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Phrase of the day: חבל על הזמן - what a waste of time!

21 March 2018

Chaval al ha-zman!

As every living language, Hebrew is polysemantic. One word or phrase may have several meanings, sometimes even directly opposite to one another. Let’s see it in detail using a simple phrase as an example: חֲבָל עַל הַזְּמַן chaval al ha-zman.  The literal meaning is “waste of (the) time”: חֲבָל chaval means "it's a pity", or "what a waste", and זְמַן zman is, obviously, "time".

הסרט היה משעמם – חבל על הזמן!
Ha-seret haya mesha’amem – chaval al ha-zman.
The film was boring – it’s a waste of time.

Nevertheless, this phrase can be used in a positive context – especially in slang. The meaning is “very good, awesome”:

ראינו סרט חבל על הזמן – "ערבים רוקדים"!
Ra'inu seret chaval al ha-zman – Aravim Rokdim!
We were watching the wonderful film – “Dancing Arabs”

There is also the third meaning – “Forget about it”. It’s also used in spoken Hebrew:

– ניתקתי עם חברה. – חבל על הזמן!
– Nitakti im chavera. – Chaval al ha-zman!
– I broke up with my girlfriend. – Forget it!

Remember also that Hebrew “loves” abbreviations. This phrase is not an exception: in the streets of Tel Aviv, you can hear the abbreviation חַבְלָ״ז chavlaz which consists of the first letters (well, not exactly) of the words that make up this phrase: חבל על הזמן!

If you think that studying slang is חבל על הזמן you are not right! Only if you are competent with all facets of the language you can know it חבל על הזמן!

This post was written by Anastasia Golovina. The picture above was taken by zoetnet@Flickr.

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