lesson 81: a postcard from Tel Aviv

lesson 81: Hebrew syntax

 

a postcard from Tel Aviv

 

 

Today I would like to introduce a new experiment: it's like a translation but the other way round:  I will use a short text, a shortened version of a postcard (not exactly the one above but quite similar) a friend sent me last year from Tel Aviv. She wrote it in Hebrew because she did a summer language course there and writing a letter was part of an exercise.

I will present it in 5 stages:


text 1: a literal translation of the Hebrew text
(text 2: how it could be translated in to normal English)
text 3: substituting all the Hebrew words we've already learned in this course
text 4: substituting 4 new words
text 5: substituting another 4 new words to arrive at the complete original text

all English words are in blue and all Hebrew words are in red and explanations in black


text 1:

Peace Anna
What will we hear? Already seen the film 'Visit the Orchestra'?  What you think?
I in Tel Aviv already three weeks. I love the city and the university. In summer here hot very. All the day I at the university and all the evening I at the beach the sea with friends. I eat salads and falafel and drink a lot of water. 

through this literal translation you will be able to see and understand the Hebrew sentence structure. Where it is very different and where it is very similar to the English sentence structure. Pay attention to the omission of the verb 'to be' in the present tense.


(text 2: an English version

Hi Anna
how are you? Have you seen the film 'The Band's Visit' already? What do you think?
I have been in Tel Aviv for three weeks now. I love the city and the university. In the summer it is very hot here. I spend my days at the university and in the evenings I am at the beach with friends. I eat salads and falafel and I drink a lot of water. )



text 3:
since the word order is in Hebrew we can simply substitute the words we already know:

Shalom Anna
Mah nishma? Already ra'it ha seret 'Visit ha Orchestra'? Mah at choshevet?
Anee be Tel Aviv already shloshim shavou'im. Anee ohevet ha'ir ve ha'universitah. Be summer here hot me'od. Kol hayom anee ba'universitah ve kol ha'erev anee bachof hayam im chaverim. Anee ochelet salads ve falafel ve shotah a lot of mayim.  



text 4:
we have 8 words left, so let's learn 4 new ones in a first step

already             kvar
here                  poh
salads               salatim
a lot of/much   harbeh

Shalom Anna
Mah nishmah? Kvar ra'it haseret`'Visit ha Orchestra?' Mah at choshevet?
Anee be Tel Aviv kvar shloshim shavou'im. Anee ohevet ha'ir ve ha'universitah. Be summer poh hot me'od. Kol hayom anee ba'universitah ve kol ha'erev anee bachof hayam im chaverim. Anee ochelet salatim ve falafel ve shotah harbeh mayim.



text 5:
another 4 words to complete the text:

visit              bikour
orchestra      tzimoret
summer        kayitz
hot               cham


Shalom Anna
Mah nishmah? Kvar ra'it haseret`'Bikour haTzimoret?' Mah at choshevet?
Anee be Tel Aviv kvar shloshim shavou'im. Anee ohevet ha'ir ve ha'universita. Be kayitz poh cham me'od. Kol hayom anee ba'universitah ve kol ha'erev anee bahof hayam im chaverim. Anee ochelet salatim ve falafel ve shotah harbeh mayim.


And now the texts without the explanations:

Peace Anna
What will we hear? Already seen the film 'Visit the Orchestra'?  What you think?
I in Tel Aviv already three weeks. I love the city and the university. In summer here hot very. All the day I at the university and all the evening I at the beach the sea with friends. I eat salads and falafel and drink much water. 

Shalom Anna
Mah nishma? Already ra'it ha seret 'Visit ha Orchestra'? Mah at choshevet?
Anee be Tel Aviv already shloshim shavou'im. Anee ohevet ha'ir ve ha'universitah. Be summer here hot me'od. Kol hayom anee ba'universitah ve kol ha'erev anee bachof hayam im chaverim. Anee ochelet salads ve falafel ve shotah a lot of mayim.  

Shalom Anna
Mah nishmah? Kvar ra'it haseret`'Visit ha Orchestra?' Mah at choshevet?
Anee be Tel Aviv kvar shloshim shavou'im. Anee ohevet ha'ir ve ha'universitah. Be summer poh hot me'od. Kol hayom anee ba'universitah ve kol ha'erev anee bachof hayam im chaverim. Anee ochelet salatim ve falafel ve shotah harbeh mayim.

Shalom Anna
Mah nishmah? Kvar ra'it haseret`'Bikour haTzimoret?' Mah at choshevet?
Anee be Tel Aviv kvar shloshim shavou'im. Anee ohevet ha'ir ve ha'universita. Be kayitz poh cham me'od. Kol hayom anee ba'universitah ve kol ha'erev anee bahof hayam im chaverim. Anee ochelet salatim ve falafel ve shotah harbeh mayim.

What do you think? Is this a good approach to attac Hebrew syntax or is it confusing? Let me know what you think.