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Lesson Transcript

Shalom, ani Yana. Hi everybody! I’m Yana.
Welcome to HebrewPod101.com’s “Ivrit be-shalosh dakot”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Hebrew.
In the last lesson, we learned how to use the verb Lavo.
In this lesson, we will start exploring the interrogative words in Hebrew. We’ll start with the most popular one: what.
So imagine you want to ask your friend "What is he doing?" How will you do it?
You can ask: Ma ata ose?
Or, Ma at osa?
[slowly] Ma ata ose?
[slowly] Ma at osa?
So let’s break down this question:
Ma is the simple question word for “What” in Hebrew.
Ata/at is "you".
And finally ose/ osa is the singular present form of the verb Laasot, which we already studied.
So, all together it is Ma ata ose? Ma at osa?
What are you doing?
Ma is the most common question word. You can use it when asking someone “what is the time”; Ma ha-sha’a?
Or simply asking someone “how are you?”;
Ma nishma?
The direct translation of Ma nishma is “what is heard”. It sounds strange but it is how you ask the question in Hebrew. It is not very formal though, so you use it mostly with friends or acquaintances.
The rule is simple: each time you want to ask a question in Hebrew starting with “what”, just say Ma-- and the rest of the sentence.
For example;
Ma ata ohev? Ma at ohevet?
Do you remember what Ohev/ohevet means? (translation of sentence)
Or just simple sentence as “what is this?”
Ma ze?
[slowly] ma ze?
So it is very simple, just start your question with Ma-- if you want o know “what is”...
If you want to be more specific and ask “which”, you will say Eize-- or Eizo--
As in Eize seret ata ohev? Eize seret at ohevet?
Can you translate this sentence?
Or, Eizo mis’ada ata ohev? Eizo mis’ada at ohevet?
Eize- refers to a masculine subject- Seret- “movie” in Hebrew is in a masculine form.
And Mis’ada- “restaurant”, is in feminine so you ask with Eizo--.
Now it’s time for Yana’s insights.
In Hebrew, unlike in English, when you ask someone’s name, you don’t use the word “What”.
Instead, you say;
Eih kor’im leha?
Or,
Eih kor’im lah?
“How are you called?”
[slowly] Eih kor’im leha?
[slowly] Eih kor’im lah?
Eih- translates as “how”
Kor’im- “called”
Leha/Lah- “you”, or “to you”.
In this lesson, we learned how to use the word “what” in different situations in Hebrew.
I know it is not always simple but I am sure you will remember these short rules!
Next lesson, we will talk about the Hebrew for the interrogative word "Where".
Do you know it already?
I’ll be waiting for you in the next Ivrit be-shalosh dakot!
Lehitraot ve-ad ha-paam ha-baa !!

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