Learn the top five mistakes people make when learning the language
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| Shira: Hello everyone. Welcome back to HebrewPod101.com, All About Hebrew Lesson 12 - Top Five Hebrew Classroom Phrases. I'm Shira. |
| Amir: [שלום, אני אמיר] (Sha'lom, a'ni a'mir) Let me tell you, there's no better way to learn Hebrew than to use Hebrew. |
| Shira: So whether you're attending a class, you're studying with friends or you're even studying at HebrewPod101.com, there phrases will be helpful to you. Now here they are. The top five phrases for the classroom are. |
| Amir: [אפשר לחזור על זה?] (Ef'shar lakhazor al ze?) |
| Shira: Please repeat that. |
| Amir: [איך אומרים...בעברית?] (E'ikh om'rim… be'ivrit?) |
| Shira: How do you say… in Hebrew? |
| Amir: [אפשר לשאול?] (Ef'shar lish'ol?) |
| Shira: May I ask? |
| Amir: [אני לא מבין] (A'ni lo me'vin) |
| Shira: I don't understand. |
| Amir: [אני לא מבינה] (A'ni lo me'vi'na) |
| Shira: I don't understand – feminine. |
| Amir: [אפשר לחזור על זה לאט יותר?] (Ef'shar lakha'zor al ze le'at yo'ter?) |
| Shira: "Can you repeat that a bit more slowly?" Did you recognize any phrases? Let's hear these phrases one more time slowly. |
| Amir: [אפשר לחזור על זה?] (Ef'shar lakha'zor al ze?) |
| Shira: Let's take a closer look at these phrases. |
| Amir: [אפשר לחזור על זה] (Ef'shar lakha'zor al ze) |
| Shira: This is so useful because you can use it any time outside of the classroom too. |
| Amir: Any time you can't understand something someone has said and you would like to hear it again, just say [אפשר לחזור על זה?] (Ef'shar lakha'zor al ze?). |
| Shira: The first word, [אפשר] (Ef'shar), means "is it possible." The next word, [לחזור] (Lakha'zor), means "to repeat." [על] (al) means "on" and the last word, [זה] (ze), means "that." |
| Amir: So a literal translation would be something along the lines of "Is it possible to repeat on that?" |
| Shira: Ok, let's move on to the next phrase. |
| Amir: [איך אומרים...בעברית?] (E'ikh om'rim… be'ivrit?) |
| Shira: Now this is a great phrase. You get to discover the world again through Israeli eyes. |
| Amir: Yes. And you'll learn very quickly if you point at things and ask lots of questions. |
| Shira: Right. So you can either use the point method. Just point and say [איך אומרים...בעברית?] (E'ikh om'rim… be'ivrit?) or if your counterpart knows some English, you can try it like this. [איך אומרים אפל בעברית?] (E'ikh om'rim epel be'ivrit?). |
| Amir: I think either way works. |
| Shira: Yes. And my advice is to write down the answer when you get it. Then you can review it later and you won't forget. |
| Amir: This phrase will really help you learn Hebrew faster. [איך אומרים… בעברית?] (E'ikh om'rim… be'ivrit?) Here we have [איך] (E'ikh), which means "how," this is followed by [אומרים] (Om'rim), which is the verb for "they say." After that you insert the word or point to what you want to know, and last you say "in Hebrew," which is [בעברית] (Be'ivrit). |
| Shira: Piece of cake. Learn this phrase and you'll never have a boring walk in Israel. So the next phrase is… |
| Amir: [אפשר לשאול?] (Ef'shar lish'ol?) |
| Shira: Now, not only is this a great phrase to learn so that you can ask the teacher a question, but it's also a great phrase to get what you want. |
| Amir: Especially if you need to ask for favors. |
| Shira: Ok, so take us through this one. |
| Amir: [אפשר] (Ef'shar). [אפשר לשאול] (Ef'shar lish'ol) in this case means "is it possible. [לשאול] (Li'sh'ol) means "to ask, so literally this means "is it possible to ask?" |
| Shira: Well that phrase may come in handy as well if you really need to ask politely where the toilet is. |
| Amir: Very useful indeed. |
| Shira: Ok, next phrase. [אני לא מבין] (A'ni lo me'vin) or [אני לא מבינה] (A'ni lo me'vi'na) depending if you're a man or a woman. This phrase too can be used on all occasions. It's one of my personal favorite. |
| Amir: Beware, sometimes Israelis will assume you can understand everything if you know how to say [שלום] (Sha'lom). |
| Shira: So we've given you both the masculine and the feminine form of this sentence. |
| Amir: Now let's have a closer look. [אני לא מבין] (A'ni lo me'vin) or [אני לא מבינה] (A'ni lo me'vi'na). means "I," [לא] (Lo) here is a negative and translates as "no," "understand" is [מבין] (Me'vin) or [מבינה] (Me'vi'na) for the feminine version. So this sentence literally means "I no understand." |
| Shira: Seriously, this is probably the phrase that I have used the most during my Hebrew studies. It's so useful and easy to say, you'll never miss out again. |
| Amir: The next phrase is also very handy because Israelis usually speak very quickly. [אפשר לחזור על זה יותר לאט?] (Ef'shar lakha'zor al ze yo'ter le'at?) |
| Shira: So this little phrase means "can you repeat that a bit more slowly?" Now when you're in a group of Israelis, you will be very thankful for us for teaching you this phrase. |
| Amir: Yeah, we tend to speed like rockets when we talk to each other. |
| Shira: So Amir, walk us through this one, please? |
| Amir: Sure. First we have [אפשר] (Ef'shar) which we mentioned earlier meaning "is it possible." [לחזור] (Lakha'zor) as we mentioned earlier is "to repeat," [על] (al) is "on" and [זה] (ze) means "at." So far, so good. Just like the first phrase, but we've added a little slower, which is [יותר לאט] (Yo'ter le'at) means "more" and [לאט] (Le'at) is "slow." So literally we have "Is it possible to repeat that more slow?" |
| Shira: Yeah, that's crazy literal translations. It's really fun when Israelis slow down Hebrew. Can you demonstrate for us, Amir? |
| Amir: Sure. [אפשר לחזור על זה יותר לאט?] (Ef'shar lakha'zor al ze yo'ter le'at?) |
| Shira: It kind of feels like you're a kid again, but actually it really helps to have the slower pace. The great thing about these phrases is that you can use them right away. |
| Amir: And they're so practical. |
| -- |
| Shira: I hope they helped everyone, whether you're in a Hebrew class, on the streets of Israel or in your local Jewish community, try them out. Thanks for listening. |
| Amir: [שלום] (Sha'lom) |
| Shira: Bye. |
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