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Reading a News Article: SimilarWeb raises $25m – Part 1

7 August 2016

In this article, we will take apart a real, unadapted news article from the today's Calcalist: SimilarWeb raises another 25 million dollars.

We will focus on how to understand vowelless Hebrew used in the articles and look at the examples of the expressions and grammatical structures used in newspaper language.

Open the link to the article in a separate tab and follow our comments below.


The title of the article reads:

סימילר ווב מגייסת עוד 25 מיליון דולר.
SimilarWeb megayeset od esrim va-chamisha milyon dolar.
SimilarWeb raises another 25 million dollars.

This must be fairly simple as all words can be easily recognised as English-language borrowings, with the exception of עוֹד‏ od "more, another, yet, still" and מְגַיֶּסֶת ~ מגייסת megayeset, the feminine singular present-tense form of לְגַיֵּס ~ לגייס legayes "to raise funds".

Note that the word for "company", חֶבְרָה‏ chevra, is feminine in Hebrew, and so are all company names. This is why the feminine form is used.

Now look at the summary below the title:

את סבב הגיוס מובילים דייוויד אליאנס ונספרס.
Et sevev ha-giyus movilim David Alliance ve-Naspers.
David Alliance and Naspers lead the funding round.

The sentence starts with את. This could be either אַתְּ‏ at "you" (said to a woman), or אֶת‏ et, the direct object marker. One could hardly expect a financial news article to start with an address to the reader, so we must conclude that the sentence starts with the object סֶבֶב הַגִּיּוּס‏ sevev ha-giyus "the funding round".

The same message could also be written as דייוויד אליאנס ונספרס מובילים את סבב הגיוס "David Alliance and Naspers lead the funding round" or סבב הגיוס ‎ מוּבָל עַל יְדֵי‏ muval al-yedei דייוויד אליאנס ונספרס "the funding round is led by David Alliance and Naspers".

The word גִּיּוּס‏ giyus "raising" is the regular name of action (shem peula) for the verb לְגַיֵּס ~ לגייס legayes above, and the word סֶבֶב‏ sevev "round" has many cognates, all related to rotation and spinning.

הסטארט־אפ פיתח שירות למדידת תנועת גולשים...
Ha-startup piteach sherut li-medidat tnu'at golshim...
The start-up has developed a service for measuring web surfer traffic...

If you are looking for cognates to help you remember the words, note that גּוֹלְשִׁים golshim "surfers" is the participle of the verb לִגְלֹשׁ ~ לגלוש liglosh "to surf, to glide", מְדִידָה‏ medida "measurement" is the regular name of action for the verb לָמֹד ~ למוד lamod "to measure", and תְּנוּעָה‏ tnu'a "movement" (here: "traffic") is the name of action for the verb לָנוּעַ lanua "to move".

וגייס רק לפני פחות משנה 15 מיליון דולר.
ve-giyes rak lifnei pachot mi-shana chamisha-asar milyon dolar.
and raised less than a year ago fifteen million dollars.

Note that since the word מִילְיוֹן‏ milyon "million" is masculine, the numerals before it need to be in the masculine as well: חֲמִשָּׁה עָשָׂר‏ chamisha asar "fifteen", עֶשְׂרִים וַחֲמִשָּׁה‏ esrim va-chamisha "twenty five".

עתה, מרחיבה החברה מצבת העובדים שלה...
Ata, marchiva ha-chevra matzevat ha-ovdim shela(h)...
Now the company is expanding its workforce...

עַתָּה‏ ata is a bookish term for "now"; עַכְשָׁו ~ עכשיו achshav is commonly used in speech instead.

Note that in this sentence, the verb precedes the subject. While in modern Hebrew the standard word order is subject-verb-object, the verb-subject-object order, more typical for Semitic languages, often occurs, especially in the sentences which start with an introductory adverb.

...ומחפשת אנשי מכירות
...u-mechapeset anshei mechirot.
...and looking for salespeople.

Now we are going on to the body of the article:

הסטארט־אפ הישראלי סימילר ווב שפיתח שירות למדידת תנועת גולשים לאתרים ולאפליקציות במובייל, מגייס 25 מיליון דולר נוספים.
Ha-startup ha-yisre'eli SimilarWeb she-piteach sherut li-medidat tnu'at golshim le-atarim u-le-aplikatzyot be-mobayl, megayes esrim va-chamisha milyon dolar nosafim.
The Israeli start-up SimilarWeb, that has developed a service to measure user traffic for sites and mobile applications, raises another 25 million dollars.

Most of the words must be familiar from the text above. The word נוֹסָפִים nosafim is the plural participle of the verb לְהִוָּסֵף ~ להיווסף lehivasef "to be added" and means "additional" or "another". אֲתָר‏ atar is the Hebrew for "site", "website".

רק לפני פחות משנה גייסה החברה 15 מיליון דולר...
Rak lifnei pachot mi-shana giysa ha-chevra 15 milyon dolar...
Only less than a year ago, the company raised 15 million dollars...

Like the previous line, this one mostly repeats what was said in the summary.

...ומאז היווסדה ב־2007 צברה הון של 65 מיליון דולר.
...u-me'az hivasda(h) be-alpayim ve-sheva tzavra hon shel shishim va-chamisha milyon dolar.
...and since its inception in 2007, has amassed a capital of 65 million dollars.

הִוָּסְדָהּ ~ היווסדה hivasda(h) is the bare infinitive of the verb לְהִוָּסֵד ~ להיווסד lehivased "to be founded, to be established" (related to Yesod and Mossad) with the third-person feminine singular pronominal ending: "her (its) being founded".

Note that numerals for years are feminine: שְׁנַת אַלְפַּיִם וְשֶׁבַע‏ shnat alpayim ve-sheva "year 2007".

לפי מקורות TechCrunch, הגיוס מתבצע לפי שווי של 400 מיליון דולר.
Le-fi mekorot TechCrunch, ha-giyus mitbatzea le-fi shovi shel arba me'ot milyon dolar.
According to TechCrunch's sources, the raising is conducted at a valuation of 400 million dollars.

לְפִי‏ le-f`i (literally: "to the mouth of") means "according to", "under" (a condition) and, in this case, "at" a valuation.

את הסיבוב הנוכחי הובילו שני משקיעים קיימים בחברה:
Et ha-sivuv ha-nochachi hovilu shnei mashki'im kayamim ba-chevra:
Two existing investors have led the present round:

Note the inverted word order again. The word מַשְׁקִיעִים mashki'im "investors" is the masculine plural participle of לְהַשְׁקִיעַ lehashkia "to invest". Note that this verb is the causative of לִשְׁקֹעַ ~ לשקוע lishkoa "to sink, to drown": an investor is someone who "sinks" his money.

ענקית האינטרנט מדרום אפריקה נספרס (Naspers), שלה אחזקות ב־Tencent הסינית וב־Mail.ru הרוסית...
anakit ha-internet mi-drom Afrika Naspers, she-la(h) achzakot be-Tencent ha-sinit u-ve-Mail.ru ha-rusit...
the South African internet giant Naspers, to whom [belong] holdings in the Chinese Tencent and in the Russian Mail.ru...

Remember that company names are feminine in Hebrew, so the internet holding Naspers is called עֲנָקִית‏ anakit, literally "giantess". They are also definite, so the adjectives that follow them come with an article.

...וכן הלורד היהודי־בריטי דייוויד אליאנס, שהחל להשקיע בחברה לפני כשלוש שנים.
...va-chen ha-lord ha-yehudi-briti David Alliance, she-hechel lehashkia ba-chevra li-fnei ke-shalosh shanim.
...as well as the British Jewish Lord David Alliance, who started investing in the company around three years ago.

Note that the particle כ־, when used with quantities, means "approximately", "around", "about": כְּשָׁלוֹשׁ שָׁנִים‏ ke-shalosh shanim "around three years".

בין המשקיעים הקודמים של החברה מנכ"ל 888 לשעבר גיגי לוי,...
Bein ha-mashki'im ha-kodmim shel ha-chevra mankal shmone-me'ot shmonim u-shmone le-she-avar Gigi Levy,...
Among the earlier investors of the company are ex-CEO of 888 Gigi Levy,...

קוֹדְמִים kodmim "preceding; earlier" is the participle of the verb לִקְדֹּם ~ לקדום likdom "to precede". מַנְכָּ''ל‏ mankal (feminine form: מַנְכָּ''לִית‏ mankalit) is the abbreviation of מְנַהֵל כְּלָלִי‏ menahel klali, "general manager".

888 Holdings is an online gaming and gambling company. Note that the words אַרְבַּע‏ arba "four" and שְׁמוֹנֶה‏ shmone "eight" are stressed on the first syllable in the modern spoken language: arba, shmone (this only applies to the feminine forms, not to the masculine forms or any derived words).

...מנכ"ל מרכזי הפיתוח של מיקרוסופט לשעבר משה ליכטמן והמשקיע יוסי ורדי.
......mankal merkazi ha-pituach shel Microsoft le-she-avar Moshe Lichtman ve-ha-mashkia Yossi Vardi.
...Microsoft's former central general manager for development Moshe Lichtman and the investor Yossi Vardi.

The translation above is word-for-word; Moshe Lichtman's title in Microsoft in English was Vice President; he was responsible for developing several lines of business and also was the head of Microsoft's research centre in Israel. Yossi Vardi is one of Israel's oldest and earliest venture investors, who founded or invested in several dozens of companies over his career.

This is about half of the article. The Part 2 will follow shortly.

If you need more explanation or thing something must be covered differently, don't hesitate to comment below!

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See also

Reading a News Article: SimilarWeb raises $25m – Part 2

How to Dress in Hebrew

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