Learn how to form general sentences with adjectives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sherah:Hello and welcome back to Hebrewpod101.com. This is Lower Intermediate, Season 1, Lesson 24 - You Need To Do Your Own Israeli Work. I’m your host, Sherah! |
| Amir:And I’m Amir. |
| Sherah:In this lesson, you'll learn to make general sentences with adjectives. |
| Amir:The conversation takes place at the Levi family home. |
| Sherah:It’s between Dan and Ma’ayan. |
| Amir:The speakers are family, and they’ll be using informal Hebrew. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sherah:Like Ma’ayan helping Dan navigate high school, it’s normal for parents to help their young children. |
| Amir:Yes, that’s pretty normal, but in Israel parenting often goes farther than high school. |
| Sherah:Yes, you're still quite attached to your parents while you’re in the army. You go home when you have breaks and still keep all your stuff there. |
| Amir:And your parents may still help you financially while you’re in the army and also in university. |
| Sherah:Most people would expect that once you're done with university, you wouldn’t be in need of your parents help anymore. |
| Amir:Unfortunately in Israel, this isn’t the case. Many adult children still need their parents’ help because salaries are low and rent high compared to many other western countries. |
| Sherah:Right, they just can’t cope with the expenses. |
| Amir:It’s not just housing expenses. Food is also much more expensive. |
| Sherah:And gas is four times more expensive than what you pay in the US. |
| Amir:So, put all these factors together, and you have a lot of Israelis in their early 30s who still need financial help from their parents. |
| Sherah:It’s sad, but it’s just part of the reality of life 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 חומר. |
| Amir:חומר has many different meanings like “material”, “matter”, “stuff”, “subject”, or “agent”. |
| Sherah:One expression that uses this word is חומר גלם, and this means “raw material”. |
| Amir:Another word that uses חומר is חומר למחשבה, meaning “food for thought”. |
| Sherah:Literally, this means “material for thought”. |
| Amir:There's another phrase that uses this word that’s not so pleasant, and that's חומר נפץ or “explosives”. |
| Sherah:The next word we want to talk about is עניין, and this means “affair”, “concern”, “matter,” or “subject”. |
| Amir:You can use it in a few different ways, like היא עושה עניין מזה |
| Sherah:This means “She makes a big deal out of it”. |
| Amir:You can also say באיזה עניין רצית לדבר? and this means “On what subject did you want to talk about?” |
| Sherah:There are several different expressions that use this word. One that you will hear a lot in Hebrew is מה העניינים? (mah ha-in’yanim?) and this means “what’s happening?” |
| Amir:It literally means “what are the affairs?”. |
| Sherah:Another expression using this word is ...בעניין ה We use this when we want to talk with someone about a specific subject. |
| Amir:For instance, you could say בעניין הכסף (ba-in’yan ha-kesef) if you wanted to talk to someone about the money. |
| Sherah:The last phrase we want to talk about is לא חשוב. |
| Amir:Israelis use this as “nevermind”. |
| Sherah:Right, it can also mean “don’t think about it!” Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Sherah:In this lesson you’ll learn about making general sentences with adjectives. |
| Amir:In Hebrew, there are a few different ways to make general sentences that can apply to everyone. |
| Sherah:One way we’ve talked about before is using a verb in the masculine plural without a subject, like מדברים אנגלית באנגליה. It means "They speak English in England." |
| Amir:In this lesson, we'll be making general sentences using an adjective and a verb in the infinitive. |
| Sherah:In the sample sentence from the dialogue, Ma’ayan makes a statement to Dan that it’s important to do your tests on your own. |
| Amir:Right, she says חשוב לכתוב את המבחן לבד. |
| Sherah:She says, "It’s important to take the test alone." There is no subject in this sentence. This makes it general, something that can be applied to anyone. |
| Amir:To do this, she uses the adjective חשוב and the verb לכתוב in the infinitive. |
| Sherah:Right, and we should say here that, in Hebrew you say “to write a test” or לכתוב מבחן instead of “to take a test”. |
| Amir:The English is translated as “it is important”, but the Hebrew only has the adjective “important”. |
| Sherah:חשוב or important, can be paired with other verbs to say what is important to do. |
| Amir:Like חשוב לשתות מים כל יום |
| Sherah:Later on in the dialogue, Ma’ayan wants to teach Dan about learning the material on his own. She wants to tell him that it’s easy to ask people for the answers, but it’s better to know the material yourself. |
| Amir:So, she begins by saying קל לשאול שאלות בזמן הבחינה. |
| Sherah:“It’s easy to ask questions during the test”. Here Ma’ayan uses the adjective קל or “easy” and לשאול meaning “to ask”. |
| Amir:Another example with קל is קל להכין חביתה. |
| Sherah:"It’s easy to prepare an omelet." |
| Amir:The next adjective used in the dialogue is קשה, meaning “difficult”. Dan says, קשה להיות בשיעור שלה. |
| Sherah:Right, he says, “It’s difficult to be in her class”. |
| Amir:Another example with the adjective קשה is קשה למצוא שלג בארץ |
| Sherah:“It’s hard to find snow in Israel”. |
| Amir:Another adjective you can use in sentences like these is נעים, which means "pleasant." |
| Sherah:Yes, you could say something like נעים לשבת בחוף הים בערב, which means "It’s nice to sit on the beach in the evening." |
| Amir:In order to make these sentences more personal, you can add the preposition -ל with a pronoun or noun. |
| Sherah:Right, if I wanted to say that it’s nice for me to sit on the beach in the evening, I would add לי after the adjective and say נעים לי לשבת בחוף הים בערב |
| Amir:Or if we wanted to say that it’s easy for Dad to make an omelet, we would say קל לאבא להכין חביתה |
| Sherah:And if we want to make these sentences in the past or future, we can add the verb להיות, or “to be,” in the past or the future. |
| Amir:So, the beach sentence in the past would be היה נעים לשבת בחוף הים בערב. |
| Sherah:And "It will be easy for Dad to make an omelet", which is in the future, is יהיה קל לאבא להכין חביתה . |
Outro |
|---|
| 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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