How to say it in Hebrew
Tip #32

I am often asked ...

...how to say "a chance" in Hebrew? Like "I met him by chance" or "never had a chance to talk to him properly"?

"I met him by chance"
Let's think of science - you know that many inventions were made unintentionally, by pure chance, right? How do we say it in Hebrew? Like this - הַרְבֵּה הַמְצָאוֹת נַעֲשׂוּ לְגַמְרֵי *בְּמִקְרֶה.
You notice that there is no "by" there, right? Hebrew is less productive in terms of prepositions, pretty much everything turns to "BE-" :)

So the word מִקְרֶה on it's own, when left without BE-, means "chance". בְּמִקְרֶה - by chance. Look at this word - doesn't the root look familiar? Surely you heard people say "?מָה קוֹרֶה" sometimes. We know that it means something like "what's up?" but the literal meaning is "what's happening?"
Like a child in some movie could tell his mom "mom, don't worry, what on earth can happen to me in several hours?" אִמָּא, אַל תִּדְאֲגִי, מָה כְּבָר יָכֹל לִקְרוֹת לִי תּוֹךְ כַּמָּה שָׁעוֹת?!?" And then, well... I leave it to your imagination. :)
Hopefully, no מִקְרֶה חֵרוּם - no emergency case... You see - for "case" we also use this word! It makes total sense - we are talking about something unexpected here!

More examples: (in which often in English we could just go ahead and use "happen"):
יֵשׁ לְךָ מַבְרֵג בַּמִּקְרֶה? Do you (happen to) have a screwdriver, by any chance?
בְּמִקְרֶה אֲנִי יוֹדֵעַ אֶת הַתְּשׁוּבָה!I happen to know the answer!

*And let the ה at the end not confuse you! It's not a feminine word - like in מה הוא עושה -"E" is a masculine ending. :)
"A chance to talk to him..."
If you happen to catch a very special person who can help your business on his way to the office, just for several minutes, - that's your chance for an "elevator pitch"! Can I call it a מִקְרֶה? No, in this sense it's not a random occurrence, it's a lucky chance, an opportunity! Here we should use another word - הִזְדַּמְּנוּת! And let's just hope that this situation doesn't end up with "I didn't get a chance to say a word..."לֹא הָיְתָה לִי הִזְדַּמְּנוּת לוֹמַר מִלָּה...

More examples:
It's your last chance to buy it at such a low price!
זֹאת הַהִזְדַּמְּנוּת הָאַחֲרוֹנָה שֶׁלָּךְ לִקְנוֹת אֶת זֶה בִּמְחִיר כָּזֶה נָמוּךְ!
Could you call me when you get the chance?
תּוּכַל לְהִתְקַשֵּׁר אֵלַי בַּהִזְדַּמְּנוּת?

And for these ones I even had trouble finding close English expressions:
קָנִיתִי בַּהִזְדַּמְּנוּת
I was lucky to buy it.
לֹא צָרִיךְ לְטַפֵּל בָּזָה מַמָּשׁ עַכְשָׁו - תַּעֲשֶׂה אֶת זֶה בַּהִזְדַּמְּנוּת
You don't have to take care of it now, do it when the time is right.
That's it for this Friday!
Wishing you lots of הִזְדַּמְּנֻיּוֹת this week,
Happy Hebrew-learning and stay in touch!

Alisa
Tip #32
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