How do you say it in Hebrew?
Weekly Phrase #10
How to say in Hebrew
"to admit something"

The trick is that for "admit" we use exactly the same verb as for "to thank"!
To thank is להודות (from "thank you - תודה) and to admit is... להודות!
The change lies in... of course, as expected - in the preposition!

When saying that we are thankful to somebody we, quite logically, use the LE- preposition, and if being thankful about - על.

Here are some examples:
⮞ הוא מודה לנו על העזרה (audio #1)
He thanks us for the help
⮞ איך לא חשבת להודות להם על מה שהם עשו לנו בעבר?! (audio #2)
How come you haven't thought of thanking them for what they did for us in the past!
⮞ תודה לאל, הוא בריא ושלם! (audio #3)
Thank G-d, he is safe and sound!

But when we use another preposition, BE-, then it changes the meaning of the verb completely, turning it into "admit"!

See some examples:
⮞ הפושע מסרב להודות במה שעשה (audio #4)
The criminal refuses to admit what he did.
⮞ הגיע הזמן להודות בכל המעשים הרעים שעשית! (audio #5)
The time has come to admit all the bad things you did!
⮞ תודה באמת - אתה לא מסוגל לקחת ארחיות (audio #6)
Admit the truth - you are incapable of taking responsibility!

Unfortunately, the preposition is not always necessary... and sometimes this verb is left without any preposition - and then the meaning has to be guessed!
But it's not that hard - we have our best fried with us - the context! I'm never tired of saying that Hebrew is very context dependent, with all our vowel-less writing, context is often the ultimate key to understanding!

Here are two more more examples - is it difficult to guess which is which? :)
(translation at the very bottom)
⮞ אני חייב להודות, לא הספקתי להגיש את מסמכים בזמן, אבל אני מוכן לפצות על זה! (audio #7)
⮞ להודות וללמוד לקבל היא הדרך הכי טובה להרגיש מאושר (audio #8)


Hope that was interesting!
See you next week,
Alisa
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Translations of #7 and #8:

⮞I must admit, I couldn't hand the documents in on time, but I'm ready to compensate for that!
⮞To thank and to learn to receive it the best way to feel happy!