איך כותבים את זה?
“איך כותבים את זה?” (эйх ковим эт зэ?) — how is it spelled? in Hebrew. Phrase, level A2. The impersonal kotvim — they write: Hebrew has no it is spelled, there is how do they write. A name on the phone is always asked to be written so. In a live sentence: “איך כותבים את זה, באנגלית?” — How is it spelled in English? Written with the characters א, י, כ, ו, ת, ב, י, א, ת, ז, ה.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | איך כותבים את זה? |
| Read in Latin letters | эйх ковим эт зэ? |
| Translation | how is it spelled? |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
The impersonal kotvim — they write: Hebrew has no it is spelled, there is how do they write. A name on the phone is always asked to be written so
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.
- איך כותבים את זה, באנגלית?эйх ковим эт зэ, бе-англит?How is it spelled in English?
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 “how is it spelled?” in Hebrew?
«איך כותבים את זה?», read “эйх ковим эт зэ?”. In a live sentence: “איך כותבים את זה, באנגלית?” — How is it spelled in English? Phrase, level A2; written with the characters א, י, כ, ו, ת, ב, י, א, ת, ז, ה.
How is “איך כותבים את זה?” written in Latin letters?
эйх ковим эт зэ? 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?
The impersonal kotvim — they write: Hebrew has no it is spelled, there is how do they write. A name on the phone is always asked to be written so. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.