Lesson 10 - Visiting Israel

Did you know that the entire country of Israel could fit into the state of New Jersey? What’s absolutely amazing is how much there is to see in such a small space. Drive just a few minutes outside of Jerusalem, and you are surrounded by the hills of the Judean Desert.  Drive less than an hour up the Mediterranean coast from Tel Aviv, and you can visit the ancient Roman ruins at Caesarea. In the North is the magnificent nature sanctuary at Agmon Hachula, and in the South are the Negev and Eilat. Maybe you should plan to visit Israel more than once!

Eilat - אילת

Fortunately, in Israel you would find many places to stay--from youth hostels (which are actually quite nice!) to guest houses at the kibbutzim to luxury hotels, you are sure to find a place that suits you.

Luxury Hotel - מלון ברמה

In Learn Hebrew Pod Lesson 10A, we’ll learn an extensive vocabulary for discussing the features and availability of hotel rooms.  We’ll also begin our exploration of the method used for changing Hebrew nouns from singular to plural.

Learn Hebrew Pod - Lesson No. 10

Then in Lesson 10B, we will learn the Hebrew alphabet -- the Alef-Bet -- and discuss three otiyot that are pronounced differently depending on their placement within words.  Finally, we’ll see that the system of Hebrew roots applies to nouns as well as to verbs.

Wow!  That’s a lot!  But it’s a perfect lesson to listen to on the plane to Israel. bruchim ha-ba-im!!

Team Conversation from the Lesson:

a-halan Liat ve Eran, ma ha-in-ya-nim? - What’s up? – ma ha-in-ya-nim?

Eran: achla! ne-hedar!

Liat: tov me-od! mezzu-yan!

Eran: Jonathan, if i may… Liat and I have a request ….yesh la-nu ba-ka-sha - a request… for an extra thing we would like to do today, maybe even to start our Hebrew lesson with.

Jonathan: kamuvan, you are good friends – a-tem cha-ve-rim to-vim, and your wish is my command!

Good Friends - חברים טובים

Eran: toda:)  so…as we read through the notes of our planned discussion for today, we realized that we are going to mention a very unique feature in Hebrew regarding special Hebrew letters… which are pronounced differently, depending on their location in the word…

Liat:  So as we’re about to discuss this topic, our suggestion is, that we will prepare ourselves and start today’s lesson with reviewing briefly the Hebrew Alpha Bet, the Alef-Bet!

Jonathan: Guys, that’s a wonderful idea, let’s read the Hebrew Alpha Bet - ha-Alef-Bet  ha-Iv-ri ! Since it consists of 22 letters - es-rim ush-ta-im o-ti-yot… let’s read seven each ...and Liat…you’ll have an extra one at the end!

Eran: achla! Liat, at rozza le-hat-chil? Liat, do you want to start?

Liat: toda Eran! be-simcha!  a-lef, bet, gi-mmel, da-led, hey, vav, za-in

Eran: chet, tet, yud, kaf, la-med, mem, nun

jonathan: sa-mech, a-in, pey, zza-dik, kuf, resh, shin

Liat: taf.

Jonathan: That was fun! Let’s do it one more time!

Some Hebrew Grammar from This Lesson:

Hebrew Masculine /Feminine Nouns and Adjectives.

A room is “cheder”. Vacant is “panuy”. So a vacant room is “cheder panuy”. Eran and Liat, I can see you have some things you would like to add here…

Eran: ken Yonatan. As being in charge of the cheese-cream rule, may I just mention that as always, the order of the words is different between Hebrew and English.

In Hebrew we of course say it by the order of “a room vacant” “cheder panuy”. First comes the noun and following it is the adjective which describes it.

Liat: And I would like to mention, that a room, “cheder” is a masculine noun. As should be the gender of the adjective following it – “panuy”. 

“panuy” is vacant in the masculine form.

Vacant Room - חדר פנוי

סוכה

Jonathan: Another thing we have learned today is how to make a masculine Hebrew noun plural. 

We know that the common rule in English for having plural, is by adding the letter 'S’ at the end of a singular noun: room/rooms, hotel/hotels.  This is, of course, a general rule, which also has some exceptions, such as in the case of child/children. 

Hebrew treats singular and plural forms quite the same, but of course by maintaining one of its basic features… the difference between the masculine and the feminine pertinence. 

Therefore, we will have one “normal” or common suffix when pluralizing a masculine noun, and a different common suffix for when pluralizing a feminine form.

Since we’re discussing the word room - “cheder” which is a masculine word in Hebrew, let’s see how we make it plural - rooms. 

Liat: I was asking the receptionist, if there is an air conditioner in the room...

Eran: My answer to her was, that we have and an air conditioner, a TV and a safe in all of the rooms. This is a very hi-class hotel - malon be-rama !

Liat: I was asking about “cheder” – a room. 

Living Room - חדר שינה

Eran: And I was replying about “kol ha-chdarim” - all the rooms. Rooms – chadarim.

Jonathan: So “cheder” becomes plural by changing some of its vowels, but mostly by adding the suffix “im” to it. che-der – cha-da-rim, cheder – chadarim.  Eran and Liat, do you mind giving me a few more examples of this?

Eran: One child – ye-led ;  Few children -  ye-la-dim.

Liat: One horse – sus ;  Few horses –  su-sim.

Horses - סוסים

Eran:  One flower – pe-rach ;  Few flowers – pra-chim.

Liat: One book – se-fer ; Few books – sfa-rim.