גנב
“גנב” (ганав) — thief in Hebrew. Noun, level A2. The plural is gnavim. Inside it you hear ganav — he stole: Hebrew likes the thief and the theft to sound like kin. In a live sentence: “הגנב לקח את התיק.” — The thief took the bag. Written with the characters ג, נ, ב. A word from the everyday Hebrew course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | גנב |
| Read in Latin letters | ганав |
| Translation | thief |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
The plural is gnavim. Inside it you hear ganav — he stole: Hebrew likes the thief and the theft to sound like kin
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.
- הגנב לקח את התיק.ха-ганав локах эт ха-тик.The thief took the bag.
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 “thief” in Hebrew?
«גנב», read “ганав”. In a live sentence: “הגנב לקח את התיק.” — The thief took the bag. Noun, level A2; written with the characters ג, נ, ב.
How is “גנב” written in Latin letters?
ганав. 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 plural is gnavim. Inside it you hear ganav — he stole: Hebrew likes the thief and the theft to sound like kin. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.