אַ שפּיכװאָרט A shprikhvort   A Proverb     "אַלעס מיט אײנם איז נישט דאָ בײַ קײנם"   Ales mit eynm iz nisht do bay keynm. “Not everything with one person is found by another.”   (Meaning: You can’t have it all.) 

    Another Schmooze- Chutzpah An important lesson. Have a cookie when you’re done. מאַמע׃ אַ גוטן טאָג, געצעל.   Mame: A gutn tog, Getsel.            A good day, Getsel. געצעל׃ הײַ מאַמע. Getsel: Hi mame.              Hi Mom. מאַמע׃ װי איז געװען שולע? Mame: Vi iz geven shule?              How was school? געצעל׃ די…

טעלעפֿאָן שמועס מיט זײדע אַ  A telefon shmues mit zeyde A telephone schmooze with Grandpa This schmooze incorporates lots of what we’ve learned up until now. You know what to do. Role play, read out aloud etc… Get to it!   זײדע׃ האַלאָ מײער….   Zeyde: Halo Meyer….              Hello Meyer…. מײער׃ יאָ, איז דאָס…

ווערטער-אוצר (אויצער) Vocabulary   נוצליצכער אַדיעקטיװן Nutslikher adiektivn Useful adjectives This list of commonly used Yiddish adjectives contains many Yiddish adjectives that are commonly used! J Adjectives are important if you want to describe anything to anyone. Can’t really tell a story without adjectives, huh? Learn the adjectives! Practice pairing them with nouns, according to…

אַדיעקטיװן Adiektivn Adjectives As discussed in Lesson 2d, all Yiddish nouns have a gender. Like in English (and unlike Hebrew and many other languages!), adjectives come before the noun. When an adjective is used before a noun, endings are added according to the gender of the noun. With masculine nouns the ending is ער er;…

The word nokh נאָך has three distinct meanings Another, More and Else. They all have the same basic gist… there’s something more there: another object (same in Yiddish), another of the same thing (more), another thing besides this thing (something else). It’s just that in English we have more specific words for each of these…

Examples of the auxiliary verb Here are some examples of how to use “hoben.” I have an idea that you will find these helpful in learning how to conjugate this important Yiddish verb. Remember to pronounce everything out loud! איך האָב אַ פֿרײַנד. Ikh hob a fraynd. I have a friend.   דו האָסט אַ…

Present tense of auxiliary verb האָבען Hoben “to have” And now for your second verb, an exception like “zaynen.” This verb is actually extremely important, as it is the auxiliary verb most commonly used to conjugate the past tense of any regular verb (more often than “zayn”). In other words, to say “I worked” I…

שבת (שאַבעס) Shabes Saturday For this units paragraph, Moyshe decided a little bit of religious instruction wouldn’t hurt anyone. Shabbos (the usual speling in English) is the only day of the week in Yiddish that isn’t originally named after an old Norse god. (All of the English weekdays are named after gods. In Hebrew days…