Learn how to describe things
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Intro |
|---|
| Shira: Hello and welcome to HebrewPod101.com Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 15 - Describing Things in Hebrew. I’m your host, Shira! |
| Amir: Shalom, I’m Amir. |
| Shira: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to describe things in Hebrew. |
| Amir: The conversation takes place at David and Sarah’s house. |
| Shira: The conversation is between David, Peter and Sarah. |
| Amir: It is informal. |
| Shira: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
| [Informal] |
| Peter: בוקר טוב! ממש חם היום! הקיץ בישראל חם מאוד, נכון? |
| (Boker tov! Mamash ħam ha-yom. Ha-ka'itz be-yis'ra'el ħam me'od, nakhon?) |
| David: גם הקיץ בקליפורניה חם. |
| (Gam ha-ka'itz be-kaliforniyah ħam.) |
| Peter: נכון |
| (nakhon) |
| Sarah: הקיץ בישראל חם ולח. |
| (Ha-ka'itz be-yis'ra'el ħam ve-laħ.) |
| Peter: ולח? |
| (ve-laħ?) |
| Shira: Let’s listen to the conversation one more time slowly. |
| Peter: בוקר טוב! ממש חם היום! הקיץ בישראל חם מאוד, נכון? |
| (Boker tov! Mamash ħam ha-yom. Ha-ka'itz be-yis'ra'el ħam me'od, nakhon?) |
| David: גם הקיץ בקליפורניה חם. |
| (Gam ha-ka'itz be-kaliforniyah ħam.) |
| Peter: נכון |
| (nakhon) |
| Sarah: הקיץ בישראל חם ולח. |
| (Ha-ka'itz be-yis'ra'el ħam ve-laħ.) |
| Peter: ולח? |
| (ve-laħ?) |
| Shira: Let’s listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Peter: בוקר טוב! ממש חם היום! הקיץ בישראל חם מאוד, נכון? |
| (Boker tov! Mamash ħam ha-yom. Ha-ka'itz be-yis'ra'el ħam me'od, nakhon?) |
| Shira: Good morning! It's really hot today. Summer in Israel is very hot, right? |
| David: גם הקיץ בקליפורניה חם. |
| (Gam ha-ka'itz be-kaliforniyah ħam.) |
| Shira: Summer in California is also hot. |
| Peter: נכון |
| (nakhon) |
| Shira: Right. |
| Sarah: הקיץ בישראל חם ולח. |
| (Ha-ka'itz be-yis'ra'el ħam ve-laħ.) |
| Shira: Summer in Israel is hot and humid. |
| Peter: ולח? |
| (ve-laħ?) |
| Shira: And humid? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Amir: Summer is not the only time when it’s hot in Israel. |
| Shira: It’s definitely not. In the spring, we have something special called a Sharav. |
| Amir: Something special? Ha! I guess you could call it that. It’s a really hot wind that blows up from the Arabian Desert. |
| Shira: It makes the weather extremely hot and dry compared to the normal spring weather. |
| Amir: Often it brings lots of dust with it too. |
| Shira: It can be very dangerous actually when there is a dust storm with the sharav. Most Israelis will close all their windows and doors and hang out inside until it passes. |
| Amir: Fortunately, they only last a few days and then it’s cooler and sometimes it will even rain afterward. |
| Shira: It’s only really in the spring that they happen, so you just have to be ready to spend some time inside when they do come. |
| Amir: The weather is so nice in Israel most of the time, that we spend most days outside anyway, so being inside once in a while because of a Sharav is not too bad. |
| Shira: The temperatures are in the 90s and 100s during a Sharav, so it’s not so nice to be outside. |
| Amir: Most houses have air-conditioning in at least one room, so just park yourself next the air-conditioning with a good book and you will be all set. |
| Shira: Still it’s no fun, but we manage to get through it. Now let’s go to the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Amir: בוקר (boker) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: Morning. |
| Amir: בוקר (boker) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: בוקר (boker) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: Next. |
| Amir: בוקר טוב (boker tov) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: Good morning. |
| Amir: בוקר טוב (boker tov) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: בוקר טוב (boker tov) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: Next. |
| Amir: ממש (mamash) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: Really. |
| Amir: ממש (mamash) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: ממש (mamash) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: Next. |
| Amir: חם (kham) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: Hot. |
| Amir: חם (kham) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: חם (kham) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: Next. |
| Amir: קיץ (kayitz) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: Summer. |
| Amir: קיץ (kayitz) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: קיץ (kayitz) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: And last? |
| Amir: לח (lach) [natural native speed] |
| Shira: Humid, damp. |
| Amir: לח (lach) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: לח (lach) [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Shira: Let's take a closer look at the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is בוקר (boker). |
| Amir: Boker is “morning”. |
| Shira: It’s spelled the same as another בוקר (boker) which means “cowboy”, the only difference is that the stress is on different syllables. |
| Amir: That leads us to our next phrase, בוקר טוב (boker tov) which means “Good morning”. |
| Shira: When someone says this to you, you can respond with בוקר טוב (boker tov). |
| Amir: But the traditional response is בוקר אור or “morning light”. |
| Shira: People will really be impressed with your Hebrew if you answer with בוקר אור. |
| Amir: The next word we want to discuss is חם. |
| Shira: חם means “hot”. It is used only for temperature though, it can’t be used for spicy like in English. |
| Amir: Something else important to know about this word is that you can’t use it like in English when you want to say you are hot. |
| Shira: Right, that’s a mistake that a lot of English speakers make in the beginning, they say אני חם. Instead you must say חם לי or “It’s hot to me”. |
| Amir: This goes for other adjectives as well, not just hot. The last word is לח (lach). |
| Shira: לח (lach) is “humid” or “damp”. |
| Amir: These last two words are adjectives and they have four different forms like all other adjectives. |
| Shira: And that leads us to to the Grammar section. |
Lesson focus |
| Shira: In this lesson you will learn how to describe something in Hebrew. |
| Amir: Which is where the adjectives come in. In order to describe something, you need to know some adjectives. |
| Shira: Our example sentence for this is הקיץ בישראל חם ולח (Ha-ka'itz be-yis'ra'el ħam ve-laħ). |
| Amir: We have two adjectives in that sentence, חם (kham) and לח (lach). |
| Shira: These adjectives need to agree with the subject of the sentence. Here it is “summer” or קיץ (kayitz) which is masculine singular. |
| Amir: Since the subject is masculine singular, the adjectives must be in their most basic form. |
| Shira: To agree with other types of nouns, you add on to this basic form according to the gender and number of the noun. Here are examples of how these two adjectives change according to the noun they agree with. First, is the masculine singular, like in the dialogue. |
| Amir: תנור חם (tanur ħam) |
| Shira: “A hot oven.” Next is feminine singular. |
| Amir: לחמניה חמה (laħ'maniya ħamah) |
| Shira: “A hot bun.” Now for the plural versions of these two. |
| Amir: תנורים חמים (tanurim ħamim) |
| Shira: “Hot ovens” |
| Amir: לחמניות חמות (laħ'maniyot ħamot) |
| Shira: “Hot buns.” And now some examples with the adjective לח (lach). First is the most basic version, the masculine singular. By the way, this is also the version that will appear in the dictionary. |
| Amir: מגבון לח (mag'von laħ) |
| Shira: “A damp wet wipe.” Next is feminine singular. |
| Amir: מגבת לחה (magevet laħah) |
| Shira: “A damp towel.“ And now the plural versions of these two. |
| Amir: מגבונים לחים (mag'vonim laħim) and מגבות לחות (magevot laħot) |
| Shira: If you noticed, these endings are similar to the endings for the nouns. For the feminine singular, we have ה', an “ah” or sometimes –ת or “et”. |
| Amir: For the masculine plural, we have ים (im) just like with masculine plural nouns. |
| Shira: And for the feminine plural, we have –ות. (ot) |
| Amir: This agreement must occur both when the adjective appears directly after the noun and when the adjective is just somewhere in the sentence. |
| Shira: We have examples for that as well. The first is when the adjective comes directly after the noun. |
| Amir: היא סטודנטית מצוינת. (Hi studentit metzuyenet.) |
| Shira: "She’s an excellent student." Here we have the other ending for feminine singular adjectives “et”. And now when the adjective describes the noun in the sentence. |
| Amir: הסטודנטית היא מצוינת. (Ha-studentit hi metzuyenet.) |
| Shira: "The student is excellent." It’s important that you remember that the adjective must agree on both cases, even when it’s not directly after the noun. |
| Amir: You’ll get the hang of it though, it will start to sound funny to you if you don’t make the nouns and adjectives agree. |
Outro |
| Shira: Okay, that’s it for this lesson. |
| Amir: After listening to this lesson, please visit us on HebrewPod101.com and describe yourselves to us in Hebrew. |
| Shira: Listeners, do you know the reason flashcards are so popular? |
| Amir: It's because they work. |
| Shira: We've taken this time-tested studying tool and modernized with flashcards. |
| Amir: Learn vocabulary using your eyes and ears. |
| Shira: It's simple and powerful. Save difficult and interesting words to your personal vocabulary list called My Word Bank. |
| Amir: Master words in your My Word Bank by practicing with flash cards. |
| Shira: Words in My Word Bank come with audio so you learn proper pronunciation. |
| Amir: While you're learning to recognize words by site. |
| Shira: Go to HebrewPod101.com now and try My Word Bank and flash cards today. See you next time! |
| Amir: Shalom! |
Comments
HideHi everyone!
Describe today's weather.
Hi בן (Ben)!
Thank you for your comment!
We will add the vocab to the dictionary section.
Regarding the Flashcards feature, unfortunately, our application doesn't support it yet. However, you can use the browser version of the site to access Flashcards on your mobile.
Feel free to let us know if you have any other questions.
תודה רבה (Toda raba / Thank you very much)!
Team HebrewPod101.com
מגבון (wet wipe) is used here but is not in the dictionary at https://www.hebrewpod101.com/hebrew-dictionary/ , how can it be added to my word bank so it can be reviewed with the flashcard feature?
There is customlists.innovativelanguage.com but it's not integrated with the rest of the site (including flashcards) and is still pretty buggy.
Also, is there a plan to add the flashcard feature to the Innovative android app (or can I just not find it in there?)
Hi תָמָרָ,
Thank you for your comment!😄
בוקר טוב! היום מעונן ויורד גשם קל. - Good morning! Today it's cloudy and there's light rain.
Happy learning!
Yours,
Tal
Team Hebrewpod101.com
בוקר טוב! היום בוֹרְגַןִ ענן וטפטוף קל.
Hi OT,
Thank you for your comment!😄
The correct pronunciation is:
magAvot lakhot (plural)
megEvet lakhah (singular)
Happy learning!
Yours,
Tal
Team Hebrewpod101.com
שלום קולם
What is the right pronunciation?
מַגָּבוֹת לַחוֹת
magevot laħot
magAvot or magEvot?
If I think logically I would go for magevet (singular) - mag'vot (plural)
תדה רבה ולבנטה
Dear Alexei,
Thanks for this clarification!
The correct translation here would be:
היום בעיר שלי חם ולח בהחלט. אני גר על יד הנהר וכל קיץ נהיה חם מאוד
Note especially that the word כרך is somewhat old-fashioned, and the modern term עיר is commonly used for 'city'.
Keep up the great work!
Yours,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
Thanks Hebrewpod101. I said or tried to say “Today in my city it’s certainly very hot and humid also. I live next to a river and every summer becomes really hot”. What is the correct way to form this sentence?
Shalom Alexei,
Thanks for sharing your comment on this lesson! 👍😄
Good work! Your Hebrew phrase is good and readable! Unfortunately, it contains some words that are not entirely correct - if you would supply me with the English translation I could help you translate it into Hebrew correctly 👍
Keep up the great work!
Yours,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
היום בכרך שלי זה ודאי חם מאוד ולח גם. אני גר ליד נהר וכל קיץ הופך ממש חם.
Shalom E,
Sorry, small correction - "I love learning Hebrew" is "אני אוהבת ללמוד עברית" - note that the second verb should be used in the infinite form.
Best,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
Shalom E,
Thank you for commenting and sharing your work!
Well done! everything is 100% correct, good job! 👍👍👍
Keep up the great work!
Yours,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
שלום!
קר בלילה ובבוקר...אבל חם ביום. נכון?
אני אהבות לומדת עברית. זה טוב מאוד!
תודה רבה!
Hi Jen,
Thanks for sharing your question! 😄❤️️
The words "מאוד" and "ממש" are similar, when "ממש" is considered a little stronger. To use "מאוד" in that sentence, we would change the order a little and say "חם מאוד היום" as the word "מאוד" usually comes after the adjective.
I hope that helps 😇
Yours,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
Dear Linda Tate,
Thank you for the warm feedback and for your feedback ❤️️
We are looking into this and will make sure to update the answer in case an error ocurred.
Keep up the good work, and enjoy learning Hebrew!
Best,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
שלום!
What is the difference between ממש and מאוד? Could you say, "מאוד חם היום"?
תודה רבה!
Shalom Joseph,
Thank you so much for your positive message! 😇❤️️
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
We wish you good luck with your language studies.
Kind regards,
Levente (לבנטה)
Team HebrewPod101.com
I'm planning to move to Israel this summer so this lesson was awesome! 😄
Hi Allister Dann,
Thanks for posting your question! I'll try to explain:
Nouns and adjectives are in agreement with each other only in the sense that the number (plural/singular) and genus (feminine / masculine) must match.
The ending "et" or "ah" are both common endings for feminine words in Hebrew. The type ending itself is determined according to every word's structure and its root letters. This will be taught in more depth at a later point.
I hope that helps for now :)
Enjoy learning Hebrew!
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
Hi,
Regarding the agreement of nouns and adjectives, I am confused about the two feminine singular examples you give.
מגבת לחה
In this example, the noun ends in a "et" (tav) but the adjective ends in a "ha". So although "ha" is a feminine singular adjective ending, it doesn't in this case match the noun.
הסטודנטית היא מצוינת
Whereas in this example, both noun and adjective end the same - in "et".
So for feminine singular nouns ending in "et", how do you know if the adjectives should end in "et" or "ha"? Are there rules, or is it simply something you need to learn case-by-case?