How to say it in Hebrew
Tip #49

I am often asked ...

How do I agree in Hebrew? ;)
"You are right!"
As one way of agreeing - do you know how to say "you are right" in Hebrew? It's most peculiar, because there is no "right" - as in "right vs left". Hebrew has two separate "right" words! - "Right" as the direction is ימין, ימינה and a completely different word for "right" as in "you are right" – צוֹדֵק\ ת!

Examples
:
הוּא חוֹשֵׁב שֶׁהוּא תָּמִיד צוֹדֵק.
He thinks he is always right.
אֲנִי לֹא יוֹדַעַת מִי צוֹדֵק פֹּה וּמִי טוֹעֶה*, אֲבָל חַיָּבִים לַעֲשׂוֹת שָׁלוֹם!
I don't know who is right here and who is wrong*, but we must make peace!
אֲנִי חוֹשֶׁבֶת שֶׁצָּרִיךְ לִכְתֹּב אֶת זֶה עַם "ע" וְלֹא עִם "א"!
רֶגַע.. אֲנִי אֶבְדֹּק… אַתְּ צוֹדֶקֶת!!! כָּל הַכָּבוֹד לָךְ!
I think you have to write it with an "ayin" and not with "alef"!
One sec… let me see.. you are right!!! Good for you!

As a mild variation of צוֹדֵק you could also say נָכוֹן – "correct." It's a very common way to express agreement, much more common than responding "correct" in English – here we use it in broader sense of just agreeing in general, and not only confirming the facts. 😊

Examples:
נִרְאֶה לִי שֶׁצָּרִיךְ לִפְנוֹת פֶּה...
נָכוֹן! אֵיךְ לֹא שַׂמְתִּי לֵב?! תּוֹדָה!
I think you have to turn here…
Right! How come I didn't notice? Thank you!

----
* Did you notice that we don't have "wrong" in the strict sense? We just use the negation in most cases, sometimes we may use "mistaken" (as I did in the example above), and most often again the word נָכוֹן will come to the rescue -
wrong answer – תְּשׁוּבָה לֹא נְכוֹנָה
It's just wrong – זֶה פָּשׁוּט לֹא נָכוֹן!
"Sure!"
Besides, there are as may ways to say "sure", "of course", "definitely", "certainly" as we have in English!
We have – בֶּטַח, כַּמּוּבָן, בְּוַדַּאי, בְּהֶחְלֵט – more or less like in English, in the same order of intensity as above. How do you know which to use when? Well, how do you make up your mind which to use when in English? They are pretty much interchangeable… I can give you one tip nonetheless! There is a slight difference in the levels of formality between them – just as in English you wouldn't find a "sure thing" expression in a formal document, same thing is true for the בֶּטַח word – it's quite colloquial.:) Whereas בְּהֶחְלֵט is, probably, the most formal.
Another tip – if you want to have a better understanding of the feeling each word transmits – think of its' root!
בֶּטַח – security (like בִּטָּחוֹן)
understandingכַּמּוּבָן - (likeלְהָבִין)
בַּוַּדַּאי-certainty (like לְוַדֵּא)
בְּהֶחְלֵט – decisiveness (like לְהַחְלִיט)

Well, this is it for now!

אַתֶּם בַּוַּדַּאי לֹא צְרִיכִים לִזְכֹּר אֶת הַכֹּל בְּעַל פֶּה -
Certainly you don't need to remember it all by heart -
the main value of my explanations it just spotlighting these things, helping you notice – the rest, the mastery, - it comes with practice.:)

נָכוֹן? אֲנִי צוֹדֶקֶת? מָה אַתֶּם חוֹשְׁבִים?
Right? Am I right? What do you think? ;)

See you next week,
Happy Hebrew- learning,
Alisa
Tip #49
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