Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster.

In modern Hebrew, is there any analogue for the phrase "to polish a turd"? I asked my dad (native speaker, but hasn't lived in Israel since the 90s) and he said the closest analogue would be

לעשות טלית משיער של חזיר

which still doesn't feel quite right.

Thanks all!

Obviously פרקליט השטן is not a real alternative

What’s the right way to end a formal presentation in an academic setting? Is there a more formal way to say תודה רבה ? For example if I want to have my final slide say תודה רבה is that acceptable? Or is there something standard and more formal people write?

I've been learning hebrew since October 8th. I started off with Pimsleur which I finished several months ago and for now I'm learning new vocab and spending most of my time a) practicing speaking ~30 minutes a day with my Israeli family and b) listings/reading comprehension with videos/subtitles.

My question is this: I understand the binyanim system and I know several dozen verbs. But the problem is, I don't know how to recognize which binyanim a verb is based on the infinitive (which is what I have been memorizing). Is there a good system to recognize this easily or is that just simply all memorized?

I always wanted to speak another language fluently. I learned some Hebrew in school but not enough to speak fluently. Eventually I started learning Spanish because there are lots of Spanish speakers here in the USA. Then I went to Israel for a bit and decided to switch to Hebrew but I had a much more difficult time practicing it than I thought I would. When I wanted to speak Hebrew in a store they would immediately switch to English. English signs were almost everywhere. And when I tried practicing with Israelies, they would switch to English either because they knew English so well or they wanted to practice their English. When I tried to speak Hebrew they didn’t seem impressed or interested and I didn’t get much help when I tried. I then decided to switch back to Spanish because my experience with it has been much more positive. Whenever I spoke Spanish to a Spanish speaker in the USA their eyes would light up and they seemed impressed and would encourage Spanish speaking and were more ready to help me with it. It makes me feel bad because I really want to learn Hebrew one day fluently but I didn’t really feel supported when I tried to in the way when I speak English. So the plan is to master Spanish before mastering Hebrew. Did any of you also experience that? Or has your experience been more positive? Why do you think Israelies are like that?

Has anyone taken this online course? The cost seems pretty reasonable, $750 for three months of twice weekly 2 hour lessons. My level would be 1B. Quality of this course?

Shalom khaverim! I'm an Assyrian who deeply adores the Hebrew language and the Hebrew Bible. I'm a super beginner so I do not know that much but I've self-learned the Hebrew alphabet and can read Hebrew just fine (but slowly, lol).

When I was learning words in Hebrew, I was literally shocked at how close it is to Assyrian. It's important to note that I was born in Duhok, which is the northern part of Iraq. Assyrian language has around 150 dialects, sometimes making it tricky even to the community itself (but the majority of them are close/similar). About 50 of them are referred to as "Jewish dialects," Jews that spoke Assyrian and/or Aramaic. The dialect I speak is of the Jews in northern Iraq (many people call it "Chaldean dialect" but it's wrong).
Also, my Jewish great-grandmother might be one of the reasons for us growing up with this dialect at home.

Below is a list of similar words that were a ton of fun to learn that I came across.
Note: The "aa" in Assyrian is just a longer "a". In Hebrew, that is kamatz! And "oo" is a longer "u," etc.

(Hebrew - Assyrian - English)

• Kokhav - Kawikhwa - Star
• Khaver - Khawra - Friend
• Shalom - Shlaama - Peace
• Kelev - Kalba - Dog
• Ayn - Ayna - Eye
• Yarok - Yarooqa - Green
• Khamutz - Khamoosa - Sour
• Yeled - Yaala - Boy
• Yaldah - Yalta - Girl
• Melekh - Malka - King >!(Yes, I know what you're thinking here. lol)!<
• Malkah - Malktha - Queen
• Omer - Aamr - Says
• Tov - Taawa - Good
• Brakhah - Buriktha - Blessing
• Laylah - Layle - Night
• Khalav - Khilya - Milk
• Abba - Baaba - Father
• Ima - Yimma - Mother
• Khayim - Khaaye - Life
• Okhel - Ekhaala - Food
• Okhel - Khol - Eat
• Lekhem - Lakhma - Bread
• Mayim - Maaye - Water
• Shamayim - Shmayya - Sky/Heaven
• Ata/At - Aati - You
• Gever - Gawra - Man
• Egoz - Gawza - Nut
• Orez - Rizza - Rice
• Kore - Qaare - Read
• Sefer - Sifra/Kthaawa - Book
• Shema' - Shmee - Hear
• Shem - Shmma - Name
• Lashon - Lishaana - Tongue/Language
• Shemesh - Shimsha - Sun

I hope you find this amusing! I just wanted to share it for fun. I'm pretty sure the list could be a lot longer but these are the words that I came across so far.

If you have questions, I'll be more than happy to answer! Cheers.

EDIT: Seems like this post has spiked a lot of interest. Thank you all so much for the love and positivity! I'll keep adding more similar words that I find into this post. Shalom u'brakha!

Hi all.

I have a collection of photos of approx 65 Jewish gravestones dating to the late 18th and early 19th centuries from Liverpool, UK. Many are bilingual (Hebrew and English), some are Hebrew only. Some are in good condition with longer inscriptions of 6 or 7 lines, others very weathered and only fragments are visible.

I'm looking for volunteer help with translating them, or recommendations of people to contact.
I don't have anything to offer in return as it is an unfunded project, but any further work will credit anyone who can help!

Unfortunately the local community no longer uses Hebrew in their daily life, and as these gravestones commemorate some of the earliest immigrants to the area, I suspect the language may be "less anglicised" than later memorials. Which is why I'm throwing out a wide net for help!

I've included a couple of examples.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

https://preview.redd.it/zea8a56ngtyc1.jpg?width=4289&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6793239147aa1e3cde5a432d0281913a073003ed

https://preview.redd.it/yel6d71pgtyc1.jpg?width=4490&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7cc79c271dc76f35b2c5a45bb57bb7f0cd211835

I’m thinking about getting a biblical quote tattoo in Hebrew. But as I don’t speak Hebrew I don’t know which translation is correct. So which one is correct?

(The verse I wanna tattoo is Isaiah 41:10 NIV “Fear not for I am with you”.)

1 אל תפחד כי אני איתך

Or

2 ‎אל תירא כי עמך אני

How do you say I’m excited for your future in Hebrew?

אני מתרגש לעתיד שלך? או מרוגש?

So, long story short, i need an english translation for a poem by Yonatan Ratosh called "Eva", or "Hava" in herbrew. I think i've looked through half of internet at this point and i'm not even sure such a translation even exist. Any info would be appriciated. If you have a translation on any other language or at least the original lyrics, that would also help ❤

Apart from Duolingo what’s the best way to learn Hebrew, as a native English speaker.

Hi! I would highly appreciate if you could help me with the following question (unfortunately I couldn’t make it out by myself). So when specifically is אלא אם כן used and what is its meaning?

For example: אני רוצה תפוח אלא אם כן היא רוצה תפוח

Does this mean “I want an apple if she WANTS an apple” or rather on the contrary “I want an apple if she DOES NOT want an apple”? My search in the internet provided me with both-sided examples sometimes :(

תודה רבה על עזרתכם!

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to get my mother in law a necklace in Hebrew with her name but can someone help me to write her name in Hebrew?

Her name is “Karina”.

Thank you!!

hi!! i really want to get fluent in hebrew; i know how to read and write and some basic language, but sm of my family speaks ONLY hebrew and im rlly anxious to learn the language to make up for lost time this summer (my semester just ended). any tips/suggestions? literally ANYTHING is helpful :)

I mean, both languages do not inherit the same script, as Hebrew has its own writing system that differs from Arabic, but does that mean the phonologies between both languages are somewhat similar in certain words? Are there phonemes in Arabic that do not cross over into Hebrew thus making it difficult to learn its pronunciation?

I recently got interested in semitic languages, and I started learning Hebrew. Now I want to learn Arabic as well so I can compare the two. I like it when I dive into a new language and keep discovering "easter eggs" based on a related language. Which variety would be more conducive to this, eastern/levantine or modern standard? thank you!

if you don't know, would you be able to search a couple of examples online of eastern and standard and tell me which one seem closer or more recognizable?

I asked a while ago about ways to spell gefilte fish.

I have since learned a bit more about the type of spelling I might be after, and although I am not very hopeful, I would like to ask a very specific question:

I believe most Israelis would refer to the dish as simply "gefilte", which I think has 4 "reasonable" spellings געפילטע, or געפילטה or גפילטע or גפילטה.

Now I know that the niqqud spelling of the last one is גֶפִילטֶה

Could you guys please provide the niqqud spelling of the second-to-last one? Do the first two even have niqqud spellings, given that they seem to come directly from yiddish?

Also, if any of the niqqud spellings has other variants, or you can think of any other "reasonable" spellings, please provide them.

And one final thing: I believe that the Hebrew niqqud spelling of the yiddish word fish would be פִיש - but are there any other ones?

Thanks very much in advance for your time.

Can anyone please explain the differences between bifnim, betoch and ba'emtsa? Thank you!