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May 10, 2010

what would you call a "nice person" in Hebrew? this may come as a surprise. http://ktzat-ivrit.ulpan.com

סימפתי

A conventional way of saying "she's a nice person" is הִיא אָדָם נֶחְמָד (hee ah-DAHM nekh-MAHD). Note that אדם is used to mean person and stays masculine even though we're talking about a woman.

Another way of saying it that taps into the person's nature more deeply, is היא אדם סִמְפָּתִי (hee ah-DAHM seem-PAH-tee). Literally, this translates as she is a sympathetic person. If you've studied literature, you may be familiar with sympathetic characters - those characters with whom the reader identifies with, feels warm and fuzzy about...

Interestingly enough, that's exactly what Ulpan La-Inyan does with the Hebrew language - our students feel warm and fuzzy inside when they study with us.