How to say it in Hebrew
Tip #43

I am often asked ...

...how to say "when" in Hebrew? (PART 1)
"When do you arrive?"
You've probably noticed already that there are several ways to say "when," right? There is the "מָתַי" word, and there is the "כְּשֶׁ-" word! In English – both mean "when." But these are different types of "when"!
If you ask "when do you arrive?" (מָתַי אַתָּה מַגִּיעַ?) you want to know the exact time. Often it's followed by a question mark (but not always).
Here some examples:מָתַי הַטִּיסָה שֶׁלָּךְ?When is your flight?אֲנִי לֹא יוֹדַעַת בְּדִיּוּק מָתַי, אֲבָל אֲנִי בָּטוּחַ הוֹלֵךְ לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת זֶה!I don't know exactly when, but I am going to do it for sure!מָתַי אַתְּ חוֹשֶׁבֶת יֵשׁ לִי זְמַן לִרְאוֹת סְרָטִים?When do you think I have time to watch movies?
When you arrive…
Here is another case - saying something like "I'll meet you when you arrive to the station. " אֶפְגֹּשׁ אוֹתְךָ כְּשֶׁתַּגִּיעַ לַתַּחֲנָה. As you see, we use כְּשֶׁ- here. But why, how is this sentence different? Here, we are not asking a question, the exact time doesn't matter! What matters is the relation of one action to another.

Examples:
תַּגִּיד לִי כְּשֶׁאַתָּה מַגִּיעַ, בְּסֵדֶר? (Tell me when you arrive, ok?)
כְּשֶׁמִּישֶׁהוּ אוֹמֵר לִי "תּוֹדָה" אֲנִי שְׂמֵחָה. (When someone tells me "thank you!" I am happy.)
אֲנִי יְכוֹלָה לִלְמֹד גַּם כְּשֶׁאֲנִי עֲיֵפָה. (I can study also when I am tired.)

Level up, - let's compare!:)
Now you can see the difference in meaning between these two sentences, right? ;)
תַּגִּיד לִי, מָתַי אַתָּה מַתְחִיל לִלְמֹד עִבְרִית?
תַּגִּיד לִי כְּשֶׁאַתָּה מַתְחִיל לִלְמֹד עִבְרִית!

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*Don't confuse "כש-" with "ש-"! These are two absolutely different words! SHE means "that"! They sound similar, it's confusing, I agree! But "I know when one tells me the truth" and "I know that it's the truth" are different, aren't they?
I can even combine them in one sentence, then you'll see the difference better! ;)
But that's not all...
There is one "dark secret" about the "when" word!
Consider this sentence - "the day when he was born was the day when the world changed..." It's neither כש- nor מתי here! Something else is hiding behind this "when"!

Any guesses? ;)

Wait for the next newsletter to learn the answer! ;)

Happy Hebrew- learning!
Alisa
Tip #43
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