Learn how to make small talk
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sherah: Hi everyone, and welcome back to HebrewPod101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 6 - Making a Phone Call in Israel. Sherah Here. |
| Amir: שלום I'm Amir. |
| Sherah: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use מה שלום to ask how someone is doing. The conversation takes place on the phone. |
| Amir: It's between Gil and his aunt, Sara. |
| Sherah: The speakers are in a casual setting, so they’ll be using informal Hebrew. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
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| גיל: שלום דודה שרה, מה שלומך? |
| שרה: שלום גיל. אני בסדר גמור. |
| גיל: איתן בבית? |
| שרה: לא, איתן בחוג כדורגל כרגע. |
| גיל: בסדר. מה שלום דוד חיים? |
| שרה: הוא עדיין חולה אבל הוא יהיה בסדר. |
| גיל: שיהיה לו החלמה מהירה. |
| שרה: תודה. |
| גיל: מה שלום נוי, היא עדיין בצבא? |
| שרה: כן, היא באה הביתה בסוף שבוע. |
| Sherah: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| גיל: שלום דודה שרה, מה שלומך? |
| שרה: שלום גיל. אני בסדר גמור. |
| גיל: איתן בבית? |
| שרה: לא, איתן בחוג כדורגל כרגע. |
| גיל: בסדר. מה שלום דוד חיים? |
| שרה: הוא עדיין חולה אבל הוא יהיה בסדר. |
| גיל: שיהיה לו החלמה מהירה. |
| שרה: תודה. |
| גיל: מה שלום נוי, היא עדיין בצבא? |
| שרה: כן, היא באה הביתה בסוף שבוע. |
| Sherah: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Gil: Dear Aunt Sarah, how are you? |
| Sarah: Hello Gil. I'm fine. |
| Gil: Is Ethan at home? |
| Sarah: No, he’s at his soccer practice right now. |
| Gil: All right. How is Uncle Haim? |
| Sarah: He's still sick but he’ll be okay. |
| Gil: May he have a speedy recovery. |
| Sarah: Thank you. |
| Gil: How is Noy, is she still in the army? |
| Sarah: Yes, she's coming home on the weekend. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sherah: Israelis are crazy about extracurricular activities like soccer. |
| Amir: Just ask any parent what חוג or “extracurricular activity” in Hebrew their child takes, and you’ll get a long list of activities their child has done over the years. |
| Sherah: Most parents put their child in at least one חוג and there are many parents who allow their children to take multiple חוגים. |
| Amir: These extracurricular activities start in the preschool years and go all the way up to retirement. |
| Sherah: They can be things like sports, music or even jewelry making and electronics. |
| Amir: Many of these classes are offered by a local community organization called the מתנ”ס |
| Sherah: They have them all throughout Israel. |
| Amir: The name מתנ”ס is short for מרכז תרבות נוער וספורט. |
| Sherah: This means “Center for Youth Culture and Sport”. |
| Amir: They aren't the only organization offering extracurricular activities, but they’re the most prevalent. |
| Sherah: There are also sports groups and other organizations that offer extracurricular sports. |
| Amir: Yes, and there are also music centers that offer music classes. |
| Sherah: So you’ll never run out of things to do in Israel, listeners! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Sherah: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Amir: מה שלום [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: How is…? |
| Amir: מה שלום[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: מה שלום [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: חוג [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: extracurricular activity |
| Amir: חוג[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: חוג [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: כדורגל [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: soccer |
| Amir: כדורגל[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: כדורגל [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: כרגע [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: at the moment |
| Amir: כרגע[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: כרגע [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: חולה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: sick (feminine) |
| Amir: חולה[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: חולה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: החלמה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: recovery |
| Amir: החלמה[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: החלמה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: צבא [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: military |
| Amir: צבא[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: צבא [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: סוף שבוע [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: weekend |
| Amir: סוף שבוע[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: סוף שבוע [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Sherah: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Amir: כרגע |
| Sherah: meaning “At the moment". |
| Sherah: This phrase is made of two parts, -כ and רגע. |
| Amir: -כ can mean both “at” and “as”. |
| Sherah: And רגע means “moment”. |
| Amir: There’s another phrase used often in Hebrew with this last word and that is רגע רגע. |
| Sherah: It means “wait a moment”. |
| Amir: This is one of many double word expressions in Israel. |
| Sherah: Can you give us an example using the phrase כרגע? |
| Amir: Sure. For example, you can say.. רן נמצא בשירותים כרגע |
| Sherah: ...which means "Ran is in the bathroom at the moment." |
| Amir: The next phrase we want to talk about is שיהיה לו |
| Sherah: It means “that he would have...” |
| Amir: We hear this phrase when Gil says, שיהיה לו החלמה מהירה |
| Sherah: He says “...that he would have a speedy recovery”. |
| Amir: שיהיה לו often precedes blessings or well wishes in Hebrew. |
| Sherah: In order to direct this to someone other than “him”, you change לו to לה for her. |
| Amir: Or לך and לך for “you” in the masculine or feminine. |
| Sherah: For instance, if you want to wish a good day to a man, what would you say? |
| Amir: You would say שיהיה לך יום טוב |
| Sherah: And for a woman it would be שיהיה לך יום טוב |
| Amir: Another example is שיהיה לך יום הולדת שמח |
| Sherah: This means, “that you would have a happy birthday”. |
| Sherah: Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Sherah: In this lesson you will learn how to make small talk on the phone. When you ask someone how they are, you use the question מה שלומך. |
| Amir: You can use the first part of this phrase מה שלום to ask about someone specific. |
| Sherah: Right, Gil uses this when he asks his Aunt Sara about Uncle Chaim. |
| Amir: He says מה שלום דוד חיים |
| Sherah: And he also asks about his cousin Noy by saying מה שלום נוי |
| Amir: You can also use this phrase to ask about him or her saying מה שלומו or מה שלומה. |
| Sherah: This is not limited to people though, you can also use it for things. |
| Amir: Right, you can ask about the well-being of things too. |
| Sherah: For instance, let’s say someone’s car has been acting up and you want to ask them how it’s doing at the moment. |
| Amir: For that, you could say מה שלום המכונית שלך? |
| Sherah: So, after Gil asks about his Uncle Chaim, Sara answers him using the verb “to be” or להיות in the future. |
| Amir: She says, הוא יהיה בסדר |
| Sherah: יהיה is the future form of “to be” used with masculine nouns or the pronoun הוא. |
| Amir: This form was also used in the phrase שיהיה לו we studied in the vocabulary section. |
| Sherah: Can you give us another example of this form of the verb? |
| Amir: Sure, הכלב יהיה בסדר |
| Sherah: This means “the dog will be okay.” |
| Amir: If you use a feminine noun or pronoun, you would use תהיה instead of יהיה. |
| Sherah: Do you have an example of this? |
| Amir: How about החתולה תהיה בסדר? |
| Sherah: This means “the female cat will be okay.” Let’s end with a few sample sentences using both מה שלום and the future forms of להיות in the third person. |
| Amir: The first example is מה שלום סבתא של חנה? |
| Sherah: This means “How is Hanna’s grandmother?” |
| Amir: Next is הילד יהיה בסדר |
| Sherah: Meaning, “the child will be okay”. |
| Amir: The last example is המסיבה תהיה טובה |
| Sherah: And this means, “the party will be good”. |
Outro |
| Sherah: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Amir: תודה |
34 Comments
HideHi Listeners! What Hebrew greeting would you use while picking up the phone?
Hi Aaron,
Thanks for the great feedback and for posting your question! 👍
You are thinking in the right direction but this is still unfortunately wrong 😅😉
The word "day" (יום) in Hebrew is masculine, with no dependency on the gender of the speaker or listener, and as the word "שיהיה" (she-yiyeh) refers to it, rather than to the listener, this is correct.
The word part in the sentence "to you" ("לך") is approaching this greeting to a specific person, in this case a female, and therefore it must also be conjugated correctly (lach).
I hope this explanation makes sense - please let us know if you have any further questions!
Best wishes,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
Hey Shira,great lessons.When you said if you wanna wish a lady good day you say sheyiyeh lach Yom tov,shouldn't it be shetiyeh lach in the feminine?Or am I wrong?
Hi Carol,
Thanks for posting and for the feedback! Glad to hear that you like the course 😄👍
I couldn't 100% understand your first question... did you mean how to say "how are they" in Hebrew? That'll be "?מה שלומם"
(ma shlomam).
The mem sofit on the keyboard is where the letter o is on a normal English keyboard... 👍
Best,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
Thank you. Next question is how would you say how are they if you’re referring to a group of people
מה שלומ They in Hebrew?
Also is there a question mark And how do I get the final mem on a Hebrew keyboard? Sorry for all the questions. Your course is great
Hi Carol,
Thanks for posting your question! 😄
The verb "להמצא" is a little tricky to understand, as it has no perfect parallel one in English... It means eventually "to be placed" somewhere.
Happy to assist,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
Hi! In the sentence about Ron where he is in the bathroom, what does נמצא mean?
Thanks,
Carol
Hi Adam Helberg,
Thanks for posting and sharing this feedback with us!
We will take your notes into consideration and try to attend to these issues. I'm forwarding your comment.
Regarding the flashcards - just hover with the mouse controller over the "vocubulary" tab in the main screen and you'll see "Flashcards" at the top of the list on the window.
Glad to help 👍
Yours,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
If I may make a suggestion on the lessons as I've completed a few of the beginner lessons now. I find the didactics good but there is not enough student participation and not enough exercises for the student to work on. Also I've not figured out how to get the flash cards.
Hi Matan,
Thanks for posting your answer!
Well written 👍 this will be the proper way to say "hello, how are you?" in Hebrew.
Keep up the good work 😄
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
Answer to Hebrew Group Chat Question:
שלום מה שלומך