עין
“עין” (аин) — eye in Hebrew. Noun, level A1. Eyes are einayim, the dual number for a pair. To see with your own eyes is be-einai, and it is a living turn. In a live sentence: “עין אחת כואבת לי.” — One eye hurts. Written with the characters ע, י. A word from the everyday Hebrew course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | עין |
| Read in Latin letters | аин |
| Translation | eye |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Eyes are einayim, the dual number for a pair. To see with your own eyes is be-einai, and it is a living turn
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- עין אחת כואבת לי.аин эхат коэвэт ли.One eye hurts.
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “eye” in Hebrew?
«עין», read “аин”. In a live sentence: “עין אחת כואבת לי.” — One eye hurts. Noun, level A1; written with the characters ע, י.
How is “עין” written in Latin letters?
аин. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Eyes are einayim, the dual number for a pair. To see with your own eyes is be-einai, and it is a living turn. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.