How to say it in Hebrew
Tip #29

I am often asked ...

... about saying "very", "very much", "too much", and "more" in Hebrew - the second letter about it! :)

"It's too hot!"
If you visited Tel Aviv in summer, you probably wanted to say it! (Or maybe not?)

In any case, the question now is - how do we say "too" in Hebrew?

First, let's make sure that one thing is clear - in English "too" can mean two different things!
One, like in "He wants to visit tel Aviv, too!"
And the other like in "It's too hot in Tel Aviv."
Did you notice that they have different meanings? So, in our very logical Hebrew language, :P of course we have two words for them!
The first sentence would sound like -
.הוּא גַּם רוֹצֶה לְבַקֵּר בְּתֵל אָבִיב
and the second
.חַם מִדַּי בְּתֵל אָבִיב

So, the word we were searching for is - מִדַּי

For example, if you want to sound like a real Israeli and start bargaining at the shuk (שוק - market) you would say - זֶה יָקָר מִדַּי! It's too expensive!

More examples:
It's too big, I need a smaller size!
.זֶה גָּדוֹל מִדַּי, אֲנִי צְרִיכָה מִדָּה קָטְנָה יוֹתֵר
Israelis speak too fast!
!יִשְׂרְאֵלִים מְדַבְּרִים מַהֵר מִדַּי

---to sum up--
"too" - מדי - after adjectives
"It's too much for me..."
I hope you are not saying it when learning Hebrew! ;) But just in case you do - don't search for "much"! There is no such word! It shows up in English in different contexts, and in Hebrew it takes different forms!

(*In general, a good advice would be - when learning a language and beginning to speak it, do not try to translate each word - often most innocent expressions appear to function differently, - as you've probably seen not once, if you are following my newsletter. :) So - make a mental mark when you suspect that what you wanted to say is an expression and try to think of an analogy, not of a translation. )

So here, when we want to say "too much" we will be using our old friend from the previous email - we say יוֹתֵר מִדַּי.

Back to our shuk example - we can use יוֹתֵר מִדַּי in this case as well! Let's just change the adjective to a verb and say "it costs too much!" - זֶה עוֹלֶה יוֹתֵר מִדַּי!

More examples:
Too much sugar in my tea
יוֹתֵר מִדַּי סֻכָּר בַּתֵּה שֶׁלִּי
It's too much work, I don't want to do it.
יוֹתֵר מִדַּי עֲבוֹדָה, אֲנִי לֹא רוֹצֶה לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת זֶה

---to sum up---
"too much" - יותר מדי - after verbs or before nouns
But it's not over yet! What if you want to say - "I like it very much?" Is it the same "very much" then? Seems like it's not the last letter on this topic! Wait for the next newsletter - the closing one for the "more\very\much" series! ;)

Stay in touch and happy Hebrew-learning!

Alisa
Tip #29
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