Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

Intro

Shira: Hello and welcome to HebrewPod101.com’s Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 8 - Here is a Traditional Israeli Gift for You. I’m your host, Shira.
Amir: Shalom, I’m Amir.
Shira: In this lesson, you will learn how to express gratitude in Hebrew.
Amir: The conversation takes place at the airport.
Shira: It’s between Peter and Sarah.
Amir: The dialogue is formal because Peter and Sarah don’t know each other well yet.
Shira: Let’s listen to the conversation.

Lesson conversation

Sarah: פטר, זאת מזכרת ישראלית בשבילך.
(Peter, zot maz’keret yis’relit bish’vil’kha.)
Peter: אני מודה לך מאוד.
(Ani modeh lach me’od.)
Sarah: על לא דבר!
(Al lo davar!)
Shira: Let’s listen to the conversation one more time slowly.
Sarah: פטר, זאת מזכרת ישראלית בשבילך.
(Peter, zot maz’keret yis’relit bish’vil’kha.)
Peter: אני מודה לך מאוד.
(Ani modeh lach me’od.)
Sarah: על לא דבר!
(Al lo davar!)
Shira: Let’s listen to the conversation with the English translation.
Sarah: פטר, זאת מזכרת ישראלית בשבילך.
(Peter, zot maz’keret yis’relit bish’vil’kha.)
Shira: Peter, this is an Israeli souvenir for you.
Peter: אני מודה לך מאוד.
(Ani modeh lach me’od.)
Shira: I thank you very much.
Sarah: על לא דבר!
(Al lo davar!)
Shira: Not at all!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Amir: So what cultural tidbit are we sharing with our listeners in this lesson?
Shira: Souvenirs!
Amir: Souvenirs are plentiful in Israel since there are so many people who come every year as tourists.
Shira: The best places to find them are in the Old City in Jerusalem or at the many archeological sites all over Israel.
Amir: If you’re looking in the Old City of Jerusalem be sure to come ready to barter otherwise you will end up paying too much for something.
Shira: In these shops you can find wooden camels or t-shirts or even rosaries.
Amir: The most popular items are olive wood carvings and ceramic plates with ornate paintings on them.
Shira: So have fun browsing!
VOCAB LIST
Shira: Now let’s go to the vocabulary for this lesson. First we have:
Amir: מזכרת (Maz’keret) [natural native speed]
Shira: Souvenir
Amir: מזכרת (Maz’keret) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. מזכרת (Maz’keret) [natural native speed].
Shira: Next:
Amir: ישראלית (Yis'ra'elit) [natural native speed]
Shira: Israeli (feminine)
Amir: ישראלית (Yis'ra'elit) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. ישראלית (Yis'ra'elit) [natural native speed].
Shira: Next:
Amir: בשבילך (Bish'vil'kha) [natural native speed]
Shira: For you (masculine)
Amir: בשבילך (Bish'vil'kha) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. בשבילך (Bish'vil'kha) [natural native speed].
Shira: Next:
Amir: להודות/הודה (Le-hodot/hodah) [natural native speed]
Shira: To thank.
Amir: להודות/הודה (Le-hodot/hodah) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. להודות/הודה (Le-hodot/hodah) [natural native speed]
Shira: Next:
Amir: על (al) [natural native speed]
Shira: On.
Amir: על (al) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. על (al) [natural native speed]
Shira: And last:
Amir: דבר (davar) [natural native speed]
Shira: Thing.
Amir: דבר (davar) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. דבר (davar) [natural native speed].
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Shira: Let’s take a closer look at the usage for some of the words in this lesson. The first word is מזכרת (Maz'keret).
Amir: A מזכרת (Maz'keret) is “a souvenir.” It comes from the root זכר or “to remember”.
Shira: Next up is ישראלית (Yis'relit) and this is the feminine singular adjective for “Israeli”. The feminine version agrees with מזכרת (Maz'keret) because it is a feminine noun.
Amir: The next word is בשבילך (Bish'vil'kha) or “for you”. This word can be broken down into two parts.
Shira: בשביל (bish'vil) means "for," and -ך (kha) means “you”.
Amir: You can add other pronoun endings to this instead of the suffix for “you”.
Shira: This preposition בשביל (bish'vil) can stand alone, which is different from other prepositions we have seen so far.
Amir: Here’s an example of this זאת מתנה בשביל דנה (Zot matanah bish'vil Dana).
Shira: This is a present for Dana.
Amir: The next word that we want to talk about is להודות (Le-hodot) which means “to thank”.
Shira: In the dialogue the verb appeared as מודה (modeh) which is a little bit different from the infinitive form.
Amir: Yes, this verb changes form when it is conjugated in the present tense.
Shira: This would be considered an irregular verb in Hebrew.
Amir: Hebrew verbs are generally very structured and regular, but there are some irregular verbs like in other languages.
Shira: Usually, the reason that verbs are irregular in Hebrew is because they have “weak” letters that change sounds when they’re conjugated.
Amir: That’s exactly the reason להודות (lehodot) is irregular.
Shira: The next word is על (al) which means “on” and can be used to show the position of something.
Amir: Like החתול יושב על הספה (Ha-ħatul yoshev al ha-sapah).
Shira: "The cat is sitting on the sofa." Al can also be used like “about” in English.
Amir: For example, הוא מדבר על מזג האוויר (Hu medaber al mezeg ha-avir).
Shira: "He is talking about the weather."
Amir: The last vocabulary we want to talk about is a phrase על לא דבר (Al lo davar).
Shira: This is translated as “not at all” but when you break it down, you’re actually saying “on no thing”. It means that you really don’t need to thank me for anything. Okay, let’s move on to the grammar section.

Lesson focus

Shira: In this lesson, you will learn how to show appreciation in Hebrew.
Amir: תודה רבה (toda raba). We’ve already learned that so we can wrap up the lesson already.
Shira: Hey, come back here! I want to get a little more formal than that.
Amir: Oh, okay, I’m coming back! Formal, huh?
Shira: Yes, in our dialogue Peter and Sarah still don’t know each other very well, so they used something a little more formal than תודה רבה (toda raba).
Amir: That’s right. Peter said, אני מודה לך מאוד (Ani modeh lakh me'od), which is a little more formal that you would use every day.
Shira: But still, you do use it when you’re talking to someone you don’t know very well or someone that you really want to show your appreciation to when a simple תודה רבה (toda raba) won’t do.
Amir: You start this sentence out with אני (ani) or "I." After that, you say מודה (modeh).
Shira: Or מודה (modah) if you are a woman.
Amir: After that you need to decide if you’re talking to a man or a woman. For a man you would say לך (lekha).
Shira: If you were talking to a woman, you would say לך (lakh). And finally add a מאוד for “very much”.
Amir: So if you are a man talking to a man, you would say, אני מודה לך מאוד (Ani modeh lekha me'od). And if you’re talking to a woman, you would say אני מודה לך מאוד (Ani modah lakh).
Shira: If you are a woman talking to a man, it would be אני מודה לך מאוד (Ani modah lekha me'od) and if you were talking to another woman אני מודה לך מאוד (Ani modah lakh me'od).
Amir: Of course there are many other options and if you’re interested in learning more, take a look at the lesson notes.

Outro

Shira: Okay, that’s it for this lesson.
Amir: Make sure to leave us a comment on HebrewPod101.com!
Shira: See you next time!
Amir: Shalom!

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