Dialogue

Vocabulary (Review)

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

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.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Notes

Unlock In-Depth Explanations & Exclusive Takeaways with Printable Lesson Notes

Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Transcript

Intro

Shira: Hello and welcome to hebrewpod101.com’s Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 12: Can you Eat this Israeli Meatball? I’m your host, Shira!
Amir: And I’m Amir.
Shira: In this lesson, you will learn how to ask if someone can do something in Hebrew.
Amir: The conversation takes place at David and Sarah’s house.
Shira: And again, it’s between Peter, David and Sarah.
Amir: And it’s informal.
Shira: Let’s listen to the conversation

Lesson conversation

Peter: מה זה?
(Mah zeh?)
Sarah: זאת קציצה.
(Zot k'tzitzah.)
Peter: קציצה?
(K'tzitzah?)
David:כן. זה בשר. אתה יכול לאכול בשר?
(Ken. Zeh basar. Atah yakhol le-ekhol basar?)
Peter: כן. מממממ... זה טעים!
(Ken. Mmmm... Zeh ta'im!)
Shira: Let’s listen to the conversation one more time slowly.
Peter: מה זה?
(Mah zeh?)
Sarah: זאת קציצה.
(Zot k'tzitzah.)
Peter: קציצה?
(K'tzitzah?)
David:כן. זה בשר. אתה יכול לאכול בשר?
(Ken. Zeh basar. Atah yakhol le-ekhol basar?)
Peter: כן. מממממ... זה טעים!
(Ken. Mmmm... Zeh ta'im!)
Shira: Let’s listen to the conversation with English translation
Amir: מה זה?
(Mah zeh?)
Shira: What is this?
Amir: זאת קציצה.
(Zot k'tzitzah.)
Shira: This is a meatball.
Amir: קציצה?
(K'tzitzah?)
Shira: Meatball?
Amir: כן. זה בשר. אתה יכול לאכול בשר?
(Ken. Zeh basar. Atah yakhol le-ekhol basar?)
Shira: Yes, it’s meat. Can you eat meat?
Amir: כן. מממממ... זה טעים!
(Ken. Mmmm... Zeh ta'im!)
Shira: Yes. Mmm… it’s delicious!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Amir: So, I’m guessing that you want to talk about meat in this lesson!
Shira: You know me!
Amir: Well, there is probably one thing that is fairly obvious to our listeners and that is that pork is hard to find in Israel.
Shira: It is – you won’t find it in the major supermarkets in Israel, only in smaller non-kosher markets.
Amir: In fact, all the meat sold in the major supermarkets must be certified as kosher, which means that it meets all the guidelines for kosher butchering.
Shira: That’s right, both Jews and Muslims abstain from pork, and have special laws regarding their meat, so it is strictly enforced in Israel.
Amir: That also means that the dairy and meat sections are not near to one another in the supermarket. You wouldn’t want those two to mix or you would have a huge problem on your hands.
Shira: Right! So, when it comes to meat, Israelis eat mostly beef and poultry, with a little lamb as well.
Amir: Usually, you can find all these things, except lamb, in the major supermarkets, and there will be a butcher present as well if you need special cuts.
Shira: You can even pick which cut you want for ground beef, and they will grind it for you on the spot.
Amir: There are also independent butcher shops where you can go and find other kinds of meat, like lamb. Or if you need a big Turkey for thanksgiving, they will order it for you.
Shira: When it comes to meat in restaurants, there are many new things to try.
Amir: My personal recommendation would be to try the grilled meat on skewers, or k’tzitzot, like we had in our dialogue.
Shira: There is also Shwarma, which you can get from street vendors and it’s usually made from turkey or .
Amir: Or even better, humus with seasoned ground beef in it! Yum!
Shira: Yes, that is a definite must! Now let’s go to the vocabulary for this lesson.
VOCAB LIST
First we have:
Amir: קציצה (K'tzitzah)
Shira: meatball
Amir: קציצה (K'tzitzah)
Amir: קציצה (K'tzitzah)
Next:
Amir: בשר (basar)
Shira: meat
Amir: בשר (basar)
Amir: בשר (basar)
Next:
Amir: אתה (atah)
Shira: you (masc.)
Amir: אתה (atah)
Amir: אתה (atah)
Next:
Amir: יכול (yakhol)
Shira: can or be able to
Amir: יכול (yakhol)
Amir: יכול (yakhol)
And last:
Amir: לאכול (le-ekhol)
Shira: to eat
Amir: לאכול (le-ekhol)
Amir: לאכול (le-ekhol)
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Shira: Let’s take a closer look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is קציצה (K'tzitzah).
Amir: A קציצה (K'tzitzah) is the Israeli version of a meatball. They usually have meat, breadcrumbs, onion and cumin in them as well as other spices, depending on who makes them.
Shira: They are very tasty and usually flatter than traditional meatballs.
Amir: The next word is בשר (basar) which means “meat” in Hebrew. Most often it refers to red meat, but it can also mean poultry depending on the context.
Shira: If it’s used in a biblical context it means “flesh”.
Amir: Our next vocabulary word is יכול (yakhol) or “can”.
Shira: This word is a bit irregular in that it doesn’t have an infinitive form and it changes a bit in the future.
Amir: We don’t need to learn that at this point though, so just know that the dictionary form is also יכל (chal).
Shira: This is a verb that we will be talking about more in our grammar section in a few minutes.
Amir: Our last word is, לאכול (le-ekhol) or “to eat”.
Shira: Okay, let’s move on to the Grammar section.

Lesson focus

Shira: In this lesson you will learn how to ask if someone can do something in Hebrew.
Amir: For this, we need our vocabulary word for “can”, יכול (yakhol).
Shira: This is the conjugation for “you” masculine in the singular, you would say אתה יכול (Atah Yachol).
Amir: If you are speaking to a woman, you would say את יכולה (At Yecholah).
Shira: After these two words, you add the verb that you want to ask about, “to swim”, “to cook”, “to speak” etc.
Amir: In the dialogue, we used לאכול (Le-echol) or “to eat”.
Shira: And of course, everyone can eat, so David needed to ask Peter about something specific he could eat, like בשר (basar) or meat.
Amir: So, the full sentence was אתה יכול לאכול בשר? (Atah yakhol le-ekhol basar?)
Shira: “Can you eat meat?“
Amir: To ask this question, we used voice inflection, but you can use the other ways that we learned to ask a question.
Shira: Right, like with נכון (nakhon).
Amir: אתה יכול לאכול בשר, נכון? (Atah yakhol le-ekhol basar, nakhon?)
Shira: Or with האם (Hayim)...
Amir: האם אתה יכול לאכול בשר? (Hayim atah yakhol le-ekhol basar?)
Shira: Okay, now that we have that down, we need to give you the other options.
Amir: Right, you can’t just talk to men all the time. There will be other people you talk to, like women, or groups of people.
Shira: So, we have worked up some examples for these other groups. First up, let’s ask a woman something using את יכולה (At Yecholah).
Amir: את יכולה לשיר? (At yekhola la-shir?)
Shira: ודאי! Amir just asked if I can sing. את יכולה לשיר? (At yekhola la-shir?) So now what about when we need to talk to more than one person? We need the masculine plural for that.
Amir: We start that sentence with אתם יכולים. אתם יכולים לבוא מחר? (Atem yekholim la-vo maħar?)
Shira: “Can you (plural) come tomorrow?” And now for the last one, what if you want to talk to a group of girls.
Amir: What guy doesn’t want to talk to a group of girls, right?
Shira: (laughs) For this you need אתן יכולות (Aten Yecholot).
Amir: Right. אתן יכולות לדבר בעברית? (Aten hekholot le-daber be-ivrit?)
Shira: “Can you speak in Hebrew?”
Amir: That’s useful if you want to find someone to practice your Hebrew with.
Shira: Yes, it sure is. Okay, that’s it for this lesson.
Amir: Now that you’ve listened to this lesson, please visit HebrewPod101.com and ask us what we can do in Hebrew.

Outro

Shira: See you next time!
Amir: Le-hit’ra’ot!

Comments

Hide