Learn three different ways to say "because" in Hebrew
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sherah:Hello and welcome back to Hebrewpod101.com. This is Lower Intermediate, Season 1, Lesson 20 - Will That Israeli Soccer Team Let You Play With a Broken Arm? I’m your host, Sherah! |
| Amir:And I’m Amir. |
| Sherah:In this lesson, you'll learn three ways to say “because” in Hebrew. |
| Amir:The conversation takes place at Dan and Li’el’s school. |
| Sherah:It’s between Dan and Li’el. |
| Amir:The speakers are family, and they’ll be using informal Hebrew. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sherah:So, going to school in Israel, you should be an expert on that, Amir. |
| Amir:I guess so. Well, like North American schools, Israeli schools are divided into three levels. |
| Sherah:Right, primary school is from first to sixth grade, middle school is from seventh to ninth, and secondary school or high school is from tenth to twelfth. |
| Amir:Something that is different though is that we have four different types of schools. We have state schools, which are secular schools and conducted in Hebrew. |
| Sherah:Right and then there are the state-religious schools. In these schools they teach about Judaism, and they emphasize tradition and religious observance. |
| Amir:You don’t have to be religious to go to a state-religious school, but you do if you go to the next type of school which is the Orthodox religious schools or the Haredi schools. |
| Sherah:The fourth type of school are the Arab schools. These schools are conducted in Arabic and serve the Arab-Israeli, Druze, and Beduin populations. |
| Amir:Another difference with Israeli schools is that we only study until one in the afternoon each day. |
| Sherah:Well, that and you study from Sunday to Friday instead of only five days a week. |
| Amir:I think the biggest difference is that school is not a social hub for us. We don’t have sports teams connected with the schools or anything like that. |
| Sherah:You make friends at school, but your social life is not centered on the school like it is in North America. You also don’t have school dances like we do. |
| Amir:A few schools do, but it’s not a very popular thing in Israel. |
| 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 we want to talk about is במקום. |
| Amir:במקום means “instead of” or “in lieu of”. |
| Sherah:When you literally break it down, it means “in the place of”. |
| Amir:This word can take pronoun suffixes like other conjunctions. |
| Sherah:It can also just be followed by a noun. Here are some examples of במקום with a pronoun suffix. במקומי means “instead of me”. |
| Amir:במקומה means "instead of her." Here is במקום followed by a noun במקום גשם, meaning “instead of rain”. |
| Sherah:In a sentence, this would be אני רוצה שמש במקום גשם. "I want sun instead of rain." |
| Amir:Who doesn’t, right? The next word we want to talk about is להצליח or “to succeed”. |
| Sherah:It can also mean “to make it” or “to prosper”. |
| Amir:It can be paired with a verb in the infinitive like להצליח להתמודד or “to succeed coping”. |
| Sherah:When you want it to carry the meaning of “prospering” or “making it” you can simply say הוא מצליח or “he’s making it”. |
| Amir:The last word we want to talk about is לפגוע. |
| Sherah:This is a pa’al verb that means “to hurt”, “to injure,” or “to insult”. This verb can be used for both physical injuries and emotional injuries. |
| Amir:For example, a physical injury would be פגעתי ברגל or “I injured my foot”. |
| Sherah:An example of a sentence that talks about emotional injury is הוא פגע בי or “He hurt me”. |
| Amir:There are a few expressions that use this word, the first is פגע וברח, and this is just like in English, a “hit and run”. |
| Sherah:Another expression is לפגוע בכבודו meaning “to slight” or “offend” someone. Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Sherah:In this lesson, you’ll learn how to say “because” three different ways in Hebrew. |
| Amir:The most basic way to say because in Hebrew is כי. |
| Sherah:Right, the word כי separates two clauses, the first making a statement and the second stating the reason. |
| Amir:Each of the clauses could stand on their own. |
| Sherah:With כי the order of the sentence matters. כי separates the two clauses and must be in the middle. You cannot open a sentence with כי in Hebrew. |
| Amir:In the sample sentence Dan says to Ma’ayan את לא תצליחי or “You won’t succeed”. |
| Sherah:...and then he says כי for “because,” and then the explanation of why כי השחקנים הטובים כולם כבר פה or “because the good players are already here”. |
| Amir:Another way to say “because” is with בגלל. |
| Sherah:Yes, it’s used in a different way though. We use בגלל when we want to say “because of something” and it's followed by a noun or noun phrase and not a full clause. |
| Amir:We see this in the sample sentence הרופא אמר לך שאתה לא יכול לשחק כדורגל, בגלל היד השבורה. |
| Sherah:Right, Li’el says that the doctor told Dan he couldn’t play soccer because of his broken arm. The phrase that uses בגלל is בגלל היד השבורה or “because of your broken arm”. |
| Amir:בגלל can be used at the beginning of the sentence or at the end, but it must be followed by a noun or a noun phrase, not a full sentence or clause. |
| Sherah:This is important because most Israelis use it wrongly and say בגלל ש followed by a full clause. |
| Amir:Right, if you said בגלל שהיד שלך שבורה, it would be wrong, but you'll hear Israeli say this all the time. |
| Sherah:Instead of that, you should say מכוון ש, and this is another way we can say “because” in Hebrew. |
| Amir:מכוון ש can mean “because” or “since”. You'll find it used both in written and spoken Hebrew. |
| Sherah:מכוון ש precedes the clause that states the reason for the main statement. |
| Amir:In the dialogue, Dan used this phrase when he said, אני חייב לשחק מכוון שאין להם מספיק שחקנים |
| Sherah:Unlike כי, this can be used in the beginning of a sentence or in the middle between the two clauses. |
| Amir:Right, Dan could've said מכוון שאין להם מספיק שחקנים, אני חייב לשחק |
| Sherah:So, let’s look at some example sentences using using all three of these words for "because." Amir will give the Hebrew, and I'll give the English. |
| Amir:First is ki. הוא לא בא לבית הספר כי הוא חולה |
| Sherah:"He’s not coming to school because he’s sick." Next is בגלל |
| Amir:הוא לא בא לבית הספר בגלל המחלה.. |
| Sherah:"He's not coming to school because of the sickness." Notice here that בגלל is followed by a noun “the sickness”. |
| Amir:הוא לא בא לבית הספר מכוון שהוא חולה |
| Sherah:"He's not coming to school because he is sick." And now with מכוון ש leading the sentence. |
| Amir:מכוון שהוא חולה, הוא לא בא לבית הספר |
| Sherah:"Since he’s sick, he's not coming to school." |
Outro |
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| Sherah:Ok, that’s all for this lesson. Come see us at HebrewPod101.com and talk to us about what you’ve learned here. |
| Amir:Thanks for being with us, everyone, |
| Sherah:Bye! |
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