Learn how to bargain when you're shopping at a market
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sherah: Hi everyone, and welcome back to HebrewPod101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 10 - Shopping for a TV in Israel. Sherah Here. |
| Amir: שלום I'm Amir. |
| Sherah: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use מדי to modify adjectives. The conversation takes place in a shop. |
| Amir: It's between Hadas and a salesman. |
| Sherah: The speakers are in a casual setting, so they will be using informal Hebrew. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| מוכר: שלום, במה אפשר לעזור לך? |
| הדס: אני מחפשת טלוויזיה 32 אינצ' חדשה. |
| מוכר: יש לנו את זה ב-2000 שקלים. |
| הדס: 2000 שקלים? זה יקר מדי. זאת לא חברה ידועה. |
| מוכר: אולי אבל זה טלוויזיה טובה. |
| הדס: אני יכולה לקנות משהו דומה בזול במחסני חשמל. |
| מוכר: טוב, אני יכול לעשות לך עשר אחוז הנחה. |
| הדס: בסדר. תודה. אני קונה אותה. |
| Sherah: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| מוכר: שלום, במה אפשר לעזור לך? |
| הדס: אני מחפשת טלוויזיה 32 אינצ' חדשה. |
| מוכר: יש לנו את זה ב-2000 שקלים. |
| הדס: 2000 שקלים? זה יקר מדי. זאת לא חברה ידועה. |
| מוכר: אולי אבל זה טלוויזיה טובה. |
| הדס: אני יכולה לקנות משהו דומה בזול במחסני חשמל. |
| מוכר: טוב, אני יכול לעשות לך עשר אחוז הנחה. |
| הדס: בסדר. תודה. אני קונה אותה. |
| Sherah: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Salesman: Hello. How may I help you? |
| Hadas: I'm looking for a new 32 "TV. |
| Salesman: We have this one for 2000 shekels. |
| Hadas: 2000 shekels? That`s too expensive. This is not a known company. |
| Salesman: Perhaps, but it's a good TV. |
| Hadas: I can buy something similar for cheaper at Electric Warehouses. |
| Salesman: Well, I can give you a ten percent discount. |
| Hadas: Okay. Thank you. I'm buying it. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sherah: So, once upon a time, television was a rare commodity in Israel. |
| Amir: When television was introduced to Israel, at first there was only one channel. After a second was added, there were still only two for a long time. |
| Sherah: This led to some interesting social situations, like everyone following the same shows all at the same time. |
| Amir: That`s true - anyone who watched television before the mid 90s watched the same programs as the rest of Israel. |
| Sherah: So, if a particularly popular program would be airing on a certain night, you could be sure that no one would schedule any social event for that night. |
| Amir: And you would know where you could find most of your friends on that night, because almost everyone would be home. |
| Sherah: To this day, people still bond over the nostalgia of these programs. |
| Amir: But all this changed in the mid 90s when cable television was introduced in Israel. |
| Sherah: And today there is a huge variety of television available to watch. |
| Amir: However, there still isn't a lot of variety in choosing your television provider. |
| Sherah: There are only two major companies that provide cable television, and they’re called “Hot” and “Yes”. |
| Sherah: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Sherah: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Amir: לעזור [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: to help |
| Amir: לעזור[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: לעזור [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: טלוויזיה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: television |
| Amir: טלוויזיה[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: טלוויזיה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: יקר [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: expensive |
| Amir: יקר[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: יקר [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: חברה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: company |
| Amir: חברה[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: חברה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: ידוע [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: known |
| Amir: ידוע[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: ידוע [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: לקנות [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: to buy |
| Amir: לקנות[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: לקנות [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: דומה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: similar |
| Amir: דומה[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: דומה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: אחוז [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: percent |
| Amir: אחוז[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: אחוז [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: הנחה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: discount |
| Amir: הנחה[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: הנחה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: חשמל [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: power |
| Amir: חשמל[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: חשמל [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Sherah: Let's take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Amir: בזול |
| Sherah: meaning "cheaply". This is the adverb that means both “cheaply” and “inexpensively”. |
| Amir: זול is an adjective meaning “cheap” or “of low quality”. |
| Sherah: As an adjective, זול changes with the number and gender of the noun it describes, but בזול doesn’t change. |
| Amir: Adding the preposition -ב to זול changes it from an adjective to an adverb. |
| Sherah: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Amir: Sure. For example, you can say.. קניתי נעליים בזול באינטרנט. |
| Sherah: ..which means "I bought shoes cheaply on the Internet." |
| Sherah: The next word is.. |
| Amir: אינצ’ |
| Sherah: meaning "Inch". The word “inch” was used in the dialogue to describe the size of the television Hadas wanted to buy. |
| Amir: This may seem strange because we use the metric system for measurements in Israel. |
| Sherah: Except for when we’re buying a television. |
| Amir: The word “inch” has a foreign sound to Hebrew and that is the “ch” sound. |
| Sherah: For this, we use the letter צ with a little apostrophe after it. Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Amir: Sure. For example, you can say.. אני רוצה לקנות טלווזיה שלושים ושתיים אינצ'. |
| Sherah: ..which means "I want to buy a 32 inch television." |
| Sherah: The last word is.. |
| Amir: אחוז |
| Sherah: meaning "percent" or “percentage”. |
| Amir: This word is used just like “percent” in English. |
| Sherah: One expression we use in English with this word that is used in Hebrew as well, is 100%. |
| Amir: In Hebrew this is מאה אחוז and it means “fine” just like it does in English. |
| Sherah: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Amir: Sure. For example, you can say.. קיבלתי עשר אחוז הנחה על המכנסיים.. |
| Sherah: ..which means "I received a ten percent discount on the pants." Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Sherah: In this lesson you will learn to negotiate a price. The sentence we are focusing on in this lesson is the one where Hadas tells the salesman the television he’s offering her is too expensive. |
| Amir: She says זה יקר מדי |
| Sherah: Or “it’s too expensive.” |
| Amir: Breaking down this sentence, we have זה meaning “it’s”, יקר meaning “expensive” and מדי which means “too”. |
| Sherah: and מדי is made of two parts -מ and די |
| Amir: די means “enough” or “sufficient” |
| Sherah: You may know this word from the Passover song דיינו. |
| Amir: In the song we sing about all the ways God provided for the Israelites when they came out of Egypt. |
| Sherah: The chorus of the song is די דיינו and it means that if that was all God did for us, it would have been sufficient. |
| Amir: So, the word מדי is Hebrew for “too” as in “too much”. |
| Sherah: It’s used like the English word “too,” except in speech it usually comes after the adjective and not before. |
| Amir: We see this in our sample sentence from the dialog, Hadas says יקר מדי, first the adjective יקר and then מדי. |
| Sherah: There are many situations where you can use this word. |
| Amir: For instance, if you want to say that someone is too thin, you would say הוא רזה מדי |
| Sherah: Or if you want to say that a test is too difficult, you would say המבחן קשה מדי |
| Amir: Or you could say “the couch is too heavy” and that would be הספה כבד מדי |
| Sherah: מדי is a word in Hebrew that always stays the same no matter the number and gender of the adjective and noun in the sentence. |
| Amir: Another term we use to express the idea that something is too much or too excessive is the phrase יותר מדי. |
| Sherah: Most of the time, this is used before the adjective and not after like מדי. |
| Amir: If Hadas had used this phrase in the dialogue, she would have said זה יותר מדי יקר. |
| Sherah: It has exactly the same meaning, “it’s too expensive.” Let’s look at our other sample sentence with יותר מדי. |
| Amir: The first is הוא יותר מדי רזה |
| Sherah: “He’s too thin”. |
| Amir: The second is המבחן יותר מדי קשה. |
| Sherah: “The test is too difficult”. |
| Amir: The last is הספה יותר מדי כבדה. |
| Sherah: “The couch is too heavy”. Listeners, don’t forget to check the lesson notes for more information and examples. |
Outro |
| Sherah: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Amir: תודה |
Comments
HideWhat's your favorite Israeli TV show?
Shalom faye menczer,
You can find the dictionary at Vocabulary -> Hebrew Dictionary.
If you have any more questions, let us know. 😉
Kind regards,
Levente (לבנטה)
Team HebrewPod101.com
Hi faye menc,
Thanks for posting! We appreciate the feedback 👍
I checked the audio and it actually seems correct. The word "et" is not mentioned there... perhaps you misheard? 😅
Best,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
In the vocalized reading of the sentences טוב, אני יכול לעשות לך עשר אחוז הנחה he adds the word את before the word עשר.
Why isn't the word מחפשת in the vocabulary? How do I access your dictionary to look things up?
Hi Matan Omansky,
Thanks for commenting!
Nice to hear that you enjoy Israeli tv shows - this is actually a great and fun way to learn languages 😄😄
I recommended you in another comment to use an online Hebrew keyboard - I hope that'll help :)
Yours,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
I really like your website. With response to the question on the website. my two favorite Hebrew TV shows are Srugim, and The Beauty and the Baker. I would respond with this question in Hebrew, but I don't have Hebrew on the computer I'm using right now!
Hi Beni,
Thanks for posting!
You are correct, the right way to phrase it will be עשרה אחוזי הנחה (Asara achuzey hanacha), the speaker is simply making a mistake that many Hebrew speakers do - and uses the wrong number gender...
I will forward this for fixing as well.
Thank you for mentioning this and please accept our apologies for the error.
Yours,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
In the dialogue, when the salesman offers Hadas a 10% discount, he calls it עשר אחוז הנחה. However, in an example sentence in the vocabulary section for the word אחוז, this is rendered עשרה אחוז. And in another example sentence for the same word, "50%" is shown as חמישים אחוזים. So, (1) do we use masculine numbers or feminine? And (2) do we use the singular or plural of "percent"?
Hi jacqui,
Thanks for commenting!
These words are close but not synonymous. תצלום is the noun (a picture, while "צילום" is mostly used for the verb (to photograph) or the field of art (photography).
Makes sense?
Yours,
Roi
Team Hebrewpod101.com
Included in the PDF note section is a sentence which includes two different words for photo: צילום and תצלום. Are these words completely synonymous or is there a difference in their meaning? Thank you. for your help.
Hi Ollie,
Thank you for your reply.
If you have any further doubts, please contact us :wink:
Cristiane
Team HebrewPod101.com
Much obliged for the corrections :wink:
Hi Ollie,
Thanks for commenting! a few corrections -
1. "I would like to buy" is usually translated into "ברצוני לקנות" (costumer to a salesperson)
also - To say 58% off we say either "יש עליהם 58% הנחה" or " הם ב 58% הנחה".
2. since "Things " is plural - דברים יכולים להיות דומים או שונים לגמרי.
Yours,
Roi
Team Hebrewpod101.com
Things can be similar or completely different
דברים יכולם להיות דומה או שונה גמורה
I would like to buy these pants because they are 58% off! Also they are from a well-known company.
הייתי רוצה לקנות המכנסיים האלה כי יש להם חמישים ושמונה אחוז הנחה! גם הם מחברה ידועה
Hi Shelley,
Thank you for letting us know! Keep up the great work :wink:
Sincerely,
Yaara
Team HebrewPod101.com
Soon, the time will come for us to buy a new television. בקרוב יגיע הזמן בשיבילנו לקנות טלוויזיה חדשה