Learn how to ask someone about their family
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Sherah: Hello and welcome to hebrewpod101.com. This is Lower Beginner Series Season 1, Lesson 7 - Talking About Your Family in Hebrew . I’m your host, Sherah! |
| Amir: And I’m your host Amir. |
| Sherah: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask about someone’s family. |
| Amir: The conversation takes place in the dining hall of the kibbutz |
| Sherah: It’s between Anna and her new friend Ofir. |
| Amir: The speakers are strangers and they’ll be speaking informal Hebrew. |
| Sherah: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| אופיר: את עולה חדשה בארץ? |
| Ofir: At olah ħadasha ba-aretz? |
| אנה: כן. אני באתי מארצות הברית. אתה מהקיבוץ? |
| Anna: Ken,ani ba’ti me-ar’tzot ha-brit. Atah me-ha-kibbutz? |
| אופיר: כן. אני גדלתי פה בקיבוץ. יש לך משפחה בארץ? |
| Ofir: Ken, Ani gadal’ti po ba-kibbutz. Yesh lakh mish’paħah ba-aretz? |
| אנה: יש לי פה רק דודים. כל המשפחה שלי עדיין בארצות הברית. |
| Anna: Yesh li po rak dodim. Kol ha-mish’paħah sheli ada’in be-ar’tzot ha-brit. |
| אופיר: יש לך אחים? |
| Ofir: Yesh lakh aħim? |
| אנה: כן. יש לי שני אחים ואחות אחת. |
| Anna: Ken, yesh li shne’i aħim ve-aħot aħat. |
| Sherah: Let’s listen to the conversation one more time, slowly. |
| אופיר: את עולה חדשה בארץ? |
| Ofir: At olah ħadasha ba-aretz? |
| אנה: כן. אני באתי מארצות הברית. אתה מהקיבוץ? |
| Anna: Ken,ani ba’ti me-ar’tzot ha-brit. Atah me-ha-kibbutz? |
| אופיר: כן. אני גדלתי פה בקיבוץ. יש לך משפחה בארץ? |
| Ofir: Ken, Ani gadal’ti po ba-kibbutz. Yesh lakh mish’paħah ba-aretz? |
| אנה: יש לי פה רק דודים. כל המשפחה שלי עדיין בארצות הברית. |
| Anna: Yesh li po rak dodim. Kol ha-mish’paħah sheli ada’in be-ar’tzot ha-brit. |
| אופיר: יש לך אחים? |
| Ofir: Yesh lakh aħim? |
| אנה: כן. יש לי שני אחים ואחות אחת. |
| Anna: Ken, yesh li shne’i aħim ve-aħot aħat. |
| Sherah: Now, let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| אופיר: את עולה חדשה בארץ? |
| Ofir: At olah ħadasha ba-aretz? |
| Ofir: Are you a new immigrant in Israel? |
| אנה: כן. אני באתי מארצות הברית. אתה מהקיבוץ? |
| Anna: Ken,ani ba’ti me-ar’tzot ha-brit. Atah me-ha-kibbutz? |
| Anna: Yes, I came from the United States. Are you from the kibbutz? |
| אופיר: כן. אני גדלתי פה בקיבוץ. יש לך משפחה בארץ? |
| Ofir: Ken, Ani gadal’ti po ba-kibbutz. Yesh lakh mish’paħah ba-aretz? |
| Ofir: Yes. I grew up here in the kibbutz. Do you have family here in Israel? |
| אנה: יש לי פה רק דודים. כל המשפחה שלי עדיין בארצות הברית. |
| Anna: Yesh li po rak dodim. Kol ha-mish’paħah sheli ada’in be-ar’tzot ha-brit. |
| Anna: I have aunts and uncles here. All of my family is still in the United States. |
| אופיר: יש לך אחים? |
| Ofir: Yesh lakh aħim? |
| Ofir: Do you have siblings? |
| אנה: כן. יש לי שני אחים ואחות אחת. |
| Anna: Ken, yesh li shne’i aħim ve-aħot aħat. |
| Anna: Yes, I have two brothers and one sister. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sherah: Since we’ve been talking about kibbutzim, let’s continue on. Another important part of the kibbutz is the dining hall. |
| Amir: In the past, everything in the kibbutz centered around the dining hall. |
| Sherah: It’s like the heart of the kibbutz. |
| Amir: In an effort to create a sense of community among the kibbutz members, everyone had to eat their meals in the kibbutz dining hall. |
| Sherah: Some kibbutzim were more relaxed, and you could eat one meal at home. |
| Amir: Well, there are stories of kibbutzim in the 50s that wouldn’t allow their members to have a hot water kettle in their house because they wanted them to come to the dining hall, even for their tea or coffee. |
| Sherah: Wow! I even heard that sometimes couples who were married weren’t allowed to sit together because it would create an atmosphere of exclusivity, and that was against the idea of equality and community. |
| Amir: No matter what the “rules” of the kibbutz are, the dining hall is what brought people together during the day. |
| Sherah: Well, I’m sure that there’s lots to talk about and lots to catch up on in the dining hall. But for now, let’s move on to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Sherah: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Sherah: The first word we shall see is... |
| Amir: משפחה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: family |
| Amir: משפחה [slowly - broken down by syllable] משפחה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: פה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: here |
| Amir: פה [slowly - broken down by syllable] פה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: אחות [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: sister, nurse |
| Amir: אחות [slowly - broken down by syllable] אחות [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: לגדול [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: to grow |
| Amir: לגדול [slowly - broken down by syllable] לגדול [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: דוד [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: uncle |
| Amir: דוד [slowly - broken down by syllable] דוד [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: עדיין [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: still |
| Amir: עדיין [slowly - broken down by syllable] עדיין [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: אחים [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: brothers |
| Amir: אחים [slowly - broken down by syllable] אחים [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: אדמה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: land |
| Amir: אדמה [slowly - broken down by syllable] אדמה [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Sherah Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is אחים |
| Amir: אחים is the plural for אח, which is “brother”. |
| Sherah: אחים can mean two things - it can mean “brothers”, but it can also mean “siblings”. |
| Amir: Like other nouns in Hebrew, the masculine plural can include both the male and female of that noun. |
| Sherah: Right, so if you had 5 sisters and one brother, they would still be called אחים even though there were more girls than boys. |
| Amir: אח can also be amale nurse or you can call a close friend אח. |
| Sherah: If you add the suffix for “my” and say אחי it can be used as a slang word. |
| Amir: Yes, אחי is like “buddy” or “pal”. |
| Sherah: לגדול is our next word and it can have several different meanings. |
| Amir: The basic meaning is “to grow” and it can cover anything from “to grow up” to “to multiply”. |
| Sherah: Right, it means both “to grow older” or “to grow taller”, but it can also mean “to grow stronger”. |
| Amir: לגדול is in the verb group ‘pa’al’. If you were to use the same root in the ‘pi’el’ verb group it means “to grow” as well. |
| Sherah: But that’s a different kind of “to grow”. That is to grow something, like to grow plants. |
| Amir: This is a good example of how the same root changes its meaning a little bit from one verb group to another. |
| Sherah: The last word we want to talk about is ארץ. |
| Amir: This means “land” or “country” and can also mean “earth” or “world”. |
| Sherah: It also has a special meaning though – if you add the word for “the” before it, it becomes the special word that we call Israel הארץ. |
| Amir: It literally means “the country”, but we know it as our name for Israel. |
| Sherah: There is also a newspaper by the same name, by the way. They have an English edition online if you want to check it out. Okay, let’s move on to the Grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Sherah: In this lesson, you will learn how to use the definite article -ה with prefixed prepositions. |
| Amir: Our sample sentence from the dialogue is אני גדלתי פה בקיבוץ |
| Sherah: Right, in the dialogue, Ofir told Anna that he grew up on the kibbutz. And those two little words “on the” are what we’re looking at in this lesson. |
| Amir: The reason we are talking about this is that they combine when they appear together. In Hebrew, -ב meaning “on” or “at” and -ה meaning “the” combine to become “bah”. |
| Sherah: Right, Ofir says אני גדלתי פה בקיבוץ. |
| Amir: Listen to the difference between “on a kibbutz” בקיבוץ and “on the kibbutz” בקיבוץ. |
| Sherah: This is tricky because they’re spelled exactly the same, but the vowels are different. |
| Amir: This also happens when you combine -ל, meaning “to” and -כ meaning “as” with a -ה as well. |
| Sherah: But it doesn’t happen with the remaining prefixed preposition -מ or “from”. |
| Amir: No, the vowel on the -מ becomes ‘meh’ and the -ה follows it before the noun. |
| Sherah: so it’s -מה. Since it’s better for you to hear this than see it, we have some examples. Amir, take it away. |
| Amir: okay אני נשאר בביניין. |
| Sherah: I am staying in the building. |
| Amir: הוא הולך לקולנוע. |
| Sherah: He is going to the movies. |
| Amir: היא מתנהגת כאחות הגדולה. |
| Sherah: She’s acting like the older sister. |
| Amir: איפה המפתח מהבית? |
| Sherah: Where is the key from the house? |
| Amir: There are two examples in the dialogue that are a little more complicated. |
| Sherah: That’s right. The United States or ארצות הברית is a סמיכות which is a noun phrase. |
| Amir: A ‘smichut’ noun is where two or more nouns are joined together because they are dependent one on the other for their meaning. |
| Sherah: When we say “United States” together, you know that we’re talking about a country, and in Hebrew these kinds of nouns get special treatment. |
| Amir: Something that makes a ‘smichut’ stand out is if there is a -ה or “the” attached to it, it only occurs on the last word. |
| Sherah: That’s why in the ‘smichut’ ארצות הברית, the -ה is on the second word ברית. |
| Amir: So, what does this mean when you add a prefixed preposition to the ‘smichut’?. |
| Sherah: Well, it’s actually easy. The preposition is added to the first word and the -ה remains on the last word. |
| Amir: So, when you want to say “in the United States”, you say בארצות הברית. |
| Sherah: So, here are the phrases in the dialogue so you can take note of this... |
| Amir: אני באתי מארצות הברית. |
| Sherah: I came from the United States. |
| Amir: כל המשפחה שלי עדיין בארצות הבריתי |
| Sherah: ”All of my family is still in the United States.” |
Outro |
|---|
| Sherah: Okay, that’s going to do it for this lesson. Make sure you check the lesson notes, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Amir: Now that you’ve listened to this lesson, please visit HebrewPod101.com and tell us about your family. |
| Sherah: Bye! |
Comments
Hide