Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Sherah: Hi everyone, and welcome back to HebrewPod101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 18 - Topping Up Your Israeli Phone Card. Sherah Here.
Amir: שלום I'm Amir.
Sherah: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use ניתן plus a verb in the infinitive as a formal way of telling someone they can do something. The dialogue is a phone recording.
Amir: This recording is made by the phone company.
Sherah: Since this is an official announcement, the speaker will be using formal Hebrew. Okay, let's listen to the announcement.

Lesson conversation

: מכוון שכרטיס החיוג שלכם התרוקן אינכם יכולים להתקשר כעת.
: ניתן להטעין את הכרטיס בכל תחנות הדלק, בכל סניפה הדואר או דרך האתר שלנו.
Sherah: Listen to the conversation one time slowly.
: מכוון שכרטיס החיוג שלכם התרוקן אינכם יכולים להתקשר כעת.
: ניתן להטעין את הכרטיס בכל תחנות הדלק, בכל סניפה הדואר או דרך האתר שלנו.
Sherah: Listen to the conversation with the English translation
: Since your calling card is empty, you cannot call out at this time.
: You can recharge the card at any gas station, post office, or on our Internet site.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Sherah: There’s been a lot of talk lately about the fact that Israelis invented the cell phone.
Amir: They did! Motorola has an R and D plant in Israel where the first cell phone was developed.
Sherah: This may have helped the cell-phone craze take off in Israel.
Amir: Yes, and it’s still going strong. Nowadays, most Israelis have moved on to smartphones, but back in the late 1990s and early 2000s it was also commonplace to own a regular cellphone.
Sherah: It was actually popular in Israel before it was in the U.S.!
Amir: It was easier for us because Israel is such a small country, making it easier to provide nationwide coverage.
Sherah: Israelis today are also pretty tech-savvy, right Amir?
Amir: That’s true. Nowadays everybody, from children to adults, owns a smartphone.
Sherah: Except they are much more expensive in Israel.
Amir: That’s because high taxes on electronic devices drive up the prices.
Sherah: You know what’s interesting is that one of the names for a cellphone is פלאפון which comes from the name of one of the first companies to provide cellular phone services.
Amir: That is interesting. The first part of this word is פלא, which means “wonder” or “miracle” and the second part is “phone”.
Sherah: A wonderphone!
Amir: Exactly. The other name we use is טלפון סלולרי which is the same as “cellphone”.
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: מכיוון ש [natural native speed]
Sherah: since
Amir: מכיוון ש[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: מכיוון ש [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: כרטיס החיוג [natural native speed]
Sherah: calling card
Amir: כרטיס החיוג[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: כרטיס החיוג [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: להתרוקן [natural native speed]
Sherah: to become empty
Amir: להתרוקן[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: להתרוקן [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: אינכם [natural native speed]
Sherah: you cannot, you don’t
Amir: אינכם[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: אינכם [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: כעת [natural native speed]
Sherah: currently
Amir: כעת[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: כעת [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: להטעין [natural native speed]
Sherah: to charge
Amir: להטעין[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: להטעין [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: סניף [natural native speed]
Sherah: branch
Amir: סניף[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: סניף [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: תחנת דלק [natural native speed]
Sherah: gas station
Amir: תחנת דלק[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: תחנת דלק [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: חיוג
Sherah: meaning "dialing"
Amir: You’ll usually hear this word paired with כרטיס or “card”.
Sherah: Technically, this would be “dialing card” but we would call it a “calling card” in English.
Amir: חיוג is a verbal noun taken from the verb לחייג meaning “to dial”.
Sherah: The root of this verb is only found in the piel verb group and the passive equivalent pual.
Amir: You know this phrase כרטיס חיוג used to be used more often when we had payphones and needed a card to use them.
Sherah: These payphones still exist, but they are much less common now that everyone has cellphones. Can you give us an example using this word Amir?
Amir: Sure. For example, you could say.. צריכים כרטיס חיוג כדי להשתמש בטלפון הזה.
Sherah: ..which means "You need a calling card in order to use this telephone."
Sherah: The next word is..
Amir: להטעין
Sherah: meaning "to charge" or “to load”.
Amir: This verb is from the hif’il verb group.
Sherah: Hif’il verbs have the added meaning of “causing something to happen”.
Amir: It’s used to refer to charging your phone or battery.
Sherah: It’s also used to talk about adding money to your calling card or prepaid debit card. Can you give us an example using this word?
Amir: Sure. For example, you can say.. אני מטעין את הטלפון הסלולרי שלי עכשיו.
Sherah: ..which means "I’m charging my cellphone now." Okay, now onto the grammar.

Lesson focus

Sherah: In this lesson you will learn how to understand a message on your phone. You may have already realized that most conversations in Hebrew use informal language.
Amir: However, there will surely be times when you come in contact with more formal language, like in the dialogue.
Sherah: You’ll definitely hear formal language when there are announcements over a PA system.
Amir: Or things like phone recordings that are related to business.
Sherah: In the dialogue, the phrase ניתן להטעין was used to tell the customer where they could charge their phone.
Amir: The full sentence from the dialogue is ניתן להטעין את הכרטיס בכל תחנות הדלק, בכל סניפי הדואר או דרך האתר שלנו.
Sherah: The translation is “You can recharge the card at any gas station, post office, or on our internet site.
Amir: The word ניתן is often used in formal language to say “it’s given” or “it’s possible”.
Sherah: The infinitive of ניתן is להינתן.
Amir: It’s a passive verb from the nif’al verb group.
Sherah: It means “be given”, “be placed” or “be possible”.
Amir: When ניתן is combined with an infinitive, it takes on the meaning of “it is possible to”.
Sherah: It can also be translated as “one can” or “you can”.
Amir: ניתן is a more formal word than אפשר, but they are used in the same way.
Sherah: אפשר is used in day to day situations and ניתן is used in more official situations.
Amir: Besides official phone recordings, you’ll hear ניתן in PA announcements, on the radio, on television and in advertisements.
Sherah: One example of how ניתן is used is in telling the public where they can buy Madonna's new album, for example.
Amir: For that you would say ניתן לקנות את האלבום החדש של מדונה בחנות שלנו.
Sherah: In English, that’s "It’s possible to buy Madona’s new album at our store.” Another example of a situation where you would hear ניתן is when you’re using the computer.
Amir: The computer system may send you a message like לא ניתן לבצע את הפעולה הזאת כרגע
Sherah: This means “It’s not possible to execute this operation at this time.”
Amir: Another example is ?האם ניתן להזמין את המשקה הזה עם אלכוהול
Sherah: This means, “Is it possible to order this drink with alcohol?”

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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