Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Sherah:Hello and welcome back to Hebrewpod101.com. This is Lower Intermediate, Season 1, Lesson 18 - Protecting Nature is Important in Israel! I’m your host, Sherah!
Amir:And I’m Amir.
Sherah:In this lesson, you'll learn about irregular verbs in the Hif’il verb group.
Amir:The conversation takes place in the Levi family home.
Sherah:It’s between Gadi and Li’el.
Amir:The speakers are family, and they’ll be using informal Hebrew.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Sherah:Israel is a very crowded country, and because of this Israelis are very concerned about nature and wildlife preservation.
Amir:One place where this is evident is the Hula valley.
Sherah:Now it’s evident, but in the 1950s the natural marsh area was drained for farmland and because malaria was a problem in Israel.
Amir:They thought they were doing a good thing, but later they realized that they eliminated a habitat for many animals by taking away the marsh.
Sherah:The land also was a problem for cultivation because the soil blows away and peat fires under the soil are hard to put out.
Amir:Unfortunately, it also caused the extinction of two fish. They thought it caused the extinction of a frog as well, but in 2011 the frog showed up again.
Sherah:The frogs seem to be coming back, although they're still considered endangered.
Amir:Part of the area was flooded again in the 1990s, and it was decided that it would remain flooded to preserve the wildlife that lives there.
Sherah:It's also a stopping point for migrating birds as they make their way between Europe and Africa.
Amir:Right, it has become a very important place for wildlife again, and Israelis are committed to keeping it that way.
Sherah:It’s also a great place for bird watchers, as there are small islands all over where birds can lay and hatch their eggs. Okay, now let’s move on to the vocab.
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Sherah:Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word we want to talk about is פרוייקט.
Amir:פרוייקט means “project” or “enterprise”.
Sherah:This is an example of a word that was taken from English.
Amir:The pronunciation has changed a little bit, but it still has the same meaning as the English.
Sherah:In Hebrew, it’s often used in the name of organizations or even special government or social projects.
Amir:The next word we want to talk about is רשת.
Sherah:This word means “net”, “screen” or “grid”. It can be used for “net” like it was in the dialogue.
Amir:We also use it for mosquito netting and the screen that goes on the window to keep out bugs.
Sherah:This word also carries the meaning of “network”, like a computer network.
Amir:This can also mean a television or radio network. For instance, many of our radio stations are called reshet with a letter of the alphabet.
Sherah:Right, like reshet gimmel, which is a radio station that plays only popular Israeli music.
Amir:Another way we use רשת as in “network” is with a “chain or network of stores” which is רשת חנויות.
[Update: The following is actually a mistake, sorry for the confusion.]
[Sherah:The last word we want to talk about is להפסיק.
Amir:להפסיק means to “stop”, “pause,” or “quit”.
Sherah:You'll hear this verb a lot when Israelis want to tell someone to stop doing something, and then they will say מספיק!
Amir:This verb is from the hif’il verb group, and so it carries the meaning of an external force or even the subject’s will causing the subject to stop.]
Sherah:Okay, now onto the grammar.
GRAMMAR POINT
Sherah:In this lesson you’ll learn about irregular verbs in the Hif’il verb group.
Amir:In Hebrew, as we've said before, most verbs are irregular because they have weak letters that change or disappear.
Sherah:Right, in Hif’il these letters are often dropped completely, and then there are only two root letters in the conjugations instead of three.
Amir:In the sample sentence אני לא מבין את מה שכתוב פה, we used the verb mevin. This is the masculine singular form of the verb להבין in the present tense.
Sherah:להבין means “to understand”. The root letters are Bet, Yod, and Nun. The Yod is the weak letter that is dropped from the conjugations.
Amir:There is already a Yod in the pattern of the verb group, so it works better if you only have one yod in the conjugations.
Sherah:So, the yod from the verb pattern actually represents the yod from the root letters as well.
Amir:But this makes the conjugations one letter shorter than normal conjugations in the hif’il verb group, so the vowel pattern is a little different.
Sherah:Let’s hear all the conjugations for להבין in the present tense. We’ll begin with the form from the sample sentence, מבין , which is the masculine singular form.
Amir:מבינה is the feminine singular form.
Sherah:מבינים is the masculine plural.
Amir:And מבינות is the feminine plural form.
Sherah:Let’s hear example sentences with this verb in the past and future to hear how it changes. Amir will give the Hebrew, and I'll give the English. First is the past.
Amir:הוא הבין את הספר.
Sherah:"He understood the book." Next is the future.
Amir:הוא יבין יותר אחרי השיעור.
Sherah:"He will understand more after the lesson."
Amir:להביא is another verb used in the dialogue that loses a root letter in the hif’il verb group.
Sherah:להביא means “to bring,” and the root letters are bet, vav, and aleph.
Amir:This verb has two letters that make it irregular. The vav drops out of the conjugations like the yod did in להבין.
Sherah:The aleph at the end of the verb also makes this verb irregular.
Amir:Aleph is a letter that sometimes acts as a consonant and is sometimes silent.
Sherah:Right, and we see both of these things with להביא. In the infinitive, להביא, the aleph is silent.
Amir:But in the feminine singular in the present tense מביאה, the aleph acts as a consonant.
Sherah:In the sample dialogue, Gadi uses this verb when he asks Li’el if she brought her project home.
Amir:He says, הבאת את הפרויקט שלך הביתה ליאל
Sherah:So, let’s look at some sample sentences of להביא in the past, present ,and future. Amir will give the Hebrew, and I'll give the English.
Amir:The first sentence is in the past, הם הביאו את העוגה הזאת
Sherah:"They brought this cake."
Amir:In the present tense, הם מביאים את אמא איתם
Sherah:"They're bringing Mom with them."
Amir:Last is a sample sentence in the future tense, הם יביאו את האוטו מחר
Sherah:"They will bring the car tomorrow."

Outro

Sherah:Ok, that’s all for this lesson. Come see us at HebrewPod101.com and talk to us about what you’ve learned here. And don’t forget to check the lesson notes to reinforce what you’ve learned here.
Amir:Thanks for being with us, everyone,
Sherah:Bye!

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