Fifty practical Hebrew phrases grouped by the moments when you actually need them: arriving, restaurants, directions, shopping, and emergencies.
Download on App StoreiPhone and iPadEach phrase includes Hebrew with niqqud, transliteration, English, audio playback, and a short note on when to use it.
Use this immediately: airport staff, hotel desk, driver, shop, or new acquaintance.
Useful when luggage, transport, or a form goes wrong. Women can say ani tzrikha ezra.
Good for Ben Gurion, train stations, malls, and large public buildings.
Use at the airport, station, or when asking a guard or information desk.
A quick phrase when you need the taxi rank, not a ride negotiation.
Use medaberet if you are a woman. Follow with English, please if needed.
Use at medaberet to ask a woman.
A polite general opener before explaining what you need.
Point at a map, booking, or address while asking.
Warmer than plain toda and always useful.
Change the number for your group size.
Most places will understand English menu too, but Hebrew helps.
Use at mamlitza to ask a woman.
Women say ani rotza. Add bevakasha for please.
The most flexible polite word in the restaurant.
Ask before ordering if kashrut matters to you.
Useful in falafel, shawarma, sabich, and hummus places.
Direct and normal in Israel.
Most places take cards, but small stands may not.
Say this when food arrives or when someone starts eating.
The base phrase for every direction question.
Station can mean bus or train depending on context.
Good before deciding to walk in the heat.
A quick distance check.
You will hear it in directions.
Useful to recognise while navigating.
Often said with a pointing gesture.
Use for buses, trains, and light rail.
Better with a bus app, but useful when asking locals.
Women say tzrikha. Add the place name.
Markets, small shops, taxis, and souvenirs.
Use before the item you want.
Women say mistakelet. Good when a shopkeeper approaches.
Direct but common, especially in markets.
Use lightly in markets, less in fixed-price shops.
Clothing, shoes, and swimwear.
Simple shop phrase.
Important for expenses, returns, and warranties.
Supermarkets and larger shops.
Use when paying for one item.
Use for immediate danger or crime.
Use for serious medical emergencies.
Women say tzrikha. Use in hotels, clinics, or with passers-by.
Say the allergy in English if you cannot say it in Hebrew.
Point to the place that hurts.
Use with police, embassy, hotel, or airport staff.
Important because maps, tickets, and contacts may be there.
Use during alerts or when you arrive somewhere unfamiliar.
Clear and urgent. Women say tzrikha.
Say this early in high-stress situations.
Practise one situation at a time. Read the Hebrew aloud, listen, cover the English, then imagine the real place where you would say it. A restaurant phrase belongs in a restaurant scene, not in a random vocabulary list.
After you can say a phrase slowly, make it personal: change the place, item, number, or person. That is the bridge from memorising to speaking.
Hebrew spelling does not always show every vowel in real-world writing. Audio builds the connection between the written word, the spoken phrase, and your mouth. Even if your browser voice is not perfect, the act of listening and repeating makes the phrase easier to access later.
Download on App StoreiPhone and iPad