אפשר לשאול?
“אפשר לשאול?” (эфшар лишоль?) — may I ask? in Hebrew. Phrase, level A2. Efshar — may — you know from the trips to the shop. More politely they say mutar lishol? — literally am I allowed to ask. In a live sentence: “סליחה, אפשר לשאול?” — Excuse me, may I ask you? Written with the characters א, פ, ש, ר, ל, ש, א, ו, ל. A word from the everyday Hebrew course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | אפשר לשאול? |
| Read in Latin letters | эфшар лишоль? |
| Translation | may I ask? |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Efshar — may — you know from the trips to the shop. More politely they say mutar lishol? — literally am I allowed to ask
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.
- סליחה, אפשר לשאול?слиха, эфшар лишоль?Excuse me, may I ask you?
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 “may I ask?” in Hebrew?
«אפשר לשאול?», read “эфшар лишоль?”. In a live sentence: “סליחה, אפשר לשאול?” — Excuse me, may I ask you? Phrase, level A2; written with the characters א, פ, ש, ר, ל, ש, א, ו, ל.
How is “אפשר לשאול?” written in Latin letters?
эфшар лишоль? 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?
Efshar — may — you know from the trips to the shop. More politely they say mutar lishol? — literally am I allowed to ask. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.