How to say it in Hebrew
Tip #39

I am often asked ...

...how to say "First,..." in Hebrew?

First, I have to ask you – which "first" do you mean? "First" that starts a sentence and has a comma afterwards – like in in the previous sentence?

Or "first" like when you count – the first sheep, the second sheep… ;)

Or do you want to say "At first I thought that no one will show up, but …"? Let's make some order in all this. :)

"At first - the first ...!"
First of all (yes, how do we say that?) let's start with the simple count.

How do we say "the first day" (which means Sunday, by the way 😉)? Right, יום ראשון

So, how do we say: "What was the name of the first man on the moon?" You say:אֵיךְ קָרְאוּ לְבֵן אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן עַל הַיָּרֵחַ?

More examples:
The first thing I wanted to tell him when I saw him was …הַדָּבָר הָרִאשׁוֹן שֶׁרָצִיתִי לְהַגִּיד לוֹ הָיָה …
What - I am the first one to come? Unbelievable!
מָה זֶה - הִגַּעְתִּי רִאשׁוֹן? לֹא יֵאָמֵן!

So this one is relatively simple – and exhausts the usage of the word ראשון
I mean – use it when you count people, things or objects, and this is it.

Then, let's look at "AT FIRST. "
We are counting nothing here, right?
So – "rishon" cannot be used for saying "AT first", never! 😉 What you want to say here is "at the first moment," and our intention is to describe the state of things when you start your observation, as opposed to what you saw next. "Starting" is "beginning." So, in Hebrew, what we actually say here is "in the beginning"בהתחלה.
Examples:בְּהַתְחָלָה חָשַׁבְתִּי שֶׁאַף אֶחָד לֹא נִמְצָא, אֲבָל אַחַר כָּךְ הֵבַנְתִּי שֶׁפָּשׁוּט כֻּלָּם הָיוּ בְּחֶדֶר אַחֵר.
At first I though that there is no one there, but then I realized that they have just been in another room.
בְּהַתְחָלָה זֶה יָכֹל לִהְיוֹת קָשֶׁה לִקְרֹא מִיָּמִין לִשְׂמֹאל, אֲבָל אַחַר כָּךְ מִתְרַגְּלִים. 😊At first it may be difficult to read from right to left, but then you get used to it.
"First, ..."
Now, finally, we are back to the "first" that we started from, "first, …" that is followed by the coma! Here, it is something special, - it is an introductory phrase, and there is a different word we use for it in Hebrew! And we use it very often, I am sure you have encountered it – and understood! Now the challenge is – when to use it?
Two signs will help you recognize that it is this "first" and not any other –
1) it is separated from the rest of the sentence with the comma.
2) you can make it longer and say "first of all" instead – and in Hebrew as well!

Like here:קֹדֶם כֹּל, אֲנִי לֹא אָמַרְתִּי שׁוּם דָּבָר מַעֲלִיב וְגַם...*
First (of all), I said nothing offensive... And also, ..."
קֹדֶם כֹּל, אֵין הַרְבֵּה אֲנָשִׁים שֶׁיָּבִינוּ אֶת הַנֻּסְחָה הַזֹּאת. חוּץ מִזֶּה…*First (of all), there are not many people who can understand this formula. Besides, ...

*Mark the possible words that you can use after "first of all"! It's "and also...", "besides" – but never "second"! When and how do we use "second," then?
"1st, 2nd, 3rd..."
"First, I want to tell you that …. Second, … Third, …" What do we do here?! Is it – counting? So it's the first case? But there is a comma, so – is it the second?! Ahh, it's impossible! No panic! Yes, it's both, and since it's both, there is an ultimately elegant solution!

First, (קֹדֶם כֹּל) I want you to think – how would you say "my son is in the first grade now" – which word would you use for "first" here, eh? 😉
(Here is a song for you as a hint! ;) )
Did you guess it? Right, it's just grade "A"- "kita alef" – כיתה א' Which means that we can count with letters, did you know that? ;) ***
And this brings us to the solution for the case when you want to count the possibilities "first, …, second, …, third, …" You just say "ALEF, …, BEIT, …, GIMEL, …"! This simple! :D

Example:אָלֶף, - אֲנִי לֹא יוֹדֵעַ אֵיפֹה לְחַפֵּשׂ, בֵּית, - זֹאת לֹא הָאַחְרָיוּת שֶׁלִּי, גִּימֶל, - אַף אֶחָד אֲפִלּוּ לֹא בִּקֵּשׁ מִמֶּנִּי לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת זֶה! First, I don't know where to look for it, second, it's not my responsibility, third, no one even asked me to do it!

***
Counting with Hebrew letters has a name to it – how is it called? If you know – write back to me with an answer! 😉

Well, this is it for today!
At first (which word would you use here? ????) I thought it was going to be a short newsletter – but it turned out to be a long one! But it was worth it, I hope, since this is a very common point of confusion!

See you next week,
Happy Hebrew-learning!
Alisa
Tip #39
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