Dialogue

Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

Intro

Shira: Hello and welcome to HebrewPod101.com’s Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 3 - Showing Appreciation in Hebrew. I’m your host, Shira.
Amir: And I’m Amir.
Shira: In this lesson, you will learn how to show appreciation in Hebrew.
Amir: The conversation takes place at a home.
Shira: It’s between two friends.
Amir: Although this is an informal conversation, the same conversation could be used in a formal setting as well.
Shira: Let’s listen to the conversation

Lesson conversation

A: ברוך הבא, כנס בבקשה.
(Barukh ha-ba, kanes be-vakashah.)
B: תודה! הנה מתנה קטנה ממני. בבקשה.
(Todah! Hineh matanah k’tanah mimeni. Be-vakashah.)
A: תודה רבה!
(Todah rabah!)
B: בבקשה.
(Be-vakashah.)
Shira: Let’s listen to the conversation one more time slowly.
A: ברוך הבא, כנס בבקשה.
(Barukh ha-ba, kanes be-vakashah.)
B: תודה! הנה מתנה קטנה ממני. בבקשה.
(Todah! Hineh matanah k’tanah mimeni. Be-vakashah.)
A: תודה רבה!
(Todah rabah!)
B: בבקשה.
(Be-vakashah.)
Shira: Let’s listen to the conversation with the English translation.
A: ברוך הבא, כנס בבקשה.
(Barukh ha-ba, kanes be-vakashah.)
Shira: Welcome. Come in, please.
B: תודה! הנה מתנה קטנה ממני. בבקשה.
(Todah! Hineh matanah k’tanah mimeni. Be-vakashah.)
Shira: Thank you! Here is a small gift from me. Please.
A: תודה רבה!
(Todah rabah!)
Shira: Many thanks!
B: בבקשה.
(Be-vakashah.)
Shira: You’re welcome.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Shira: In this lesson, I thought we could talk about what to bring when visiting someone in Israel.
Amir: That’s a good idea! I think that could be important for our listeners to know.
Shira: Usually, when we visit someone in Israel, we bring flowers or wine.
Amir: Yeah, that’s quite traditional in Israel.
Shira: Another option would be to bring sweets.
Amir: The only issue with that is that you need to make sure the sweets are kosher if you’re going to someone who keeps a kosher household.
Shira: Very true. It’s important to watch out for things like that with both wine and sweets.
Amir: If you’re going to someone’s house where they do keep kosher, it might be a better idea to bring flowers instead.
Shira: Speaking of flowers, there are pretty normal thing to bring if you are visiting someone on a Friday night or Saturday.
Amir: And actually for that very reason, you’ll see people selling flowers at the side of the road at major intersections on Fridays and Saturdays.
Shira: It’s pretty convenient for people who forget to buy something before they head out!
Amir: It surely is. It must be for those of us who are very forgetful!
Shira: Just don’t go empty handed!
VOCAB LIST
Shira: Okay. Now let’s go to the vocabulary for this lesson. First we have:
Amir: ברוך (baruch) [natural native speed]
Shira: Blessed.
Amir: ברוך (baruch) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. ברוך (baruch) [natural native speed]
Shira: Next:
Amir: הבא (ha-ba) [natural native speed]
Shira: The arriver
Amir: הבא (ha-ba) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. הבא (ha-ba) [natural native speed]
Shira: Next:
Amir: בבקשה (bevakasha) [natural native speed]
Shira: Please or you’re welcome.
Amir: בבקשה (bevakasha) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. בבקשה (bevakasha) [natural native speed]
Shira: Next:
Amir: הנה (​​hineh)[natural native speed]
Shira: Here.
Amir: הנה (​​hineh)[slowly - broken down by syllable]. הנה (​​hineh) [natural native speed]
Shira: Next:
Amir: מתנה (matanah) [natural native speed]
Shira: Present
Amir: מתנה (matanah) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. מתנה (matanah) [natural native speed]
Shira: Next:
Amir: קטנה (k'tanah) [natural native speed]
Shira: Small
Amir: קטנה (k'tanah) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. קטנה (k'tanah) [natural native speed]
Shira: Next:
Amir: ממני (mimeni) [natural native speed]
Shira: From me
Amir: ממני (mimeni) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. ממני (mimeni) [natural native speed]
Shira: And last:
Amir: רבה (rabah) [natural native speed]
Shira: Many
Amir: רבה (rabah) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. רבה (rabah) [natural native speed]
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Shira: Let’s take a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Amir: Let’s start with the word ברוך (baruch).
Shira: ברוך (baruch) means “blessed”. It’s used in the expression barukh ha-ba, which means “welcome”.
Amir: It’s more of a biblical expression, but it’s still used in everyday language.
Shira: The next word is the second part of that expression, הבא (ha-ba).
Amir: Ha-ba means something like the “arriver” or “the one that comes.”
Shira: Ha-ba is actually a verb that has been turned into noun.
Amir: That’s right, בא (ba) means “comes”, so when you stick a “the” or ה- (ha-) in front of it, it becomes “the comer” or “the arriver”.
Shira: These two words together mean “blessed is the arriver” or just “welcome”.
Amir: Our next word is בבקשה (bevakasha) and it means both “please” and “you’re welcome”.
Shira: And after that we have, קטנה (k'tanah) or “small”.
Amir: This is the feminine form of this adjective. In Hebrew, there are four forms of each adjective. קטן, קטנה, קטנים,קטנות
(katan, k'tanah, k'tanim, k'tanot)
Shira: The masculine singular form is the form that you will find in the dictionary.
Amir: In Hebrew, it’s important to remember that the adjective agrees both in gender and in number with the noun that it describes.
Amir: Our last word is רבה (rabah). It means “many” or “much” and it describes a feminine noun.
Shira: Okay, Amir, let’s move on to the grammar section of our lesson.

Lesson focus

Shira: In this lesson you will learn how to show appreciation in Hebrew.
Amir: To thank someone in Hebrew, we usually say תודה רבה (todah rabah).
Shira: We already learned תודה (todah) in our first lesson. רבהרבה (rabah) means “many” as we just learned.
Amir: So, here you’re saying “many thanks,” תודה רבה (todah rabah).
Shira: This phrase is made up of a noun and an adjective. An important part of Hebrew grammar is noun and adjective agreement.
Amir: Each noun has a gender and can be used in the singular or plural form.
Shira: So the adjective that goes with the noun must agree with it in gender and in number.
Amir: In our phrase, תודה רבה (todah rabah), todah is feminine, so the adjective, rabah, must be feminine as well.
Shira: We taught you the feminine in the beginning this time to make things easier for you.
Amir: Right, rabah is the feminine form and agrees already with todah. The base form is rav, and this is the masculine, singular form of the word.
Shira: You will also notice that the letter that is “b” in the feminine form is “v” in the masculine form.
Amir: There are a few letters in Hebrew that change sound a bit, depending on form of the word.
Shira: The last thing that we want to point out about this phrase is that the adjective comes after the noun.
Amir: This is quite different from English, where the adjective usually comes before the noun.
Shira: We want you to pick up this concept of adjectives changing according to the gender and number of the noun, so we’re going to give you examples of all four versions of rav with appropriate nouns. Let’s start with the masculine singular.
Amir: כאב רב (Ke’ev rav)
Shira: Ke’ev rav means “much pain”. Ke’ev is pain and it’s a masculine noun. So now let’s do feminine singular.
Amir: אהבה רבה (Ahavah rabah)
Shira: “Much love.” And now masculine plural.
Amir: כלבים רבים (K'lavim rabim)
Shira: “Many dogs.” The last example is feminine plural.
Amir: ילדות רבות (Yeladot rabot)
Shira: “Many girls.” That should give you a better idea of how the adjective changes according to the noun. Let’s talk about how you respond when someone says תודה רבה (Todah rabah) in Hebrew.
Amir: You would normally respond by saying בבקשה (bevakasha) meaning “you’re welcome”.
Shira: This doesn’t just mean “you’re welcome”. It also means “please”.
Amir: Yes, and it can actually mean “be my guest” as well.
Shira: We have some examples for all three of these meanings. Let’s start with “please”
Amir: אפשר לשבת בבקשה? (Ef'shar la-shevet be-vakashah.)
Shira: “Is it possible to sit, please?” And now “you’re welcome”
Amir: אין בעיה, בבקשה. (Ein be'ayah, be-vakashah.)
Shira: "No problem. You’re welcome." And the last one is בבקשה (bevakasha) as “be my guest”
Amir: הנה, בבקשה. (​​Hineh, be-vakashah.)
Shira: Here, be my guest.
Amir: That’s a pretty versatile word, isn’t it?
Shira: It really is!

Outro

Shira: Okay. That’s it for this lesson, everyone.
Amir: After listening to this lesson, why not visit HebrewPod101.com and practice your Hebrew with us!

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