How to say it in Hebrew
Tip #28

I am often asked ...

.. about saying "very", "very much", "too much", and "more" in Hebrew - and the answer is so interesting that it may take me several newsletters! :) Let's start with "more".

"I want s'more!"
In newsletter #23 we talked about the strange word "עוד" - which, when combined with "one" means "one more" - עוֹד אֶחָד.
It's not the best word for "more" though, it means, rather, something like "yet" - like in "yet another" - עוֹד אֶחָד.

So - what is the standard word for "more"?

Look at some examples -

There are more people here than I thought -
יֵשׁ פֹּה יוֹתֵר אֲנָשִׁים מִמָּה שֶׁחָשַׁבְתִּי

This song is more beautiful*" if you listen to it in Hebrew
הַשִּׁיר הַזֶּה יוֹתֵר יָפֶה אִם אַתָּה מַקְשִׁיב לוֹ בְּעִבְרִית

This brown cookie is sweeter* than the white cookie-
הָעוּגִיָּה הַחוּמָה יוֹתֵר מְתוּקָה מֵהָעוּגִיָּה הַלְּבָנָה

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* In English we say "more beautiful" because we can't say "beautifulER" - but for other words, where we can add -ER - we would. In Hebrew, however, there is no -ER ending! So adding "more" is the only possible way to express comparative. For example:

"Even more so"
And what if we want to change one of the previous sentences, give it more emphasis and say "This song is even more beautiful if sang in Hebrew" - how do we say "even more"?

Here our friend from newsletter #23, that I mentioned earlier, will help us! We would say
עוֹד יוֹתֵר

This song is even more beautiful if you sing it in Hebrew.
הַשִּׁיר הַזֶּה עוֹד יוֹתֵר יָפֶה אִם שָׁרִים אוֹתוֹ בְּעִבְרִית

More examples:

Even simpler!
עוֹד יוֹתֵר פָּשׁוּט!

It's even better this way
עוֹד יוֹתֵר טוֹב כָּכָה
Now, but what if you want to say not "this cookie is sweeter", but this "cookie is too sweet"?
This is going to be the topic of our next newsletter! ;)

Stay in touch and happy Hebrew-learning!

Alisa
Tip #28
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