Learn the differences between all the adverbs that mean "really" and "very"
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| Paste from Google Docs in hereHi everybody! Idit here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher, where I’ll answer some of your most common Hebrew questions. |
| The question for this lesson is… |
| What are the differences between all the adverbs that mean 'really' and 'very' in Hebrew? |
| There are a few Hebrew adverbs that can mean “very” or “really," and this can be somewhat confusing. In this lesson, we’ll review some of the most common ones to clear things up. |
| The most basic one, which is the most accurate equivalent of “very," is |
| מְאוֹד |
| (me’od) |
| Like any other adverb in Hebrew, מְאוֹד (me’od) should come after the adjective it refers to. However, due to the influence of English and other languages, in colloquial use it can appear before the adjective. It’s very simple. For example, let’s look at the two ways to say “a very big house” using the word מאוד (me’od): |
| בית גדול מאוד |
| (bait gadol me'od) |
| בית מאוד גדול |
| (bait me'od gadol) |
| Our next word is: |
| ממש |
| (mamash) |
| The adverb ממש means “really,” “truly,” or “very.” For example, “really good” would be: |
| ממש טוב |
| (mamash tov) |
| In colloquial speech, it can also precede the word “no” to mean “absolutely not," or “no way”: |
| ממש לא |
| (mamash lo) |
| The next adverb is: |
| באמת |
| (be’emet) |
| It literally means “in truth," and is used to make sure something is true or real. For example, “Is it really you in the picture?” would be... |
| זה באמת אתה בתמונה? |
| (?ze be'emet ata ba-tmuna) |
| Unlike any of the previous words in this lesson, this word can also stand alone; You can ask “?באמת” (be’emet?) when you hear something surprising, like, “There’s a bear in the kitchen!” - ‘?באמת’ (be’emet?) |
| Our next adjective is a lot like the word “most”: |
| ביותר |
| (be-yoter) |
| The adverb ביותר (be’yoter) comes after the adjective. When it comes after a definite adverb, it means “the most," like in “the biggest house”: |
| הבית הגדול ביותר |
| (ha-bait ha-gadol be-yoter) |
| When it comes after a verb or an indefinite adverb, it means “quite," “very much," like in “a very big house”: |
| בית גדול ביותר |
| (bait gadol be-yoter) |
| The next word is the colloquial version of ביותר (be’yoter): |
| הכי |
| (hakhi) |
| This adverb means “the most," and will always come before the adjective, like so: |
| הכי גדול |
| (the biggest"- (hakhi gadol" |
| הכי חכם |
| (the smartest" - (hakhi ħakham" |
| Our last word is one you may have heard before: |
| נורא |
| (nora) |
| This word can be either an adjective meaning “terrible” or an adverb meaning “terribly," that can be used together with negative OR positive adjectives. Like מאוד (me’od), it can appear either before or after the adjective, like this: |
| נורא טעים |
| (nora ta'im) "terribly tasty" |
| מפחיד נורא |
| (mafħid nora) "terribly scary" |
| Adverbs can make your sentence much more expressive, so try and use them! |
| How was this lesson? Pretty interesting right? |
| Do you have any more questions? Leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to answer them! |
| להתראות! |
| (lehitra’ot!) |
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