Dialogue

Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

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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