קנקן
“קנקן” (канкен) — jug in Hebrew. Noun, level A1. You have seen the kankan as the kettle — with the same word Hebrew names the jug too: one vessel both pours and serves. The brewing kumkum — the kettle — is a separate word. In a live sentence: “בקנקן מים קרים.” — There is cold water in the jug. Written with the characters ק, נ, ק. A word from the everyday Hebrew course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | קנקן |
| Read in Latin letters | канкен |
| Translation | jug |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
You have seen the kankan as the kettle — with the same word Hebrew names the jug too: one vessel both pours and serves. The brewing kumkum — the kettle — is a separate word
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.
- בקנקן מים קרים.бе-канкен маим карим.There is cold water in the jug.
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 “jug” in Hebrew?
«קנקן», read “канкен”. In a live sentence: “בקנקן מים קרים.” — There is cold water in the jug. Noun, level A1; written with the characters ק, נ, ק.
How is “קנקן” written in Latin letters?
канкен. 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?
You have seen the kankan as the kettle — with the same word Hebrew names the jug too: one vessel both pours and serves. The brewing kumkum — the kettle — is a separate word. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.