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.

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Let’s start with the cognates (words taken from other languages)
(the slightly different pronunciation is in parenthesis)

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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.

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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

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