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Recent events in Hebrew: 23-28 May 2021

31 May 2021

This article has been contributed by Lior, the founder of the Hebrew360 learning programme. Lior has been teaching Hebrew for more than 5 years, and he runs individual and group classes for all levels from beginner to advanced — regardless of your level, you will find a speaking group that matches your level. Feel free to contact Lior on WhatsApp or the program's Facebook page.

Note that the events mentioned below happened more than a week ago already, and a lot of important developments have happened since this was originally published. We also understand that two of the three topics covered in this article are highly sensitive, and we are trying to focus on the vocabulary rather than on the substance of the events. We hope that the Hebrew sentence examples you will find in this article will help you in your studies.


Hi, and welcome to another class of the most common vocabulary of this current week! Today we are going to cover some words and phrases that are relevant for the week of May 23-28th: the cable card tragedy, the arrest in Belarus and the lottery winning.


Let us start with the cable card tragedy. The first word we have is אָסוֹן ason ("tragedy" or "disaster"), as in:

קָרָה אָסוֹן נוֹרָא.
kara ason nora.
A terrible disaster occurred.

Another relevant word is תְּאוּנָה te'una "accident" — תְּאוּנָה קָשָׁה te'una kasha "a severe accident":

תְּאוּנָה קָשָׁה בְּרַכֶּבֶל בְּאִיטַלְיָה
te'una kasha ba-rachbal be-Italya
a severa accident in a cable car in Italy

Note that the word רכבל "cable car" is originally vowelled רַכֶּבֶל rakevel, but is usually pronounced rachbal.

נֶהֶרְגוּ nehergu means "were killed":

5 יִשְׂרְאֵלִים נֶהֶרְגוּ.
chamisha isra'elim nehergu.
5 Israelis were killed.

נֶעֶצְרוּ ne'etzru means "were arrested", and כולל kolel means "including":

שְׁלוֹשָׁה עוֹבְדִים נֶעֶצְרוּ, כּוֹלֵל הַמְּנַהֵל שֶׁל הַמָּקוֹם.
shlosha ovdim ne'etzru, kolel ha-menahel shel ha-makom.
Three workers were arrested, including the manager of the place.

חֲקִירָה chakira means "investigation" and חָשׁוּד chashud means "suspect":

הִתְחִילוּ חֲקִירָה רְצִינִית נֶגֶד הַחֲשׁוּדִים.
hitchilu chakira retzinit neged ha-chashudim.
A serious investigation has been started against the suspects.

Note that in the last sentence, the subject is omitted: it literally translates to "(they) started a serious investigation against the suspects". Now, תַּקָּלָה takala means "malfunction":

הֵם אוֹמְרִים שֶׁזּוֹ הָיְיתָה תַּקָּלָה.
hem omrim she-zo hayta takala.
They are saying that this was an accident.

Read the entire passage again to practice:

קרה אסון נורא, תאונה קשה ברכבל באיטליה. חמישה ישראלים נהרגו, שלושה עובדים נעצרו, כולל המנהל של המקום. התחילו חקירה רצינית נגד החשודים. הם אומרים שזו הייתה תקלה.


Now, we have the Belarus diverted flight arrest and the events that followed it:

חֶבְרוֹת תְּעוּפָה רַבּוֹת שֶׁל מְדִינוֹת בָּאִיחוּד הָאֵירוֹפִּי...
chevrot te'ufa rabot shel medinot ba-ichud ha-eiropi...
Many airlines from the countries of the European Union...

חברת תעופה chevrat te'ufa (in plural, חברות תעופה chevrot te'ufa) is an airline, or an airline company, and איחוד אירופי ichud eiropi, is European Union (most commonly, האיחוד האירופי ha-ichud ha-eiropi, "the European Union".

לֹא רוֹצוֹת לִנְחוֹת בְּבֵלָרוּס וּמִבְּטֵלוּת טִיסוֹת
lo rotzot linchot be-Belarus u-mevatlot tisot.
do not want to land in Belarus and are cancelling flights.

סנקציות sanktziyot means "sanctions", as in:

הַמְּדִינוֹת מְטִילוֹת סַנְקְצִיּוֹת...
ha-medinot metilot sanktziyot...
The states are imposing sanctions...

מתנגד המשטר mitnaged ha-mishtar means "the regime's opponent". מִשְׁטָר mishtar can mean "government", but has a more negative connotation, i. e. something like a tyrannical government, or a regime:

בִּגְלַל הַמַּעֲצָר שֶׁל מִתְנַגֵּד הַמִּשְׁטָר
...biglal ha-ma'atzar shel mitnaged ha-mishtar.
...because of the arrest of the regime's opponent.

חֲטִיפָה chatifa can mean "kidnapping" or "hijacking".

יֵשׁ שֶׁקּוֹרְאִים לְזֶה חֲטִיפָה
yesh she-kor'im le-ze chatifa.
Some call it kidnapping.

(literally, "there are (those) who call it kidnapping"). And to sum up:

חברות תעופה רבות של מדינות האיחוד האירופי לא רוצות לנחות בבלרוס ומבטלות טיסות המדינות מטילות סנקציות בגלל המעצר של מתנגד המשטר.

יש קוראים לזה חטיפה.


Next, there was the lottery winning this week. A lottery draw is הגרלת הלוטו hagralat ha-loto, and "a sole winner" is זוכה יחיד zoche yachid:

בְּהַגְרָלַת הַלּוֹטוֹ הַשָּׁבוּעַ זָכָה זוֹכֶה יָחִיד...
be-hagralat ha-loto ha-shavua zacha zoche yachid...
In this week's lottery, a sole winner won...

Note that the verb זָכָה zacha "won" goes before the subject זוכה zoche "winner". This verb is used with the preposition בְּ־ be-: "won the prize" is זכה בפרס zacha ba-pras:

...בַּפְּרָס הַגָּדוֹל בְּיוֹתֵר בְּתוֹלְדוֹת הַמְּדִינָה, 73 שָׁנִים
...ba-pras ha-gadol be-yoter be-toldot ha-medina, shiv'im ve-shalosh shanim.
...the biggest prize in the state's history, 73 years.

Read this again:

בהגרלת הלוטו השבוע זכה זוכה יחיד בפרס הגדול ביותר בתולדות המדינה, 73 שנים.

That's it for now!


If you're interested, you can see the video of this text (and check Lior's channel for more videos like this):

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