Learn how to use the modal verbs יכול and מסוגל which mean "can" and "be able to"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sherah: Hello and welcome to hebrewpod101.com. This is Lower Beginner Series Season 1, Lesson 8 - What Can You Do in Hebrew? I’m your host, Sherah! |
| Amir: And I’m your host Amir. |
| Sherah: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about what you can and cannot do. |
| Amir: The conversation takes place in the dining hall of the kibbutz |
| Sherah: It’s between Anna and her new friend Ofir. |
| Amir: The speakers are acquaintances, and they’ll be using informal Hebrew. |
| Sherah: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| אופיר: את יכולה לדבר טוב מאוד בעברית. |
| Ofir: At yekholah le-daber tov me'od be-ivrit. |
| אנה: אני מסוגלת, אבל עדיין קשה לי. |
| Anna: Ani mesugelet, aval ada'in kasheh li. |
| אופיר: לא נורא! זה יהיה קל יותר עם הזמן. |
| Ofir: Lo nora! Zeh yiheyeh kal yoter im ha-z'man. |
| אנה: מה אתה יכול לעשות? יש לך תחביבים? |
| Anna: Mah atah yakhol la'asot? Yesh lekha taħ'bivim? |
| אופיר: אני יכול לצלול. |
| Ofir: Ani yakhol litz'lol. |
| אנה: יפה! אני לא מסוגלת לצלול. אני בכלל לא יודעת לשחות. |
| Anna: Yafeh! Ani lo mesugelet litz'lol. Ani bikh'lal lo yoda'at lis'ħot. |
| אופיר: חבל, זה נורא כיף. |
| Ofir: ħaval, zeh nora ke'if. |
| Sherah: Let’s listen to the conversation one more time, slowly. |
| אופיר: את יכולה לדבר טוב מאוד בעברית. |
| Ofir: At yekholah le-daber tov me'od be-ivrit. |
| אנה: אני מסוגלת, אבל עדיין קשה לי. |
| Anna: Ani mesugelet, aval ada'in kasheh li. |
| אופיר: לא נורא! זה יהיה קל יותר עם הזמן. |
| Ofir: Lo nora! Zeh yiheyeh kal yoter im ha-z'man. |
| אנה: מה אתה יכול לעשות? יש לך תחביבים? |
| Anna: Mah atah yakhol la'asot? Yesh lekha taħ'bivim? |
| אופיר: אני יכול לצלול. |
| Ofir: Ani yakhol litz'lol. |
| אנה: יפה! אני לא מסוגלת לצלול. אני בכלל לא יודעת לשחות. |
| Anna: Yafeh! Ani lo mesugelet litz'lol. Ani bikh'lal lo yoda'at lis'ħot. |
| אופיר: חבל, זה נורא כיף. |
| Ofir: ħaval, zeh nora ke'if. |
| Sherah: Now, let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| אופיר: את יכולה לדבר טוב מאוד בעברית. |
| Ofir: At yekholah le-daber tov me'od be-ivrit. |
| Ofir: You can speak really well in Hebrew. |
| אנה: אני מסוגלת, אבל עדיין קשה לי. |
| Anna: Ani mesugelet, aval ada'in kasheh li. |
| Anna: I am able to, but it's still hard for me. |
| אופיר: לא נורא! זה יהיה קל יותר עם הזמן. |
| Ofir: Lo nora! Zeh yiheyeh kal yoter im ha-z'man. |
| Ofir: It doesn't matter! It will be easier with time. |
| אנה: מה אתה יכול לעשות? יש לך תחביבים? |
| Anna: Mah atah yakhol la'asot? Yesh lekha taħ'bivim? |
| Anna: What can you do? Do you have hobbies? |
| אופיר: אני יכול לצלול. |
| Ofir: Ani yakhol litz'lol. |
| Ofir: I can scuba dive. |
| אנה: יפה! אני לא מסוגלת לצלול. אני בכלל לא יודעת לשחות. |
| Anna: Yafeh! Ani lo mesugelet litz'lol. Ani bikh'lal lo yoda'at lis'ħot. |
| Anna: Nice! I'm not able to scuba dive. I don't know how to swim. |
| אופיר: חבל, זה נורא כיף. |
| Ofir: ħaval, zeh nora ke'if. |
| Ofir: Pity! It's really fun. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sherah: I found that Israelis were really easy to talk to when I first started learning Hebrew. |
| Amir: You did? |
| Sherah: Yes, they were usually pretty understanding about the fact that I couldn’t speak perfectly. But I did find that there are two different kinds of Israelis. |
| Amir: Really? How’s that? |
| Sherah: Well, there are the Israelis who are really understanding, and then there are the those who think that it’s their opportunity to practice English. |
| Amir: Oh yes! I know those types. Once they find out that you speak English, there is no way to get them to speak Hebrew with you. |
| Sherah: Exactly! This was really frustrating at times because I really wanted to speak Hebrew with them, and they insisted on English. |
| Amir: So what do you do in those situations? |
| Sherah: Usually, I just keep speaking Hebrew. This probably annoys them too because I’m sure they want me to speak English just as much as I want to speak Hebrew. |
| Amir: Well, I think you can probably just ask them to speak Hebrew because you want to practice. |
| Sherah: You definitely can. They won’t be offended at all. That’s the thing about Israelis - when it comes down to it, they are really understanding. |
| Amir: I think we have a lot of patience for new Hebrew speakers too. |
| Sherah: You do. I rarely felt like someone was looking down on me for not speaking perfectly, and most of the time people were really patient as I was learning. |
| Amir: That’s funny because we’re not so patient in other areas of our lives. Take traffic for example. |
| Sherah: That’s for sure! Okay, now let’s move on to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Sherah: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Sherah: The first word we shall see is... |
| Amir: יכול [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: can |
| Amir: יכול [slowly - broken down by syllable] יכול [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: לשחות [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: to swim |
| Amir: לשחות [slowly - broken down by syllable] לשחות [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: מסוגל [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: to be able |
| Amir: מסוגל [slowly - broken down by syllable] מסוגל [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: עדיין [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: still |
| Amir: עדיין [slowly - broken down by syllable] עדיין [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: קשה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: difficult |
| Amir: קשה [slowly - broken down by syllable] קשה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: קל [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: easy |
| Amir: קל [slowly - broken down by syllable] קל [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: לצלול/צלל [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: to scuba dive |
| Amir: לצלול/צלל [slowly - broken down by syllable] לצלול/צלל [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: כיף [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: fun |
| Amir: כיף [slowly - broken down by syllable] כיף [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Sherah: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Amir: The first word is לצלול לצול is one of my favorite things to do and that is “to dive”. |
| Sherah: It also means “to sink”... do you like to do that too? |
| Amir: Actually yes. I like to sink down to the bottom of the swimming pool and just hang out there for a while. |
| Sherah: There is an expression attached to this very idea, לצלול כעופרת |
| Amir: Right, it means “to sink like lead”. Some words that are close to this verb are ,צולל which means “diver” and צוללת which means“submarine”. |
| Sherah: All things that dive. The next word that we want to cover is קשה. |
| Amir: קשה covers many different words from English. |
| Sherah: Oh wow! It really does. It means “difficult”, “heavy”, “stiff..”. |
| Amir: “solid”, “severe” and even “strict”. |
| Sherah: You really have to listen to the context to understand what the speaker means when they use it, because it has so many meanings. |
| Amir: For example, a couple of expressions that use קשה are קשה לכעוס. |
| Sherah: I’m guessing that means “difficult to anger”. |
| Amir: Right, “slow to anger.” The other one is קשה הבנה, and that means “dull-witted”. |
| Sherah: The next word is the exact opposite of קשה, it’s קל. It is the exact opposite in many of these same meanings too. |
| Amir: yes, קל means “light”, “simple”, “soft” and “easy-going”. |
| Sherah: Right, if someone has a flexible personality, you would call them ‘kal’. |
| Amir: And someone who is fickle, you can call קל דעת. |
| Sherah: There is one expression that I like with this word, and that is קלי קלות. It means “piece of cake”. |
| Amir: You like all the double word expressions like that! |
| Sherah: I do! Okay, let’s move on to the Grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Sherah: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the modal verbs יכול and מסוגל. |
| Amir: Just like the previous modal verbs, they appear in sentences in the form of the present participle and they are followed by the infinitive form of a verb. |
| Sherah: And they both also have four forms, just like the others we learned about. |
| Amir: In our first sample sentence, Ofir says את יכולה לדבר בעברית טוב מאוד. |
| Sherah: He uses the modal verb יכול which means “can”, “may, or “to be permitted”. |
| Amir: Here it means “can”, so Ofir says to Anna “you can speak Hebrew really well. |
| Sherah: If you notice in English, the second verb is also conjugated. Remember that this is not the way it is in Hebrew. |
| Amir: Right, in Hebrew the second verb is in the infinitive form יכול לדבר in this sentence. |
| Sherah: So what are all four forms of יכול? |
| Amir: Masculine singular is יכול, feminine singular is יכולה, masculine plural is יכולים and feminine plural is יכולות. |
| Sherah: There are two other sentences in the dialogue that use the verb יכול. Anna asks Ofir, “what can you do?” or מה אתה יכול לעשות? |
| Amir: And Ofir answers אני יכול לצלול. |
| Sherah: As you can see, all of these sentences use the same form. The modal verb agrees with the subject and the verb that follows is in the infinitive form. |
| Amir: All of these sentences cover the same thing - the concept of being able to do something. יכול has other meanings as well. |
| Sherah: Right, it can also show a possibility like אני יכולה לשיר ביום שני בטקס. “I can sing on Monday at the ceremony.” |
| Amir: ...or it can be used to request something - אני יכול לשיר משהו בשבילכם? “Can I sing something for you?” |
| Sherah: There is one more modal verb in the dialogue that we want to cover and that is מסוגל. |
| Amir: מסוגל only has one meaning and that is “to be able to do (something)”. |
| Sherah: The four forms are: מסוגל for masculine singular and מסוגלת for feminine singular. |
| Amir: מסוגלים for masculine plural and מסוגלות for feminine plural. |
| Sherah: It’s found in two places in the dialogue. First, Anna says אני מסוגלת אבל עדיין קשה לי. “I’m able, but it’s still hard for me.” |
| Amir: And then later she says, אני לא מסוגלת לצלול. “I’m not able to scuba dive.” |
| Sherah: These two verbs, yakhol and mesugal, are very close in meaning when talking about ability. |
| Amir: Most of the time they can be interchangeable. |
Outro |
|---|
| Sherah: Well, that’s it for this lesson. Thanks for listening, and make sure to check the lesson notes. |
| Amir: And now that you’ve listened to this lesson, please visit HebrewPod101.com and tell us what you can do. |
| Sherah: Bye everyone! |
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