Dialogue - Hebrew

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Vocabulary (Review)

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משרה [מִשְׂרָה] mis’ra job, position
בהשוואה [בְּהַשְׁוָואָה] be-hash’va’a as compared to
מול [מוּל] mul opposite; across
למרות ש [לַמְרוֹת שֶׁ] lamrot she in spite of
נסיון [נִסָּיוֹן] nisayon experience
צמח [צֶמַח] tzemaħ plant
חממה [חֲמָמָה] ħamama greenhouse
משתלה [מִשְׁתָּלָה] mish’tala nursery (plants)
לקוח [לָקוֹחַ] lako'ach customer

Lesson Notes

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Lesson Focus

The Focus Of This Lesson Is Using Conjunctions to Make More Complicated Sentences

למרות שלא עבדת במשתלה,יתכן שיש לך נסיון בגננות?

Lam'rot she-lo avadet be-mish'tala, yesh lakh nisayon be-gananut?
"In spite of (the fact that) you haven't worked in a nursery, do you have any experience with gardening?"


 

 

One of the biggest boosts in the level of your Hebrew is learning to make more complicated sentences. In order to make compound sentences in Hebrew, you need to learn the possible conjunctions and how to use them. There are many options for this in Hebrew, some are very common and others are seldom used but useful to know. In the dialogue in this lesson, some of the more common conjunctions were used to form different types of sentence.

The first conjunction used in the dialogue is למרות ש (lam'rot she), meaning "in spite of" or "even though." This is a clause of concession, meaning it adds information in opposition of the previous information provided or exceptions to the previous information. In the dialogue, Yoni states that Ella doesn't have any experience with a nursery written in her resume and then he asks is she has any information to add that would be an exception to that. He uses למרות ש (lam'rot she) to do this.

When Yoni asks Ella about her resume, he says:

למרות שלא עבדת במשתלה, יתכן שיש לך נסיון בגננות?

Lam'rot she-lo avadet be-mish'tala, yitakhen she-yesh lakh nisayon be-gananut?

Yoni sees on Ella's resume she doesn't have any previous experience working in a nursery, so he asks if in spite of it, she has ever worked in gardening. You can also reverse the order of the clauses to make it:

יתכן שיש לך נסיון בגננות, למרות שלא עבדת במשתלה?

Yitakhen she-yesh lakh nisayon be-gananut, Lam'rot she-lo avadet be-mish'tala?

Here the sentence is translated as: "Is it possible that you have experience with gardening, although you haven't worked in a nursery?"

 

למרות ש
(lam'rot she-) is the most common conjunction used to show concession.  

There are a few other conjunctions you should be familiar with which convey the same meaning but are used in more formal written and spoken language. The first is אף על פי (af al pi) meaning "although" and the second is על אף ש (al af she) meaning "even though." These two conjunctions are used in a similar way to למרות ש (lamrot she-). Here is our sample sentence from the dialogue using these two conjunctions:

אף על פי שלא עבדת במשתלה, יתכן שיש לך נסיון בגננות?

Af al pi she-lo avadet be-mish'tala, yitakhen she-yesh lakh nisayon be-gananut?)
"Although you haven't worked in a nursery, is it possible that you have experience with gardening?"

 

על אף שלא עבדת במשתלה, יתכן שיש לך נסיון בגננות?

Al af she-lo avadet be-mish'tala, yitakhen she-yesh lakh nisayon be-gananut?
"Even though you haven't worked in a nursery, is it possible that you have experience with gardening?"

The next conjunction in the dialogue is is simply a way to convey comparison. The phrase is בהשוואה ל (be-hash'va'a le) and it means "in comparison to."  Yoni uses it when he asks Ella to compare her experience with her Uncle's greenhouse to what she sees in the nursery. He says:

ומה את חושבת על המשתלה בהשוואה לחממה שלו?

U-ma at ħoshevet al ha-mish'tala be-hash'va'a la-ħamama shelo?
"And what do you think of this nursery compared with his greenhouse?"

 

You can also compare things like your mother's cakes to your cakes.

בהשוואה לעוגה שלי, העוגה של אמא שלי טעימה יותר.

Be-hash'va'a la-uga sheli, ha-uga shel ima sheli te'ima yoter.
"Compared to my cake, my mom's cake is delicious."

 

Or you could compare cars:

האוטו שלך נוח מאוד בהשוואה לאוטו שלי.

Ha-oto shel'kha no'aħ me'od be-hash'va'a la-oto sheli.
"Your car is very comfortable compared to my car."

 

Ella answers him with another useful phrase meaning "in contrast to" when she talks about the difference between the nursery and the greenhouse. The phrase she uses is בניגוד ל (be-nigud le). The sentence she uses is:

בניגוד לחממה שלו, כאן יש הרבה צמחים שאני צריכה להכיר.

Be-nigud la-ħamama shelo, kan yesh har'be tzmaħim she-ani tzrikha le-hakir.
"In contrast to his greenhouse, there are a lot of plants I need to get to know."

 

Examples from the dialogue:

ומה את חושבת על המשתלה בהשוואה לחממה שלו?

U-ma at ħoshevet al ha-mish'tala be-hash'va'a la-ħamama shelo?
"And what do you think of this nursery compared with his greenhouse?"

 

בניגוד לחממה שלו, כאן יש הרבה צמחים שאני צריכה להכיר.

Be-nigud la-ħamama shelo, kan yesh har'be tzmaħim she-ani tzrikha le-hakir.
"In contrast to his greenhouse, there are a lot of plants I need to get to know."

 

Sample Sentences


 

הוא נוסע מחר, למרות שתהיה סופת שלג.

Hu nose'a maħar, lamrot she-tihyeh sufat sheleg.
"He is traveling tomorrow, even though there will be a snow storm."

 

בהשוואה לאילת, לא חם בתל אביב.

Be-hash'va'a le-eilat, lo ħam be-Tel Aviv.
"In comparison to Eilat, it's not hot in Tel Aviv."

 

אין רוח היום, בניגוד לאתמול.

En ruaħ hayom, be-nigud le-etmol.
"There's no wind today, in contrast to yesterday."

 

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

משתלה
"nursery (plants)"

The noun משתלה (mish'tala) or "nursery" comes from the root shin-tav-lamed. Words from this root are related to planting and transplanting. The verb "to plant" is לשתול (lish'tol). If you take these root letters and add a mem to the beginning and a heh at the end, you have משתלה (mish'tala). The correct pronunciations of this word is משתלה (mish'tala) but it's sometimes pronounced as משתלה (mash'tela). משתלה (mish'tala) is often combined with a name to make a construct noun and when this happens משתלה (mish'tala) becomes משתלת (mish'telet). For example, one such plant nursery in Israel is called משתלת יגור (mish'telet yagur).

For example:

קניתי כמה צמחים חדשים במשתלה היום.

Kaniti kama tz'maħim ħadashim ba-mish'tala hayom.
"I bought a few new plants at the nursery today."

 

 

מול לקוחות
"with customers"

The expression מול לקוחות (mul lakoħot) means "in front of customers" or "with customers." The word מול (mul) means "in front of," "opposite"  or "against." You can use this to talk about something across from you. You can also use it when you're talking about two sports teams competing against one another like ברזיל מול ארגנטינה (brazil mul argentina) or "Brazil versus Argentina." The second word in this expression is the plural of לקוח (lakoaħ) which means "customer." This can also mean "client." Although in the plural this word takes a feminine ending, it is in fact a masculine noun.

For example:

אני עובד כל היום מול לקוחות.

Ani oved kol ha-yom mul lakoħot.
"I work with customers all day long."

 

משרה חלקית
"part-time job"

This phrase is made up of a noun and an adjective. The noun משרה (misra) means "job," "position" or "post." This is often used to describe the type of job in a job posting. חלקית (ħel'kit) is the feminine singular form of חלקי (ħel'ki), meaning "part-time" or "partial."

For example:

 

אדם מחפש משרה חלקית.

Adam meħapes mis'ra ħel'kit.
"Adam is looking for a part-time job."

 

Cultural Insights

Forests of Israel


 

From the before the creation of the modern State of Israel, Jewish people have worked very hard to plant forests and make Israel green. The trees of Israel had been cut down during the time of the Ottoman empire and there were not many trees remaining. There were a few native forests at the time and those were made up of native oak trees and shorter, low-lying trees. The rest of Israel was very desolate. When people began to plant forests, they used pines, since pine trees would take root faster and easier than other trees. Since these pine trees are not native to Israel, the trend has moved away from planting pine trees in the last thirty years. Now, instead of planting non-native species of trees, Israel is planting native trees and diversifying the forests by planting many species throughout the forests instead of one type of tree.

 

Lesson Transcript

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INTRODUCTION
Sherah: Hi everyone, and welcome to HebrewPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 1 - A Hebrew Job Interview. Sherah here.
Amir: שלום I'm Amir.
Sherah: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use conjunctions to make more complicated sentences. The conversation takes place at a plant nursery.
Amir: It's between Ella and Yoni.
Sherah: The speakers are an employer and employee. They will speak both formal and informal Hebrew. Okay, let's listen to the conversation.

Lesson conversation

יוני: עכשיו שסיפרתי לך על המקום, תספרי קצת על עצמך.
אלה: אני בת עשרים וארבע. גדלתי בקרית גת. עכשיו אני סטודנטית באוניברסיטה.
יוני: למרות שלא כתוב שעבדת במשתלה, יתכן שיש לך נסיון בגננות?
אלה: כן, עזרתי לדוד שלי בחממה שלו לפני הצבא.
יוני: ומה את חושבת על המשתלה בהשוואה לחממה שלו?
אלה: בניגוד לחממה שלו, כאן יש הרבה צמחים שאני צריכה להכיר.
יוני: למה את רוצה לעבוד במשתלה?
אלה: קודם כול, אני רוצה לעבוד פה כי אני אוהבת לעבוד בחוץ.
יוני: ומדוע את חושבת שתצליחי פה?
אלה: אני חושבת שזו עבודה טובה בשבילי כי אני יכולה לעבוד גם לבד וגם מול אנשים.
יוני: יופי. יש הרבה ימים שאת צריכה לעבוד לבד, אך את תצטרכי גם לטפל בלקוחות.
אלה: יש לי עדיין כמה שאלות, כמו באילו שעות אני אמורה לעבוד?
Sherah: Listen to the conversation one time slowly.
יוני: עכשיו שסיפרתי לך על המקום, תספרי קצת על עצמך.
אלה: אני בת עשרים וארבע. גדלתי בקרית גת. עכשיו אני סטודנטית באוניברסיטה.
יוני: למרות שלא כתוב שעבדת במשתלה, יתכן שיש לך נסיון בגננות?
אלה: כן, עזרתי לדוד שלי בחממה שלו לפני הצבא.
יוני: ומה את חושבת על המשתלה בהשוואה לחממה שלו?
אלה: בניגוד לחממה שלו, כאן יש הרבה צמחים שאני צריכה להכיר.
יוני: למה את רוצה לעבוד במשתלה?
אלה: קודם כול, אני רוצה לעבוד פה כי אני אוהבת לעבוד בחוץ.
יוני: ומדוע את חושבת שתצליחי פה?
אלה: אני חושבת שזו עבודה טובה בשבילי כי אני יכולה לעבוד גם לבד וגם מול אנשים.
יוני: יופי. יש הרבה ימים שאת צריכה לעבוד לבד, אך את תצטרכי גם לטפל בלקוחות.
אלה: יש לי עדיין כמה שאלות, כמו באילו שעות אני אמורה לעבוד?
Sherah: Listen to the conversation with the English translation
Yoni: Now that I have told you about the place, tell me a little about yourself.
Ella: I am twenty-four. I grew up in Kiryat Gat. Now I'm a university student.
Yoni: Although you haven’t worked in a nursery, is it possible you have experience with gardening?
Ella: Yes, I helped my uncle in his greenhouse before the army.
Yoni: And what do you think of this nursery compared with his greenhouse?
Ella: In contrast to his greenhouse, there are a lot of plants I need to get to know.
Yoni: Why do you want to work in a nursery?
Ella: First of all, I want to work here because I love to work outside.
Yoni: And why do you think you'd succeed here?
Ella: I think it's a good job for me because I can work alone and with people.
Yoni: Great. There are many days you have to work alone but you will also need to take care of the customers.
Ella: I still have a few questions, like what hours am I supposed to work?
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Sherah: This may be a surprise to many of our listeners, but one hundred years ago, Israel was a completely different country when it comes to its natural landscape.
Amir: That’s right, after the time of the Ottoman empire, there were hardly any trees left standing in Israel.
Sherah: There were a few native forests here and there, but nothing like there is today.
Amir: But we changed all that because even before the modern State of Israel came to be, Jewish people from all over the world began to plant trees in Israel.
Sherah: There were mass plantings of pine trees all over Israel and this continued until the 1960s.
Amir: It’s important to note that the trees planted at that time period were not native trees to Israel.
Sherah: No, they weren’t, but those pine trees were planted because they took root faster than other trees.
Amir: In the years since, we’ve changed our strategy and we are now planting diverse trees and bushes.
Sherah: Right, and they are also more likely to plant trees native to Israel.
Amir: As the old pine trees die out or are devastated by fire, organizations like Keren Kayemet LeIsrael are replanting these pines with native species. The pine trees are beautiful, but they are definitely a lot taller than the native trees that grow here.
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: משתלה [natural native speed]
Sherah: nursery (plants)
Amir: משתלה[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: משתלה [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: למרות ש[natural native speed]
Sherah: in spite of that
Amir: למרות ש[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: למרות ש [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: ניסיון [natural native speed]
Sherah: experience
Amir: ניסיון[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: ניסיון [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: צמח [natural native speed]
Sherah: plant
Amir: צמח[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: צמח [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: חממה [natural native speed]
Sherah: greenhouse
Amir: חממה[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: חממה [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have..
Amir: בהשוואה [natural native speed]
Sherah: as compared to
Amir: בהשוואה[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: בהשוואה [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have
Amir: מול [natural native speed]
Sherah: opposite
Amir: מול[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: מול [natural native speed]
Sherah: Next we have
Amir: לקוח [natural native speed]
Sherah: customer
Amir: לקוח[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: לקוח [natural native speed]
Sherah: And last..
Amir: משרה [natural native speed]
Sherah: job, position
Amir: משרה[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Amir: משרה [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: משתלה
Sherah: meaning "nursery for plants"
Sherah: This word comes from root shin-tav-lamed which covers words related to planting and transplanting.
Amir: So it makes sense that a plant nursery would be called a משתלה because it’s where you plant things.
Sherah: Exactly! When משתלה is combined with a name, it changes into the form for a construct noun.
Amir: For instance, if your nursery is near the junction of Yagur, you may call your nursery משתלת יגור.
Sherah: There really is a משתלת יגור. Can you give us an example using this word?
Amir: Sure. For example, you can say..קניתי כמה צמחים חדשים במשתלה היום.
Sherah: ..which means “I bought a few new plants at the nursery today.” Okay, what's the next word?
Amir: מול לקוחות
Sherah: meaning "with customers". Technically, it means “in front of customers”.
Amir: Right, because the word מול means “opposite”, “in front of” or “against”.
Sherah: You can use it to talk about something across from you, or even across the road from you.
Amir: You can also use it to talk about two sports teams playing against each other.
Sherah: Like ברזיל מול ארגנטינה
Amir: The second word in the phrase is לקוח which means “customer” or “client”
Sherah: This word is a masculine noun, but it takes a feminine ending in the plural.
Amir: Right, לקוחות
Sherah: Can you give us an example using this word?
Amir: Sure. For example, you can say.. אני עובד כל היום מול לקוחות.
Sherah: .. which means “I work with customers all day long.” Okay, what's the next word?
Amir: משרה חלקית
Sherah: meaning "part-time job". This phrase is made up of a noun and an adjective.
Amir: משרה is the noun and it means “job” or “position”
Sherah: Or even “post”
Amir: It’s often used when describing a type of job for a job posting.
Sherah: And חלקית is an adjective meaning “part-time” or “partial”.
Amir: The base form of חלקית is חלקי
Sherah: Can you give us an example using this word?
Amir: Sure. For example, you can say..אדם מחפש משרה חלקית.
Sherah: .. which means “Adam is looking for a part-time job.” Okay, now onto the lesson focus.

Lesson focus

Sherah: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use conjunctions to make more complicated sentences. One of the biggest boosts to your Hebrew is learning to make more complicated sentences.
Amir: In order to make compound sentence, you need to know how to use conjunctions.
Sherah: Right... most compound sentences have more than one part and those parts are connected by connecting words that help make the sentence make sense.
Amir: There are many options for conjunctions in Hebrew, and you will use some of these quite often.
Sherah: Others you won’t use very often, but they are useful to know.
Amir: In this dialogue, we used more common conjunctions.
Sherah: The first one we used was למרות ש.
Amir: למרות ש means “in spite of” or “even though”.
Sherah: You use this when you have two pieces of information in opposition to one another.
Amir: In the dialogue, Yoni says that according to her resume, she doesn’t have any experience with plants.
Sherah: The continuation of the sentence is Yoni asking if she has any information in opposition to that.
Amir: He uses למרות ש to make this point. The sentence is למרות שלא כתוב שעבדת במשתלה, יתכן שיש לך נסיון בגננות?
Sherah: Meaning “Although you haven’t worked in a nursery, is it possible you have experience with gardening?”
Amir: למרות ש is the most common conjunction used in this context, but there are a few more you should be familiar with.
Sherah: Right, like אף על פי and על אף ש. These are used in a similar way.
Amir: The next conjunction we want to look at shows comparison between two things, and that is בהשוואה ל
Sherah: This means “in comparison to” and it’s used in the sentence where Yoni asks Ella to compare the nursery to her uncle’s greenhouse.
Amir: He says ומה את חושבת על המשתלה בהשוואה לחממה שלו?
Sherah: Another useful phrase is בניגוד ל and this means “in contrast to”.
Amir: Ella uses it when she says בניגוד לחממה שלו, כאן יש הרבה צמחים שאני צריכה להכיר.
Sherah: The translation is: “In contrast to his greenhouse, there are a lot of plants I need to get to know.”
Amir: Both of these phrases are used the same way.
Sherah: These phrases can be used at the beginning of either clause.
Amir: And the structure is like the structure in English.
Sherah: Let’s hear some sample sentences with these phrases.
Amir: The first sample sentence is: הוא נוסע מחר, למרות שתהיה סופת שלג.
Sherah: This means: “He is traveling tomorrow, even though there will be a snow storm.”
Amir: The second sample sentence is: בהשוואה לאילת, לא חם בתל אביב.
Sherah: This means “In comparison to Eilat, it’s not hot in Tel Aviv.”
Amir: The last sample sentence is: אין רוח היום, בניגוד לאתמול.
Sherah: Meaning “There’s no wind today, in contrast to yesterday.”

Outro

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