There are so many ways to say, “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” in Hebrew. In this episode, we’ll learn a few of them and learn how we write LOL in Hebrew.
New Words and Expressions:
Lits’hok – To laugh – לצחוק
Tsochek mi she-tsochek aharon – He who laughs last, laughs best – צוחק מי שצוחק אחרון
Al titschak/titschaki alai – Don’t laugh at me – אל תצחק/תצחקי עליי
Litshok al mishehu – To laugh at someone – לצחוק על מישהו
Ata tsohek alai? – Are you kidding me? – ?אתה צוחק עליי
Listhok im mishehu – To laugh with someone – לצחוק עם מישהו
Anachnu tsochakim itcha, lo aleicha – We’re laughing with you, not at you! – אנחנו צוחקים איתך, לא עליך
Dai, nu, tsochakim itcha – Come on, I am joking with you – די, נו, צוחקים איתך
Ata tits’chak / At titschaki – You’re going to laugh – אתה תצחק, את תצחקי
“Kama rachok hayitem muchanim lalechet kedei lehatschik?” – How far would you go in order to make people laugh? – ?כמה רחוק הייתם מוכנים ללכת כדי להצחיק
Mi matschik otach kamoni? – Who makes you laugh like me? – ?מי מצחיק אותך כמוני
Ze matschik oti – It makes me laugh – זה מצחיק אותי
Matschik t’atsmo – He makes himself laugh – מצחיק ת’עצמו
LOL – חחח
“Matschik me’od” – Not funny – מצחיק מאוד
Matschik ad dma’ot – Hysterical – מצחיק עד דמעות
Shofech, kore’a – Hilarious – שופך, קורע
Matschikan – Comedian – מצחיקן
Dai ya matschikan – Don’t be silly – די, יא מצחיקן
Matschikonet – Comedian (f.), funny woman – מצחיקונת
Hu matschikul kaze – He’s a funny guy – הוא מצחיקול כזה
Eize matschikul ata – You can’t be serious – איזה מצחיקול אתה
Hitschakta oti! Hitschakt oti! – You gotta be kidding me / yeah, right – הצחקת אותי
Playlist and Clips:
Tsevet Havai Handasa Kravit – Tsochek Mi She-tsochek Acharon (lyrics)
Dani Sanderson – Al Titschak (lyrics)
Haim Dadon & Dekel Vaknin – Mi Matschik Otach
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Hello Guy,
Your Streetwise Hebrew continues to be fascinating and most enjoyable with due diligence to the importance and significance of grammar.
JONATHAN FREILICH (UK)
Thanks so much, Jonathan. Toda raba for your kind words.
By the way Guy, the title of this episode is more correctly entitled: Laughing out loudly in Hebrew. You may argue that people don’t say that, but I maintain that the best you can say is that…. some people don’t say that. Some people don’t say 1 criterion or 1 phenomenon, but that doesn’t make it correct or even sound elegant.
Jonathan Freilich (UIK)
Toda raba, point taken.
Actually, “laughing out loudly” is not only never said, it’s also not good English. The phrase “out loud” is a two-word unit that functions adverbially. You can “laugh out loud”, “read out loud”, “count out loud”, and more. The meaning is not “loudly”, but just “audibly, so that others can hear”. Thus “laughing out loud” and “laughing loudly” are two quite different things. (“Laughing out loudly”, on the other hand, is simply not English; it’s a hypercorrection — an error — that results from the mistaken prescriptive “rule” that every English adverb must necessarily have an -LY attached. )