Learn about sentence structures
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sherah: Hi everyone, and welcome back to HebrewPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 20 - An Interview with an Israeli Celebrity. Sherah here. |
| Amir: שלום I'm Amir. |
| Sherah: In this lesson, you’ll learn about general sentence structures. The conversation takes place on the radio. |
| Amir: It's between a radio host and a guest. |
| Sherah: The speakers are strangers, and they’ll be using informal Hebrew. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| מנחה: שלום וברוכים הבאים לתכנית שלנו. היום אנחנו מדברים עם טלי גורן, שלום טלי. |
| טלי גורן: שלום, תודה שהזמנתם אותי. |
| מנחה: טלי זמרת וסופרת, כמו שאתם בטח יודעים. מתי הבנת שאת בן אדם יצירתי? |
| טלי גורן: תמיד נמשכתי לדברים יצירתיים. אני זוכרת שהייתי כותבת סיפורים טפשיים לחברים שלי בכיתה ה'. |
| מנחה: סיפורים על מה? |
| טלי גורן: אני כבר לא זוכרת. בטח על בנים או משהו כזה. |
| מנחה: אני רוצה לדבר על פוליטיקה רגע. יש לך דברים חריפים להגיד על הממשלה. |
| טלי גורן: נכון... נכון. אנשים רגילים לא מצליחים לסגור את החודש, והממשלה לא מנסה לפתור את הבעיה. |
| מנחה: מי הם אנשים רגילים בעינייך? |
| טלי גורן: כל האנשים שלא עובדים בהיי טק. כל האנשים שמרוויחים שכר מינימום ואפילו מינימום פלוס. |
| מנחה: אני רוצה לחזור לכיתה ה' לרגע. כשכתבת את הסיפורים שלך אז, חשבת שיום אחד תכתבי סיפורים שמשקפים את המצב הפוליטי במדינה? |
| טלי גורן: לא, ממש לא, אבל יש לי קול ואני רואה בעיות, אז אני חושבת שיש לי אחריות לדבר על מה שאני רואה. |
| Sherah: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Radio host: Hello and welcome to our program. Today we’re talking with Tali Goren. Hello Tali. |
| Tali: Hello, thanks for inviting me. |
| Radio host: Tali is a singer and author, as you probably know. When did you realize you were a creative person? |
| Tali: I was always attracted to creative things. I remember that I would write dumb stories for my friends in fifth grade. |
| Radio host: Stories about what? |
| Tali: I don't remember anymore. Probably about boys or something like that. |
| Radio host: I want to talk about politics for a moment. You have harsh things to say about today's government. |
| Tali: True... true. Normal people are not making ends meet, and the government is not trying to solve the problem. |
| Radio host: Who are normal people to you? |
| Tali: All the people who don't work in hi-tech industries. All the people who are making minimum wage or even minimum wage plus. |
| Radio host: I want to go back to fifth grade for a moment. When you wrote your stories, did you think that one day you would be writing stories that reflect the political situation in the country? |
| Tali: No, not at all, but I have a voice and I see problems, so I think I have a responsibility to talk about what I see. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sherah: In this lesson’s dialogue, we heard a discussion on a radio program between a radio host and a famous guest who is a singer and an author. |
| Amir: There are many Israeli artists that are famous for their work in their specific fields. |
| Sherah: Can you tell us about a couple? |
| Amir: Sure. There is Ohad Naharin, who is a contemporary dancer and choreographer. He’s the artistic manager of the Bat Sheva dance company. |
| Sherah: Ah yes, I know his name. |
| Amir: I’m not surprised, he’s been commissioned by famous dance companies around the world and received an honorary doctorate from the Juilliard School. |
| Sherah: Who else is there? |
| Amir: Another world famous artist is Aħino'am Nini, who is known outside of Israel as Noa. |
| Sherah: What’s she famous for? |
| Amir: She’s a singer-songwriter who has performed all over the world, including New York, Paris, and London to name just a few places. She recorded the theme song for the Oscar winning movie “Life is Beautiful.” |
| Sherah: Does she sing in Hebrew? |
| Amir: She’s recorded songs in Hebrew, but also in English, Arabic, French, Hindi, Italian and Spanish. |
| Sherah: Wow, a truly international artist. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Sherah: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Amir: סופר [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: author |
| Amir: סופר[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: סופר [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: יצירתי [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: creative |
| Amir: יצירתי[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: יצירתי [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: להימשך [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: to be attracted to |
| Amir: להימשך[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: להימשך [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: פוליטיקה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: politics |
| Amir: פוליטיקה[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: פוליטיקה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: חריף [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: harsh, spicy |
| Amir: חריף[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: חריף [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: ממשלה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: government |
| Amir: ממשלה[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: ממשלה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have... |
| Amir: לסגור את החודש [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: make ends meet |
| Amir: לסגור את החודש[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: לסגור את החודש [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have... |
| Amir: להרוויח [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: to earn |
| Amir: להרוויח[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: להרוויח [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: לשקף [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: to reflect |
| Amir: לשקף[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: לשקף [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: And last.. |
| Amir: רגיל [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: ordinary, normal |
| Amir: רגיל[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: רגיל [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Sherah: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Amir: להימשך |
| Sherah: meaning "to be attracted to." What can you tell us about this? |
| Amir: This is a verb with a Nif'al verb stem. Its root letters are -מ.ש.כ. |
| Sherah: How is it used? |
| Amir: It has a few different meanings. One is “to last” and another is “to be pulled.” |
| Sherah: “To be pulled”... is that where the meaning of “to be attracted to” comes from? |
| Amir: Yes. It’s a figurative expression, but we use it for “to be attracted to.” |
| Sherah: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Amir: Sure. For example, you can say.. היא נמשכת לסכנה. |
| Sherah: ..which means "She is attracted to danger." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Amir: חריף |
| Sherah: meaning "harsh." What can you tell us about this? |
| Amir: חריף is an adjective meaning “spicy,” but it has a few other meanings too. |
| Sherah: Can it be used to describe spicy food? |
| Amir: Yes, it can. You can use it to describe a strong and bad odor, but it’s actually a compliment when talking about people. |
| Sherah: That’s a bit strange. |
| Amir: It means that someone is “sharp,” or “bright.” |
| Sherah: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Amir: Sure. For example, you can say.. המרק הזה חריף מדי בשבילי. |
| Sherah: .. which means "This soup is too spicy for me." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Amir: לסגור את החודש |
| Sherah: meaning "make ends meet." |
| Amir: The literal meaning is “to close the month,” so you can see where the expression “make ends meet” comes from. |
| Sherah: Yes, we’re often left trying to make ends meet when the month is ending! |
| Amir: Sometimes, the first word לסגור, meaning “to close,” is switched with לגמור, meaning “to finish.” |
| Sherah: But the meaning remains the same. |
| Amir: Yes. This first word is the only one that might need to be conjugated. |
| Sherah: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Amir: Sure. For example, you can say.. הוא לא מצליח לסגור את החודש. |
| Sherah: .. which means "He can't make ends meet." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Sherah: In this lesson, you'll learn about sentence structure. Let’s look at how to make a sentence in Hebrew. |
| Amir: The structure of basic sentences in Hebrew is similar to English, but there are some differences. |
| Sherah:What are the differences? |
| Amir: I think that one of the major ones is the lack of a “to be” verb in some sentences - it’s implied, not voiced. Also, there is no “a” or “an” before nouns. |
| Sherah: So how would a basic sentence such as “She is a doctor” sound in Hebrew? |
| Amir: היא רופאה. This is literally “She doctor,” as it has no “is” or “a.” |
| Sherah: So that’s an example of a very basic sentence. How about more complex sentences? |
| Amir: Well, a confusing issues for Hebrew learners is the verb for “to have”. In Hebrew there is no such verb - instead of it we use the adverb יש |
| Sherah: What does that adverb mean? |
| Amir: It means “there is.” Also, “there isn’t” is אין and we use the preposition ל and a pronoun ending for “I,” “She,” and so forth. |
| Sherah: What does that mean in a sentence? Can you give us an example? |
| Amir: יש לי חתול |
| Sherah: Which means “I have a cat.” |
| Amir: In this sentence, לי means “to me.” So the sentence is literally “there is a cat to me.” |
| Sherah: Oh, I can see what you mean about the lack of “to have” causing confusion. It makes sense though, in a different way... |
| Amir: You think so? Next, I want to tell you about something more straightforward, and that’s asking questions in Hebrew. This is easier because the sentence order doesn’t change - you just add the question word to the sentence. |
| Sherah: That sounds simple. Can we have an example? |
| Amir: Take the sentence בנית את השולחן. This means “You built the table.” We can add איך at the start and a question mark at the end to make איך בנית את השולחן? |
| Sherah: “How did you build the table?” |
| Amir: One last thing that I want to mention is that Hebrew syntax is more flexible than English. You can change the word order in a sentence without necessarily changing the meaning. |
| Sherah: It’s difficult to change the word order in English without changing the meaning, or making a sentence that no longer makes sense. |
| Amir: Right. In Hebrew, as long as the right prepositions are with the right words, you can change the order and the meaning won’t be lost. |
| Sherah: There are a couple of examples of this in the lesson notes, so be sure to check them out! |
Outro |
| Sherah: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Amir: להתראות |
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