Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Sherah: Hi everyone, and welcome back to HebrewPod101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 10 - Shopping for a TV in Israel. Sherah Here.
Amir: שלום I'm Amir.
Sherah: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use מדי to modify adjectives. The conversation takes place in a shop.
Amir: It's between Hadas and a salesman.
Sherah: The speakers are in a casual setting, so they will be using informal Hebrew. Okay, let's listen to the conversation.

Lesson conversation

מוכר: שלום, במה אפשר לעזור לך?
הדס: אני מחפשת טלוויזיה 32 אינצ' חדשה.
מוכר: יש לנו את זה ב-2000 שקלים.
הדס: 2000 שקלים? זה יקר מדי. זאת לא חברה ידועה.
מוכר: אולי אבל זה טלוויזיה טובה.
הדס: אני יכולה לקנות משהו דומה בזול במחסני חשמל.
מוכר: טוב, אני יכול לעשות לך עשר אחוז הנחה.
הדס: בסדר. תודה. אני קונה אותה.
Sherah: Listen to the conversation one time slowly.
מוכר: שלום, במה אפשר לעזור לך?
הדס: אני מחפשת טלוויזיה 32 אינצ' חדשה.
מוכר: יש לנו את זה ב-2000 שקלים.
הדס: 2000 שקלים? זה יקר מדי. זאת לא חברה ידועה.
מוכר: אולי אבל זה טלוויזיה טובה.
הדס: אני יכולה לקנות משהו דומה בזול במחסני חשמל.
מוכר: טוב, אני יכול לעשות לך עשר אחוז הנחה.
הדס: בסדר. תודה. אני קונה אותה.
Sherah: Listen to the conversation with the English translation.
Salesman: Hello. How may I help you?
Hadas: I'm looking for a new 32 "TV.
Salesman: We have this one for 2000 shekels.
Hadas: 2000 shekels? That`s too expensive. This is not a known company.
Salesman: Perhaps, but it's a good TV.
Hadas: I can buy something similar for cheaper at Electric Warehouses.
Salesman: Well, I can give you a ten percent discount.
Hadas: Okay. Thank you. I'm buying it.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Sherah: So, once upon a time, television was a rare commodity in Israel.
Amir: When television was introduced to Israel, at first there was only one channel. After a second was added, there were still only two for a long time.
Sherah: This led to some interesting social situations, like everyone following the same shows all at the same time.
Amir: That`s true - anyone who watched television before the mid 90s watched the same programs as the rest of Israel.
Sherah: So, if a particularly popular program would be airing on a certain night, you could be sure that no one would schedule any social event for that night.
Amir: And you would know where you could find most of your friends on that night, because almost everyone would be home.
Sherah: To this day, people still bond over the nostalgia of these programs.
Amir: But all this changed in the mid 90s when cable television was introduced in Israel.
Sherah: And today there is a huge variety of television available to watch.
Amir: However, there still isn't a lot of variety in choosing your television provider.
Sherah: There are only two major companies that provide cable television, and they’re called “Hot” and “Yes”.
Sherah: Okay, now onto the vocab.
VOCAB LIST
Sherah: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is..
Amir: לעזור [natural native speed]
Sherah: to help
Amir: לעזור[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: לעזור [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: טלוויזיה [natural native speed]
Sherah: television
Amir: טלוויזיה[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: טלוויזיה [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: יקר [natural native speed]
Sherah: expensive
Amir: יקר[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: יקר [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: חברה [natural native speed]
Sherah: company
Amir: חברה[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: חברה [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: ידוע [natural native speed]
Sherah: known
Amir: ידוע[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: ידוע [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: לקנות [natural native speed]
Sherah: to buy
Amir: לקנות[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: לקנות [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: דומה [natural native speed]
Sherah: similar
Amir: דומה[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: דומה [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: אחוז [natural native speed]
Sherah: percent
Amir: אחוז[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: אחוז [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: הנחה [natural native speed]
Sherah: discount
Amir: הנחה[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: הנחה [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: חשמל [natural native speed]
Sherah: power
Amir: חשמל[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: חשמל [natural native speed]
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 is..
Amir: בזול
Sherah: meaning "cheaply". This is the adverb that means both “cheaply” and “inexpensively”.
Amir: זול is an adjective meaning “cheap” or “of low quality”.
Sherah: As an adjective, זול changes with the number and gender of the noun it describes, but בזול doesn’t change.
Amir: Adding the preposition -ב to זול changes it from an adjective to an adverb.
Sherah: Can you give us an example using this word?
Amir: Sure. For example, you can say.. קניתי נעליים בזול באינטרנט.
Sherah: ..which means "I bought shoes cheaply on the Internet."
Sherah: The next word is..
Amir: אינצ’
Sherah: meaning "Inch". The word “inch” was used in the dialogue to describe the size of the television Hadas wanted to buy.
Amir: This may seem strange because we use the metric system for measurements in Israel.
Sherah: Except for when we’re buying a television.
Amir: The word “inch” has a foreign sound to Hebrew and that is the “ch” sound.
Sherah: For this, we use the letter צ with a little apostrophe after it. Can you give us an example using this word?
Amir: Sure. For example, you can say.. אני רוצה לקנות טלווזיה שלושים ושתיים אינצ'.
Sherah: ..which means "I want to buy a 32 inch television."
Sherah: The last word is..
Amir: אחוז
Sherah: meaning "percent" or “percentage”.
Amir: This word is used just like “percent” in English.
Sherah: One expression we use in English with this word that is used in Hebrew as well, is 100%.
Amir: In Hebrew this is מאה אחוז and it means “fine” just like it does in English.
Sherah: Can you give us an example using this word?
Amir: Sure. For example, you can say.. קיבלתי עשר אחוז הנחה על המכנסיים..
Sherah: ..which means "I received a ten percent discount on the pants." Okay, now onto the grammar.

Lesson focus

Sherah: In this lesson you will learn to negotiate a price. The sentence we are focusing on in this lesson is the one where Hadas tells the salesman the television he’s offering her is too expensive.
Amir: She says זה יקר מדי
Sherah: Or “it’s too expensive.”
Amir: Breaking down this sentence, we have זה meaning “it’s”, יקר meaning “expensive” and מדי which means “too”.
Sherah: and מדי is made of two parts -מ and די
Amir: די means “enough” or “sufficient”
Sherah: You may know this word from the Passover song דיינו.
Amir: In the song we sing about all the ways God provided for the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.
Sherah: The chorus of the song is די דיינו and it means that if that was all God did for us, it would have been sufficient.
Amir: So, the word מדי is Hebrew for “too” as in “too much”.
Sherah: It’s used like the English word “too,” except in speech it usually comes after the adjective and not before.
Amir: We see this in our sample sentence from the dialog, Hadas says יקר מדי, first the adjective יקר and then מדי.
Sherah: There are many situations where you can use this word.
Amir: For instance, if you want to say that someone is too thin, you would say הוא רזה מדי
Sherah: Or if you want to say that a test is too difficult, you would say המבחן קשה מדי
Amir: Or you could say “the couch is too heavy” and that would be הספה כבד מדי
Sherah: מדי is a word in Hebrew that always stays the same no matter the number and gender of the adjective and noun in the sentence.
Amir: Another term we use to express the idea that something is too much or too excessive is the phrase יותר מדי.
Sherah: Most of the time, this is used before the adjective and not after like מדי.
Amir: If Hadas had used this phrase in the dialogue, she would have said זה יותר מדי יקר.
Sherah: It has exactly the same meaning, “it’s too expensive.” Let’s look at our other sample sentence with יותר מדי.
Amir: The first is הוא יותר מדי רזה
Sherah: “He’s too thin”.
Amir: The second is המבחן יותר מדי קשה.
Sherah: “The test is too difficult”.
Amir: The last is הספה יותר מדי כבדה.
Sherah: “The couch is too heavy”. Listeners, don’t forget to check the lesson notes for more information and examples.

Outro

Sherah: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye!
Amir: תודה

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