Hebrew Friend

Hebrew Friend
– “many hugs, that’s what friends are there for”
Tiger friend? I am not sure I would give him a hug!

Straight forward. This page is going to teach you two things
1: The meaning of the word “friend” in Hebrew.
2: How to find a Hebrew friend.
The thing is that people who come here look for those two things. Let’s first talk about how to say “friend” in Hebrew, then talk about making Hebrew friends.

The word friend in Hebrew

In Hebrew, the word for “friend” differs in gender. A male friend is one word and a female friend is another. But good news is that the difference is just grammatical and tiny:

  • The Hebrew word for a male friend “chaver”

Written this way:

חבר

And pronounced like this:

The Hebrew word for a female friend is “chavera”
Written like this:

חברה

And pronounced like this:

The male plural form is “chaverim”
Written like this:

חברים

Pronounced like this:

The female plural form is “chaverot”
Written like this:

חברות

Pronounced like this:

Israelis, when talking about friends, they tend to say “a friend of mine”, “a friend of ours” etc. Rather than saying directly “my friend” or “our friend”.

To say a friend of mine in Hebrew:

Chaver Sheli – חבר שלי


OR (for a female friend)

Chavera Sheli – חברה שלי


I wanted to teach you as well how to say “a friend of ours”, “a friend of his” etc. But I thought I would save your time. If you would be interested in knowing more forms, let me know in a comment. I will either put more forms here, or I will just go ahead and e-mail you some.
Now, let’s move on

How to make Hebrew friends

Most Hebrew speakers (Israelis and Jews all around the world) have become very friendly, more open than ever. They appreciate it a lot when they know you just started to learn Hebrew! They would even usually ask you to try it out and say something in Hebrew to them.
Best way is to find a Hebrew speaker who is learning your language, or at least who shares the love of language learning with you. Then your relationship will certainly be interesting and inspiring for both of you.
There are a few ways to find Hebrew language partners online, my favorite is LiveMocha.
With LiveMocha, you get some useless “sorry, yes useless” lessons and then you get wonderful exercises and “submissions”, when you do these exercises, you get reviews and feedback from Hebrew native speakers who would usually be generous enough to correct your mistakes and guide you through the right answers.
The great advantage of finding Hebrew friends this way is that those friend would certainly be extremely interested in language learning (since they  are language learners themselves) and even more wonderful, they would be willing to help (they already have somehow!). Update: LiveMocha has been acquired by the RosettaStone, then run down to dust. Sad.
Another way to find Hebrew-speaking friends is using iTalki. But the issue with iTalki is that most of the Hebrew speakers there are actually there for commercial reason rather than passion. Because iTalki offers them sometimes the opportunity to teach Hebrew for money. So you can’t really treat them as “friends”.
Now the big question:
Can I make Hebrew-speaking friends on Facebook?
Hmm… Think about it. Those Israelis out there on Facebook are not there to teach you Hebrew! Sorry, no matter how interested you are in learning a foreign language, they don’t have to be. So be careful who you add there. If you find them on a Facebook page or group for Hebrew or languages learners, then go ahead and contact them, they might be interested in exchanging language partnership with you. They help you learn better Hebrew while you help them with your native language.
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