לְאַלְתָּר, לְאַלְתֵּר, אִלְתֵּר

There is a word לְאַלְתָּר in modern Hebrew, meaning "immediately". There is also another word that means the same: מיד, and all its relatives: מיידית, תכף ומיד. Anyway, the word לאלתר and the verb אִלְתֵּר/לְאַלְתֵּר (to improvise) sound to close to English word "to alter" (which originates from Latin), so it sounded suspicious to me, and I made some little research on the topic. It sounded like the Hebrew word comes from the meaning "to adjust, to change", with a slight semantic shift towards "to make immediate change."

I've just posted Lesson 3 in the Speak! section.

Here is a little secret: my wife is preparing the materials for this section; in fact, this is what she is teaching in Hebrew classes in our local synagogue. That's why I can continue working on other articles, like my new Hebrew Numerals section.

By popular demand I'm starting a short series of articles about Hebrew numbers.

For those of you who craves for other types of articles: I'm not going to use it as excuse to delay all the rest.

But numerals is an essential part of any language, anyway, so it definitely worth reading!

Thank you all for your kind and encouraging words! I appreciate it very much.

I'll try to answer in brief, before I go and answer personally to everyone who had written me an email.

Recently I didn't have much time to update the site; but no doubt I will continue and publish more lessons. In my opinion, prices for anything related to studies of Hebrew, other languages, or whatever are outrageous today. And prices are not something that should prevent us from learning Hebrew.

1. This site is free and will stay free forever. No charge. Period.

2. I will publish an article (rather a short series of articles) about numbers in Hebrew. Already working on it. I know this topic is confusing and not that easy to pick up, so I'll do my best to explain it.

3. Yes, I will continue spoken Hebrew lessons too. Absolutely.

4. Reading-and-understanding section will continue either. Although, surprisingly, I didn't find much responses to it.

Thanks again, and I really appreciate your responses. Your kind words is surely my best motivator!

נַחְס , נַאחְס

Slang is the most frequently evolving part of the language, and therefore it's enough to stay away for just couple of years and you start to lose track of it. Somebody brought me this word as mentioned in Hebrew newspaper, in a context of "bad luck". I googled for this word and found the following: