חדר ההמתנה
“חדר ההמתנה” (хедер ха-мтана) — waiting room in Hebrew. Noun, level A1. Literally "the room of waiting": the room where one sits and waits for one's number. Lachakot — to wait — you know. In a live sentence: “בחדר ההמתנה שלושה כיסאות.” — There are three chairs in the waiting room. Written with the characters ח, ד, ר, ה, ה, מ, ת, נ, ה. A word from the everyday Hebrew course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | חדר ההמתנה |
| Read in Latin letters | хедер ха-мтана |
| Translation | waiting room |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "the room of waiting": the room where one sits and waits for one's number. Lachakot — to wait — you know
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.
- בחדר ההמתנה שלושה כיסאות.бе-хедер ха-мтана шлоша кисаот.There are three chairs in the waiting room.
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 “waiting room” in Hebrew?
«חדר ההמתנה», read “хедер ха-мтана”. In a live sentence: “בחדר ההמתנה שלושה כיסאות.” — There are three chairs in the waiting room. Noun, level A1; written with the characters ח, ד, ר, ה, ה, מ, ת, נ, ה.
How is “חדר ההמתנה” written in Latin letters?
хедер ха-мтана. 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 "the room of waiting": the room where one sits and waits for one's number. Lachakot — to wait — you know. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.