew is the most beautiful language an ear as ever heard and a tongue has ever uttered.
Come on, who can argue with that? 

Lehitraot in lesson 58…

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Free Hebrew lessons – January 2011 – Training – Day 50

Sha-lom!!!

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

Now that the holidays are behind us, and we are happy and focused… we can start the new year with the refresher I promised you.

In our previous lesson we talked about darkness and light. All of you probably remember December 31, 1999 – Leaders and reporters warned us about all sorts of woes with the coming of the new Millennium, but here we are, entering the second decade of the 21^st millennium, and we are still here, alive, smarter, and hopefully, blessed with health and happiness.

Today, we will have a refresher of the first eight Hebrew lessons, but don’t slip away… it will help you. Every month I will give another refresher of a few lessons.

Today’s menu: Refresher for lessons 1 to 8

Attention: The underlined letters represent the accent.

Today will be an easy refresher, since in our first eight lessons we learned only a few words, like shalom and lehitraot, which I use in almost every lesson, but, you can still learn a few new words today.

We also learned to use tov for “good,” boker tov for “good morning” and laila tov for “goodnight.”  For you it seems natural to say “goodnight” using only one word, but for us (the Israelis), it seems odd, since in English you use two words for “good morning…” Anyway, in Hebrew we use two words for each one of the expressions above.

Beseder – If you don’t remember this word, I’m sure that the following examples will help you:
- Beseder, let’s go on.
- I’m beseder today.
- Everything is beseder?
You are right, beseder means OK or alright

In our next lesson, lesson 51, we will talk more about the accent in Hebrew. Up to this point, I only asked you to pay attention that the underlined letters represent the accent, but, there is something very special about the Hebrew accent. As I said, we will talk about it in our next lesson.

In lesson 3 we learned to ask “where?” – eifo.
“Where is the hotel?” – eifo ha’malon and “where is the toilet, please?” – eifo ha’sherutim bevakasha. (Please – be-va-ka-sha.)

We also had some videos in our Heblish course, so here are a few to remind you how to pronounce the vowels a, e, i, o and u.

The sound of the vowel A (16 seconds)

The sound of the vowel E (13 seconds)

The sound of the vowel I (18 seconds)

The sound of the vowel O (14 seconds)

The sound of the vowel U (20 seconds)

After you have listened to the videos, I will now send you back to YouTube to hear the most important videos; how to pronounce the letters “het” and “haf” in Hebrew:
^, ^a, ^e, ^I, ^o, ^u (12 seconds on YouTube)

Chess – Sha^ (13 seconds on YouTube)

Cat – ^atul (6 seconds on YouTube)

Thread – ^ut (5 seconds on YouTube)

After these videos, I guess you might be hungry… so let’s go to a misada (restaurant).  There we can choose between keves (lamb) with tapu^ey adama (baked potatoes) and salat (salad), dag ve’chips (fish and French fries) or basar ve’tosafot (meat and side dishes).

In this lesson we learned that the word ketchup is almost the same in Hebrew, ketchop.

I taught you to say gam instead of “also,” and to add “ve” as the prefix of the word that follows when you use “and”.
For example:
- Bonnie and Clyde – Bonnie ve‘Clyde.
- Man and woman – Ish ve’isha.
- Black and white – Sha^or ve’lavan.

We learned how to say “for me, for him” and “for her,” bishvili, bishvilo ve’bishvila. Pay attention, the word “for” is bishvil, but to say for “me/him/her” I add one of the vowels (“i/o/a“) to the suffix. 
For me – Bishvili
For him – Bishvilo
For her – Bishvila

Remember these suffixes, they will help you to understand who is being talked about when you hear the “i, o, a” on the end of the word – for most cases (but not all!).

Before I showed you how to count from 1 to 30, I taught you how to say “one” for a masculine noun:

This was our first lesson for 2011 and also our first refresher. Today we only had a refresher for the first eight lessons and I think it’s enough. I will give you more refreshers from time to time, at least one per month.

Now, don’t you feel “refreshed” in your knowledge and understanding of Heblish?  I sure hope so…  

Lehitraot in lesson 51…

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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…

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