הייתה לי הזדמנות
“הייתה לי הזדמנות” (хайта ли хиздамнут) — I had the chance in Hebrew. Phrase, level B1. Literally I had an opportunity: the familiar hizdamnut — the opportunity. A woman says hayta li hizdamnut — the same, only the pronoun changes. In a live sentence: “הייתה לי הזדמנות לעבוד איתו.” — I had the chance to work with him. Written with the characters ה, י, י, ת, ה, ל, י, ה, ז, ד, מ, נ… A word from the everyday Hebrew course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | הייתה לי הזדמנות |
| Read in Latin letters | хайта ли хиздамнут |
| Translation | I had the chance |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally I had an opportunity: the familiar hizdamnut — the opportunity. A woman says hayta li hizdamnut — the same, only the pronoun changes
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.
- הייתה לי הזדמנות לעבוד איתו.хайта ли хиздамнут лаавод ито.I had the chance to work with him.
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 “I had the chance” in Hebrew?
«הייתה לי הזדמנות», read “хайта ли хиздамнут”. In a live sentence: “הייתה לי הזדמנות לעבוד איתו.” — I had the chance to work with him. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters ה, י, י, ת, ה, ל, י, ה, ז, ד, מ, נ…
How is “הייתה לי הזדמנות” written in Latin letters?
хайта ли хиздамнут. 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?
Literally I had an opportunity: the familiar hizdamnut — the opportunity. A woman says hayta li hizdamnut — the same, only the pronoun changes. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.