Learn how to apologize for something
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Intro |
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| Shira: Hello and welcome to HebrewPod101.com Absolute Beginner Series Season 1, Lesson 14 - Apologizing for Something in Hebrew. I'm your host, Shira. |
| Amir: And I’m your host Amir. |
| Shira: In this lesson, you will learn how to apologize for something in Hebrew. |
| Amir: The conversation takes place at David and Sarah’s house. |
| Shira: The conversation is between Peter and Sarah, who are washing up after dinner. |
| Amir: It is informal. |
| Shira: Let’s listen to the conversation |
Lesson conversation |
| Sarah: פטר, תודה רבה! |
| (Peter, todah rabah!) |
| Peter: על לא דבר! או! (זכוכית נשברת) אני מצטער! |
| (Al lo davar! Oh! (z'khu'khit nish'beret) Ani mitz'ta'er!) |
| Sarah: אתה בסדר? |
| (Atah beseder?) |
| Peter: אני בסדר...אני בסדר, אבל הכוס... |
| (Ani beseder... ani beseder, aval ha-kos...) |
| Sarah: זה בסדר. |
| (Zeh beseder.) |
| Peter אני מאוד מצטער. |
| (Ani me'od mitz'ta'er.) |
| Shira: Let’s listen to the conversation one more time slowly. |
| Sarah: פטר, תודה רבה! |
| (Peter, todah rabah!) |
| Peter: על לא דבר! או! (זכוכית נשברת) אני מצטער! |
| (Al lo davar! Oh! (z'khu'khit nish'beret) Ani mitz'ta'er!) |
| Sarah: אתה בסדר? |
| (Atah beseder?) |
| Peter: אני בסדר...אני בסדר, אבל הכוס... |
| (Ani beseder... ani beseder, aval ha-kos...) |
| Sarah: זה בסדר. |
| (Zeh beseder.) |
| Peter אני מאוד מצטער. |
| (Ani me'od mitz'ta'er.) |
| Shira: Let’s listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Sarah: פטר, תודה רבה! |
| (Peter, todah rabah!) |
| Shira: Peter, many thanks! |
| Peter: על לא דבר! או! (זכוכית נשברת) אני מצטער! |
| (Al lo davar! Oh! (z'khu'khit nish'beret) Ani mitz'ta'er!) |
| Shira: You're welcome. Oh! (glass breaks) I'm sorry! |
| Sarah: אתה בסדר? |
| (Atah beseder?) |
| Shira: Are you okay? |
| Peter: אני בסדר...אני בסדר, אבל הכוס... |
| (Ani beseder... ani beseder, aval ha-kos...) |
| Shira: I'm okay... I'm okay, but the glass... |
| Sarah: זה בסדר. |
| (Zeh beseder.) |
| Shira: It's okay. |
| Peter: אני מאוד מצטער. |
| (Ani me'od mitz'ta'er.) |
| Shira: I'm really sorry. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Amir: Breaking dishes is something that’s extremely easy to do in Israel. |
| Shira: You mean, because of the floors? |
| Amir: Exactly. The floors of most houses are laid entirely in tiles, so that makes for a hard landing for dishes. |
| Shira: True, it’s had to keep dishes around for long, unfortunately. |
| Amir: I guess it’s because of the climate that Israeli houses and apartments are laid with tiles. That makes it cooler in the hotter months. |
| Shira: A lot of people have area rugs throughout the house to make it homier. I like it because it’s easy to clean. |
| Amir: It is, in some houses all you need to do is throw down some water and then push it all out the door along with the dirt. |
| Shira: In apartments it’s a little more difficult. But you can still throw down water and soap and then soak it up with floor towels at the end. |
| Amir: Some of the older apartments have an opening somewhere in the floor, so you can just push everything to that hole and it goes straight out of the building that way. |
| Shira: Yes, I’ve seen those. It is much easier than having to vacuum an entire house with carpets. And it is quite cool in the summer. |
| Amir: And if you have kids, it makes it easy to clean up spills and things. |
| Shira: Very true! Now let’s go to the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Amir: על (al) [natural native speed] |
| Sira: On. |
| Amir: על (al) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: על (al) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: Next. |
| Amir: על לא דבר (Al lo davar) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: You’re welcome. |
| Amir: על לא דבר (Al lo davar) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: על לא דבר (Al lo davar) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: Next. |
| Amir: להצטער/הצטער (le-hitz’tayer) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: To be sorry/was sorry. |
| Amir: להצטער/הצטער (le-hitz’tayer) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: להצטער/הצטער (le-hitz’tayer) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: Next. |
| Amir: אתה (atah) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: You (masculine). |
| Amir: אתה (atah) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: אתה (atah) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: And last. |
| Amir: אבל (aval) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: But. |
| Amir: אבל (aval) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: אבל (aval) [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Shira: Let's take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is על לא דבר (Al lo davar). |
| Amir: על לא דבר (Al lo davar) means “you’re welcome”. |
| Shira: The literal translation is “on no thing”. It means that there is nothing that you need to thank the person for. |
| Amir: It’s kind of like saying “no problem” in English, except that we also have that phrase in Hebrew, אין בעיה (en ba'aya). |
| Shira: The next word is the verb is להצטער (le-hitz’tayer). |
| Amir: This is the key vocabulary word for this lesson, it means to be sorry. |
| Shira: It comes from the root צער which is connected to words of sorrow and regret. |
| Amir: It can also be translated as “to be regretful”. |
| Shira: Using להצטער (le-hitz’tayer) is much more meaningful than saying סליחה (slikha). |
| Amir: The last word is אבל (aval). |
| Shira: Aval is the conjunction “but”. It’s used in the same way as it is in English. |
| Amir: It’s used to contrast two different sentences of differing attitude. |
| Shira: I think it would be good to have an example for this. How about, “I like to eat fruit, but I don’t like apricots.” |
| Herman: אני אוהב לאכול פירות אבל אני לא אוהב משמשים. We also have the example sentence we gave in the lesson notes |
| Shira: “I was there, but I didn’t see you.” Okay, let’s move on to the Grammar section. |
Lesson focus |
| Shira: In this lesson you will learn to apologize in Hebrew. |
| Amir: We already gave you one way to one way to apologize a few lessons ago when we talked about the word סליחה. |
| Shira: Yes, but this is so much more meaningful than סליחה. |
| Amir: When you really want to apologize for something, you use the verb להצטער (le-hitz’tayer). |
| Shira: In a sentence, it would be אני מצטער (ani mitz'ta'er) or “I am sorry”. |
| Amir: That’s what I would say, but you would say it a bit differently because you’re a woman, Shira. |
| Shira: Right, I would say אני מצטערת (ani mitz'ta'eret). |
| Amir: Now, let’s talk a little bit about this verb. We already know the meaning, but we need to know a little bit more about its structure. |
| Shira: להצטער (le-hitz’tayer) is a part of the התפעל (hitpa'el) verb group, which is the reflexive verb group. In Hebrew, when something occurs between two people it is also included in the reflexive verb group. |
| Amir: להצטער (le-hitz’tayer) is different from other verbs in this verb group though because the letters change place a bit because of the root letters. |
| Shira: The root is צער (tsa'ar) and the first letter has changed place with ט', which is part of the verb group pattern. |
| Amir: For now, it’s enough to know that it’s different from other verbs in the same verb group. We don’t want to overwhelm you. |
| Shira: At this point, you should learn the version of “I’m sorry” that you would use. For a woman, it would be אני מצטערת (ani mitz'ta'eret). |
| Amir: And for men it would be אני מצטער (ani mitz'ta'er). |
| Shira: If you are with someone and you want to apologize for something together, you can say אנחנו מצטערים (Anaħ'nu mitz'ta'arim) or “we are sorry.” |
| Amir: In the dialogue, Sarah wasn’t worried about the glass breaking, she was more worried about Peter, so she asked אתה בסדר? (Atah be-seder?) |
| Shira: Right, this is how you can ask if someone if alright. In fact, all you need is the right pronoun and then you can ask about anyone. |
| Amir: בסדר (be-seder) does not change form according to the subject, so this is a good way to practice your pronouns. I would ask you את בסדר. (At be-seder?) |
| Shira: Right. Now let’s say there is a group of people on the street and they are upset about something, you can come up to them and say אתם בסדר? (Atam be-seder?) |
| Amir: The answer to this question would be אני בסדר (ani be-seder) or אני לא בסדר (ani lo be-seder). |
| Shira: And if you are more than one person, you would say, אנחנו בסדר (Anaħ'nu be-seder) or אנחנו לא בסדר (anaħ'nu lo be-seder). |
| Amir: Well, I think we gave them enough to chew on for now. |
Outro |
| Shira: Okay, that’s it for this lesson. |
| Amir: After listening to this lesson, please visit HebrewPod101.com and say hello to us in Hebrew! Listeners, can you understand Hebrew TV shows, movies or songs? |
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| Shira: Line by line audio. |
| Amir: Listen to the lesson conversations line by line and learn to understand natural Hebrew fast. |
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| Shira: Find this feature on the lesson page under premium member resources at HewbrewPod101.com. See you next time! |
| Amir: Shalom! |
Comments
HideHi everyone!
How often do you use "I'm sorry"?
Hi Emmanuel Zawadi,
Thank you for your comment!😄
Kid - yeled (masculine), yal'dah (feminine) in Hebrew.
Have a pleasant learning!
Yours,
Tal
Team Hebrewpod101.com
KIDS!!?? HEY!!! I'M A KID!!!
Hi ISABELA,
Thank you for your comment!😄
Great question!
I'm not sorry:
If a female is saying it then: "אני לא מצטערת." - Ani lo mits'taeret. (I'm not sorry.)
if a male is saying it then: "אני לא מצטער" - Ani lo mits'taer (I'm not sorry.)
Have a pleasant learning!
How would you say, “I’m not sorry” ?
Hi Monique David,
Thanks for commenting! ❤️️
Well done - your Hebrew sentence is very good - and almost entirely correct 😉👍👍
Please note 2 small typos -
lessons = שיעורים
Montreal = מונטריאול
Keep up the great work!
yours,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
תודה רבה על השיורים. אני גרה במונטרל
Hi João Pedro,
Thanks for posting this question!
The writing that you're referring to is called "romanization", and it is not "real" Hebrew, but Hebrew written in the Latin alphabet. If you look at the Hebrew writing, you'll see that it's always written identically.
Since romanization is not a real way to write the language, rather just a tool that's meant to assist reading, there isn't one "correct" way to write words and it may be that different translators used slightly different styles... In this case, the difference between "todah" and "toda" isn't really crucial, and both versions will result in the correct pronunciation.
I hope that's clear :)
Yours,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
Why the words sometimes in some lessons has more letters?? For example: the correct is "toda raba" or "todah rabah" ???
Hi Olive,
Thanks for posting your question! 😄👍
"I'm sorry" in Hebrew is pronounced "mits'ta'er" (or "mits'ta'eret" in the feminine). The grammatical structure here is the verb form "התפעל" (hitpa'el), which in the present tense-singular-1st person is "מתפעל" (mitpa'el), where the letters "מ" and "ת" are fixed (part of the pattern) and the letters "פ", "ע" and "ל" are replaced by the 3 letters of the root.
This is a rather advanced topic in Hebrew grammar, there will be more lessons about it in a later point... I hope that helps for now :) 👍
Sincerely,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
What is the purpose of the מ on the verb for "I'm sorry" (מצטער)?
Shalom De'Shone,
Thank you for commenting! I have just checked the audio and it seems to work fine on our side. Just to have a more clear view on what you experience: You manage to start the audio but it gets stuck and repeats itself / one specific part of it forever?
Could you please try the following steps? Please log out of the site, delete the cache and cookies of your browser, log back in, and try to play the file again. This should fix the problem.
However, if it still doesn't, please let us know at contactus@HebrewPod101.com. You could also try downloading the audio file, if the above steps didn't solve the issue, and let us know if that works, or you have trouble with that as well.
Thank you!
Levente
Team HebrewPod101.com
This section repeats the same thing. It's broken.
Hi Carol,
Thanks for commenting! This is a very good question.
Unfortunately - it doesn't have a very good answer. 😅 Hebrew is less strict about the subject of word order in a sentence than other languages, and in many cases, both ways would be possible. Often the positioning of a word relates to the part of the sentence that we want to emphasize.
That said, in general, and in literature, "מאוד" would follow the adjective or a verb, but in daily speech, it is common to hear the other version as well.
I hope that helps 😄
Yours,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
Hi! When you use the expression for very with אֲנִי מְאוֹד מִצְטַעֶרֶת but when it was used with טעים in the lesson the word for very comes after the word it is describing זה טעים מאוד How do you know where to place מְאוֹד?
Thank you!
Hi Juliana Michelle,
Thank you for posting.
כל היום אומרת סליחה - "Saying 'sorry' all day long"
מדברת - talking
אומרת - saying
I hope you're kidding - I'm sure you don't have to say 'sorry' that often! :smile:
Sincerely,
Yaara
Team HebrewPod101.com
כול היום מדברת סליחה:sunglasses:
Hi Shelley Lynn,
You’re welcome, I'm glad to be a part of this process :smile:
Sincerely,
Yaara
Team HebrewPod101.com
So glad to know that I'm improving. Thanks, Yaara.
Hi Shelley Lynn,
Thank you! Its great seeing your Hebrew getting better and better!
Sincerely,
Yaara
Team HebrewPod101.com
lol!! Great to have a perfect sentence! I like your humor!