Israel Tour Guide – My first 100+ words in Hebrew
Coming to visit Israel? Worried about not knowing how to ask for this or that?
Even though Hebrew ( Arabic too) is a totally different family of languages and written and read from right to left you will feel free in this very Americanized society. All hotel people speak English (and many other languages), most waiters in restaurants and most shopkeepers too. Many Israelis speak quite well with some accent. In fact – many Israelis will try to improve their English using you as a chance to do so.
As many of the people you will meet are Arabs (Christians, Muslims and Druze) it would be very polite to use some of their greetings so I have also included a half a dozen basic words in Arabic.
Let’s start with the cognates (words taken from other languages)
(the slightly different pronunciation is in parenthesis)
ambulance / avocado
beer (bira) / balloon / bank / brandy
cigarette /chocolate / cinema / computer / coffee (cafféh) / capuchino / chocochino / chips (as in fries) / change (as in money change)
doctor / domino / diet
electronic / espresso
football (as in soccer)
giraffe / gorilla / guitar / grill
helicopter / hamburger / hotel / hi / hello
internet / indian (indiani – but not from India – that is a Hodi)
jeans / jacket
kangaroo / kilo / kilometer / ketchup
lemon / latte
melon / mango / map (mapa) / microphone / mayonnaise / million
pizza / pie / police / parking / pastrami (pastrama)
radio / restaurant
sugar (sukar) / steak / sandal / sofa / soda / sandwich / salami / supermarket / sms / salad (salat)
taxi / television / tractor / telephone / theater / tea (teh) / toast / tennis / tomato
video / vodka
wifi / waffle (vaflla) / whiskey / whats-apps
Catch on quick, don’t you?
See, you already know 60+ word.
Now some of the important words –
(note that the ch is a very throaty/guttural sound)
greetings
shalom – hi, bye, peace. If you use it with a backward wave of your hand – buzz off (In Arabic – salaam)
lehitraot – see you later (alligator) (in Arabic – ma’a salamah)
todah – thank you. / todah rabah – thank you very much (in Arabic – shukran)
bevakasha – please, but also you’re welcome after somebody says todah (in Arabic please is min-fadlak and you are welcome is afwan)
tov – good or OK (in Arabic- tayeb)
boker tov – good morning (in Arabic – sabach el chir)
layla tov – good night (in Arabic – masah el chir)
yom tov – have a good day
shabbat shalom – customary greeting for hello and goodbye on Friday afternoon and all the Sabbath
chag sameach – happy holiday – customary greeting for hello and goodbye on a Jewish holiday and on the eve of the holiday. Most Christians and Muslims will also use this greeting even though for their holidays they have their own specific greetings like merry Christmas for example.
ma shlomcha – how are you to a man
ma slomech – how are you to a woman
ma koreh – what’s up
sababa – cool – everything is great
zuz mi-poh – buzz off – not too polite a way for getting rid of bothersome boys
lech mi-poh bevakasha – the same as the above just more politely – please go somewhere else
sheket – quiet / shtok! – shut up! – not too polite
betayavon – bon-appetite
food and drinks
mayim – water
yayin – wine
chalav – milk
shamenet – cream
gvinah – cheese
orez – rice
lechem – bread
pitah – flat bread
lachmania – bread-roll
hummus – a great street food
felafel – a great street food
schwarma – a great street food
shipud – skewer
kabab – kebab, chunks of meat on a skewer
shishlik – minced meat on a skewer
dag – fish
baytsah kasha – boiled egg / chavita – omlette / baytsat-ayin – fried egg
tsimchoni – vegetarian
chasah – lettuce
melaffefon – cucumber
batsal – onion
ugah – cake / ugiya – biscuit
glidah – ice cream – kadur – scoop
kartiv – and ice-sucker
kerach – ice / kos kerach – a glass of ice
tapuach – apple / tapuach-adama – potato
agass – pear
avatiach – watermelon
melach – salt
pilpel – pepper
shum – garlic
chardal – mustard
sucarzit – sweet & low or aspertame
drinks – all the famous “special” Israeli drinks – cola, sprite, diet cola, pepsi, cola light, cola zero, iced tea, milkshake – USE THEIR REGULAR NAMES
mazleg – fork
sakin – knife
kaf – spoon
kapit – tea-spoon
koss / sefel – glass / cup
tsalachat – plate
mapit – serviette
magevet – towel
on the road
shirutim – toilet
kamah zeh oleh? – what is the price?
bulim – postal stamps
ayfoh…? – where is…?
ayich ani magiah leh…(Tel Aviv) – how do I get too…?
kvish – road
rechov – street
kikar – round-about
madregot – stairs
small – left
yemin – right
knisa – entrance
yetsiah – exit
rakevet – train
autobus -bus
sherut – shared taxi
shuk – market
chanut – shop
kesef – money – the Israeli money is called the shekel. The Jordanian the Dinar. Dollars. Euro (yuro) and Sterling are the foreign names. Here is the official (updated daily) exchange rate.
swearing – if you must – like in most countries the two famous English 4-letter-words are used here often and and also means that something went wrong. You can always give somebody your middle finger. Never say anything about someones mother or sister – that is very offensive. (In Arabic too).
numbers
(there are slightly different pronunciations for each gender so don’t be offended if someone corrects you)
echad – 1
shtayim – 2
shalosh – 3
arbah – 4
chamesh – 5
shesh – 6
sheva – 7
shmoneh – 8
teshah – 9
eser – 10
meah – 100
alef – 1000
