Basic Expressions and Greetings in Hebrew

In Brief

Use שלום (shalom) for “hello” and “goodbye,” תודה (toda) for “thank you,” בבקשה (bevakasha) for both “please” and “you’re welcome,” and סליחה (slikha) for “excuse me” or “sorry.” These expressions do not change according to the speaker’s gender, so you can begin using them immediately.

Overview

Greetings and polite expressions are among the first pieces of Hebrew you need. They let you open and close a conversation, thank someone, make a request less direct, and get someone’s attention. At A1, it is more useful to learn each expression as a complete unit than to analyse every word inside it.

Modern Hebrew is written from right to left. Most everyday text is written without vowel marks, called niqqud (small dots and strokes that show vowels), so pronunciation cannot always be recovered from spelling alone. This article gives a simple Latin-letter pronunciation after important new phrases. The transliteration is only a learning aid: the goal is to recognise the Hebrew form itself.

English and Hebrew do not divide politeness formulas in exactly the same way. In particular, one Hebrew expression may cover two English expressions: בבקשה can mean either “please” or “you’re welcome,” while סליחה can mean either “excuse me” or “sorry.” Context tells you which meaning is intended.

How It Works

The essential set

Hebrew	Approximate pronunciation	Main use
שלום	shalom	hello; goodbye; peace
בוקר טוב	boker tov	good morning
ערב טוב	erev tov	good evening
לילה טוב	layla tov	good night
תודה	toda	thank you
תודה רבה	toda raba	thank you very much
בבקשה	bevakasha	please; you’re welcome; here you are
סליחה	slikha	excuse me; sorry
להתראות	lehitraot	goodbye; see you
נעים מאוד	na'im me'od	nice to meet you

The transliterations above reflect common Israeli pronunciation. The sound written kh in slikha is the rough sound heard in Scottish English loch, not the sound in English chair. In נעים (na'im), the apostrophe marks a small break between the vowels.

Opening and closing a conversation

שלום is the safest all-purpose greeting. It literally also means “peace,” but in an ordinary encounter it functions as “hello.” It can also close a conversation, although להתראות (“see you”) often sounds more explicitly like a farewell.

Time-specific greetings work much like their English counterparts:

• בוקר טוב — “good morning”
• ערב טוב — “good evening”
• לילה טוב — “good night,” normally when leaving late, going to bed, or wishing someone a good night

Notice that לילה טוב is not normally the greeting you use when arriving at an evening event. Use ערב טוב for that. This resembles the English distinction between “good evening” and “good night.”

In casual Israeli speech, היי (hai, “hi”) and ביי (bai, “bye”) are extremely common. They are informal loanwords. שלום remains useful everywhere and can sound neutral or slightly more formal depending on the situation.

Thanking and responding

תודה is the normal way to say “thank you.” Add רבה to make תודה רבה, “thank you very much.” The phrase stays the same regardless of who is speaking or being thanked.

The standard response is בבקשה, “you’re welcome.” In another position, the same word means “please”:

• קפה, בבקשה. — “Coffee, please.”
• תודה! — בבקשה. — “Thank you! — You’re welcome.”

A server or shop assistant may also say בבקשה while handing something over; there it means “here you are.” English uses three different formulas, but Hebrew lets context do the work.

Getting attention and apologising

Use סליחה before asking a stranger a question, moving past someone, or interrupting politely. In that role it means “excuse me.” After a small mistake, it can mean “sorry.” A sincere or more explicit apology may use אני מצטער (ani mitzta'er, said by a man) or אני מצטערת (ani mitzta'eret, said by a woman), but those gendered forms belong beyond the essential beginner set.

A very useful repair phrase is סליחה, לא הבנתי (slikha, lo hevanti), “Sorry, I didn’t understand.” Here לא means “not,” and הבנתי means “I understood.” You can learn the whole sentence as a fixed conversational tool before studying its verb form.

Asking how someone is

מה נשמע? (ma nishma?) literally has a sense close to “what is heard?” but functions as the informal “How’s it going?” Do not translate it word by word. Common short replies include:

• טוב, תודה. — “Good, thanks.”
• בסדר, תודה. (beseder, toda) — “Fine, thanks.”
• הכול טוב. (hakol tov) — “Everything’s good.”

Another expression, מה שלומך?, means “How are you?” Its pronunciation changes according to the person addressed: ma shlomkha? to one man and ma shlomekh? to one woman. The unvowelled spelling is usually identical. Beginners can use מה נשמע? without making that distinction.

Examples in Context

Hebrew	English	Pronunciation	Note
שלום!	Hello!	shalom!	Neutral all-purpose greeting
שלום, להתראות מחר.	Goodbye, see you tomorrow.	shalom, lehitraot makhar	שלום used at parting
בוקר טוב!	Good morning!	boker tov!	Morning greeting
ערב טוב, דנה.	Good evening, Dana.	erev tov, Dana	Greeting on arrival in the evening
לילה טוב!	Good night!	layla tov!	Said when leaving late or going to bed
תודה.	Thank you.	toda	Normal thanks
תודה רבה.	Thank you very much.	toda raba	Warmer or stronger thanks
קפה, בבקשה.	Coffee, please.	kafe, bevakasha	Polite request
תודה! — בבקשה.	Thank you! — You’re welcome.	toda! — bevakasha	Response to thanks
הנה המים, בבקשה.	Here is the water; here you are.	hine hamayim, bevakasha	Said while handing something over
סליחה, איפה התחנה?	Excuse me, where is the station?	slikha, eifo hatakhana?	Gets a stranger’s attention
סליחה, לא הבנתי.	Sorry, I didn’t understand.	slikha, lo hevanti	Repairs a conversation
מה נשמע?	How’s it going?	ma nishma?	Common informal question
טוב, תודה.	Good, thanks.	tov, toda	Short reply
נעים מאוד.	Nice to meet you.	na'im me'od	Said when introduced

Common Mistakes

Using בבקשה only for “please”

• Unnatural response: תודה! — כן. (“Thank you! — Yes.”)
• Natural response: תודה! — בבקשה. (“Thank you! — You’re welcome.”)
• Why: בבקשה has several functions. After תודה, it is the standard response to thanks, not a request marker.

Greeting someone with לילה טוב

• Wrong on arrival: לילה טוב! when entering an evening gathering
• Right: ערב טוב! (“Good evening!”)
• Why: לילה טוב usually closes the day or conversation. ערב טוב is the greeting used on arrival in the evening.

Translating “sorry” with one formula in every situation

• Awkward: אני מצטער merely to attract a cashier’s attention
• Better: סליחה! (“Excuse me!”)
• Why: סליחה is the everyday choice for getting attention, passing someone, interrupting, and many small apologies. A fuller “I’m sorry” is more personal and changes with the speaker’s gender.

Reading transliteration as if it were English spelling

• Wrong: pronouncing kh as in English key or chair
• Right: use the rough throat sound in סליחה (slikha)
• Why: Latin-letter spellings are approximate. Listen to native audio and connect the sound directly to ח, rather than relying permanently on transliteration.

Expecting every polite phrase to change for gender

• Needless change: trying to create separate male and female versions of תודה or בבקשה
• Right: תודה, בבקשה, and סליחה for everyone
• Why: Hebrew has extensive grammatical gender, but these fixed expressions do not change with the speaker or listener.

Usage Notes

שלום is universally understood, but close friends often open with היי or another casual greeting. In a reception area, first meeting, email opening, or interaction with a stranger, שלום is an excellent neutral choice. Used by itself as a farewell, it can occasionally feel more final or formal than casual ביי or להתראות.

Israeli conversational style can sound direct to an English speaker. A request may be shorter than its natural English translation, but בבקשה still makes it polite: מים, בבקשה is literally “water, please” and is normal in the right setting. Tone, facial expression, and situation carry part of the politeness; do not judge politeness only by sentence length.

Modern Hebrew is normally printed without vowel marks. That is why מה שלומך? can represent forms addressed to either a man or a woman even though their final vowels differ in speech. Dictionaries, children’s books, and beginner materials may add niqqud, but signs, menus, and messages usually do not.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master these details at A1, but they explain forms you will encounter later.

שלום belongs to a wider family of expressions. שבת שלום (Shabbat shalom) is a conventional wish used before and during Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath. שלום עליכם (shalom aleikhem, “peace be upon you”) is a traditional greeting with religious and historical associations; it is not the default substitute for everyday שלום in all situations.

Polite conversation also reveals Hebrew’s gender and number system. “How are you?” and “Nice to meet you” can be followed by sentences whose verbs or adjectives change according to the people involved. The fixed expressions in this lesson protect a beginner from that complexity, but later you will learn to distinguish forms addressed to one man, one woman, or several people.

More emphatic gratitude includes המון תודה (hamon toda, “thanks a lot”) and תודה מכל הלב (toda mikol halev, “thank you from the bottom of my heart”). These are warmer than a routine תודה. Conversely, intonation matters: even a polite word can sound impatient if delivered sharply.

In writing, greetings are shaped by genre. A message to a friend may begin היי, while a neutral or professional message often begins שלום followed by the person’s name. Formal correspondence has additional conventions, but שלום remains a safe opening while you are still learning them.

Practice Tips

1. Learn phrases as sound-and-script pairs. Make one card with בבקשה and practise all three responses: “please,” “you’re welcome,” and “here you are.” Do not memorise only the Latin spelling.
2. Rehearse a ten-second exchange. Say: שלום — מה נשמע? — טוב, תודה — להתראות. Repeat it until you can produce each phrase without translating from English first.
3. Sort expressions by moment. Put בוקר טוב under “arrival,” לילה טוב under “departure,” and סליחה under “attention/apology.” This helps prevent mistakes that a simple word list does not reveal.

Related Concepts

There are no prerequisite or directly linked concepts for this standalone A1 topic. Useful next areas to study in the Hebrew grammar course are:

• Personal pronouns and grammatical gender — needed when greetings develop into full sentences about yourself or another person
• Basic questions — builds on phrases such as מה נשמע? and helps you ask for information
• Present and past verb forms — explains gendered apologies and the form הבנתי in לא הבנתי