How to say it in Hebrew
Tip #14

I am often asked...

At the last newsletter I promised to tell you more about the "seeing/looking/watching/glancing" verbs in Hebrew -
so here we go!


As you see - in English we also have a whole bunch of those, don't we? ;) And why do we have many verbs describing, basically, the same thing? Well, because they convey different nuances of this same action!

Now, in Hebrew -

...we have the verb לִרְאוֹת

And it's the very basic and plain verb "to see."
For example: אַתָּה רוֹאֶה מָה קוֹרֶה פֶּה?!

It can also step in place of "to watch" - I mean, though not completely correct, native-speakers do use it this way quite a lot!
Example: אֵין מָה לִרְאוֹת בַּטֶּלֶוִיזְיָה הַיּוֹם!

But what if we want to say it correctly? Then, for saying "to watch" we should use...

...the verb לִצְפוֹת!

And here you must be very careful - this verb comes (always!) with a strange preposition - ב-!

Example: הוּא צוֹפֶה בַּחֲדָשׁוֹת כָּל בֹּקֶר וְתָמִיד יוֹדֵעַ מָה קוֹרֶה בָּעוֹלָם.

But it's not the end... We have more!
The verb לְהִסְתַּכֵּל...
...is a wonderful equivalent of "to look"! I'd say - 100% match! Think of a sentence in which you'd use "to look" in English - and use לְהִסְתַּכֵּל there! Mind the preposition, of course! ;) (it's לְהִסְתַּכֵּל על!)
We had some examples last week, but here is more:
תִּסְתַּכֵּל עַל הֶחָתוּל הָזָה, אֵיךְ הוּא הִגִּיעַ לְשֵׁם בַּכְּלָל?

Another one for "to look" (a synonym, more or less, but a bit more like the English "to glance") is...

...the verb לְהַבִּיט

It's more of a short action, when you look at something and then turn away.
Like in the first lines of Dr. Seuss' "Cat in the Hat" (translated to Hebrew):
גַּשֵּׁר יָרַד,
הָיָה קַר וְרָטֹב,
יָשַׁבְנוּ בַּבַּיִת,
הִבַּטְנוּ לָרְחוֹב.
:)
Well, this is it, more or less. :) Let this rainy "Cat in the Hat" note conclude this newsletter. :)

Hope my Hebrew tips are helpful for you, thank you all who reach out and write back to me - love your feedback - be it a "thank you" line or a typo correction - I am equally happy!

Stay in touch and happy Hebrew-learning!

Alisa
Tip #14
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