Lesson 16 - Getting Directions

Hebrew Lesson Number 16:

Getting Directions

How to get to Gezer Street? Is it to the left or to the right? How to get to the Plaza? Is it to the north or to the south? In this Hebrew audio/visual lesson, Eran and Liat will teach us all the Hebrew we need for getting and giving directions.

There are so many wonderful cities to visit in Israel!  Tel Aviv with its non-stop energy, Jerusalem with its many holy sites and museums, Eilat with its beautiful beaches and fabulous diving . . . 

But how to get around?  Ask directions, of course . . . outgoing Israelis will be happy to help (and probably engage you in a spirited conversation about politics along the way)!

For Lesson 16,  Eran and Liat have developed an extensive list of directional vocabulary.  They’ll help us get to Shderot Ben Gurion, Rechov Pinsker, Rechov Dizengof and more.  (Did you notice that the names of streets can also give you a history lesson?  They are a virtual encyclopedia of the people important in the founding of the modern State of Israel.

In addition to learning the Hebrew words to help us find our way around the cities (crosswalk, traffic light, sidewalk, etc.), we’ll also discover the directions of the four winds--North, South, East, and West.  And we’ll meet some special suffixes and prefixes that are often used in Hebrew, especially in the context of direction.

By the time we’re done with this Hebrew lessons, you’ll know how to say, “I am going towards the South” or “Tel Aviv is located West of the Mediterranean Sea.”  You’ll even know how to look for a Western at Netflix!

Learn Hebrew Pod - Lesson No. 16

Team Conversation from the Lesson:

Jonathan: shalom uvruchim habaim leshiur be-Ivrit mispar shesh-esre, Hello and welcome to Hebrew lesson number...

Liat: Sixteen!  shesh esre. shesh is six, esre is teen, shsesh esre – sixteen!

Jonathan: nachon!  ma shlomech Liat, ma shlomcha Eran?

Eran: I I feel great, thank you!  mamash nehedar, really great!

Liat: gam ani I also margisha nehedar, feel wonderful!  ma shlomcha Yonatan?

Jonathan: achla. toda!  How was the Seder night this year?  Did you have fun?

Eran: Oh, it’s always so much fun. ani mamash ohev et leyl haseder, I really love the Seder night. It is always a great opportunity to spend some quality time with my family, quality time – zman eycut, with –im, my family – hamishpacha sheli.

המשפחה שלי

Liat: feel the same. It’s not just a get together for dinner. It also feels special to read some ‘classic’ Hebrew from the Passover Hagada together, and to listen to the children sing the ‘ma nishtana’!

הגדה של פסח

Eran:  Yes!  These are the four questions sung during the Seder.  The four questions, arba hashe-e-lot.  I had a lot of fun this Seder. I really love Jewish holidays, ani mamash ohev chagim. gam at Liat?  Do you also Liat?

Liat: ken! me-od! And I can’t wait for the next holiday. yom ha-azzmaut!

Jonathan:  nachon!  Yom haazzmaut is the next holiday and in our next Hebrew lesson we will have a special podcast for this day. But for today’s Hebrew lesson, Eran and Liat, you have a wonderful idea…

!יש לי רעיון

Eran:  ken Yonatan. Many people visit Israel throughout the year, especially for the holidays,

Liat:  such as your friend Vera, who visited us a few months ago.

Eran:  bediyuk!  Exactly. We were thinking that, just as we had this special Hebrew lesson on podcast number ten, be podcast mispar eser…

עשר

Liat:  In which we learned how to order in Hebrew, a room in a hotel. A lot of tourists coming to Israel would probably like to know how to get directions, when they visit places with which they are not familiar.

Eran:  So… Liat and I have come up with a very helpful Hebrew vocabulary list, which we think might be handy for asking or getting directions.

*Join the Hebrew Pod Beginner’s Learning Program and enjoy Eran and Liat and Jonathan full Hebrew conversation.

Some Grammar from This Lesson:

Directions

Jonathan: Let’s  learn another way of using the ‘four winds’ terminology in Hebrew,  and that by using the preposition ‘of’. This preposition will be used as the Hebrew prefix ‘mi’.

First,  let’s learn a new word in Hebrew. The word nimzza is ‘located’

Nimzza – located, when referring to a male

Nimzzet – located, when referring to a female.

Now, let’s listen to Eran and Liat as they give us some examples, using this prefix, by pointing out locations of different cities or places in Israel:

Eran:  In Hebrew, the word zzafon is north. To say that a certain place is located ‘north of’ another place, I can use ‘mi’ prefix and say ‘mi-zzafon’ – north of.

I will also use the Hebrew preposition for ‘to’ before the place to which we are relating. 

Tel Aviv is located north of Ashdod.

Tel Aviv nimzzet mi-zzafon le-Ashdod.

Tel Aviv is a city. A city, in Hebrew, has feminine gender pertinence, and hence I will use the form ‘nimzzet’.

Tel Aviv nimzzet mi-zzafon le-Ashdod – Tel Aviv is located north of Ashdod.

Liat:  In Hebrew, the word darom is south. So, for saying in Hebrew that a certain place is located ‘south of’ another place, I can use ‘mi’ prefix and say ‘mi-darom’ – south of.

Tel Aviv is located south of Haifa.

Tel Aviv nimzzet mi-darom le-Cheyfa – Tel Aviv is located south of Haifa.

Eran: In Hebrew, the word mizrach is east. To say that a certain place is located ‘east of’ another place I can use ‘mi’ prefix and say ‘mi-mizrach’ – east of.

Tel Aviv is located east of the Mediterranean Sea 

Tel Aviv nimzzet mi-mizrach la yam ha-tichon – Tel Aviv is located east of the Mediterranean Sea.

In this case, I will use the ‘la’ prefix next to the Mediterranean Sea. Remember, in Hebrew, the prefix ‘la’ is the combination of ‘le’ meaning ‘to’ and ‘ha’ meaning ‘the’.  But in Hebrew, when saying the combination ‘to the’, we say  ‘la’ . ‘to the Mediterranean Sea’ ‘la yam hatichon’.

Tel Aviv nimzzet mi-mizrach la yam hatichon – Tel Aviv is located east of the Mediterranean Sea

תל אביב נמצאת ממזרח לים התיכון

Liat:  In Hebrew, the word ma-a-rav is west. To say that a certain place is located ‘west of’ another place, I can use the ‘mi’ prefix and say ‘mi-ma-a-rav’ – west of.

The Mediterranean Sea is located west of Tel Aviv.

The Mediterranean Sea, hayam ha-tichon, has masculine gender pertinence in Hebrew, so I will use the word ‘located’ as ‘nimzza’

?איפה זה נמצא

hayam ha-tichon nimzza mi-ma-a-rav le-Tel Aviv – The Mediterranean Sea  is located west of Tel Aviv.

Jonathan: achla! Let’s go through our vocabulary list again, and then practice it together: 

smola - to the left

yamina - to the right