Hebrew Nugget

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Hebrew Nugget:

בית VS. הביתה

You probably know the Hebrew word בית (bah-yeet), which means “house.” A house refers to the physical place you live in, but what word would you use in Hebrew when you want to talk about your home? The place you’re emotionally connected to, where you know how to find the light switches even in the dark, or where the WiFi connects automatically? 😉 Unfortunately, we don’t have an exact word for “home” in Hebrew (definitely something to nag the Hebrew Academy about!). However, we do have the term הביתה (hah-bahy-tah), which literally means “to the house,” but we use it when we want to say “I’m going home.”: אני הולך הביתה (ah-nee hoh-lehch hah-bahy-tah) for the masculine form, and אני הולכת הביתה (ah-nee hoh-leh-cheht hah-bahy-tah) for the feminine form.