להידבק
“להידבק” (леидабэк) — to catch (an infection) in Hebrew. Verb, level B1. The same root as devek — glue: to catch is to stick oneself to the virus. One catches mi- — from someone: lehidabek mi-... In a live sentence: “הוא נדבק מהוירוס.” — He caught it from the virus. Written with the characters ל, ה, י, ד, ב, ק. A word from the everyday Hebrew course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | להידבק |
| Read in Latin letters | леидабэк |
| Translation | to catch (an infection) |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
The same root as devek — glue: to catch is to stick oneself to the virus. One catches mi- — from someone: lehidabek mi-...
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.
- הוא נדבק מהוירוס.ху нидбак ме-ха-вирус.He caught it from the virus.
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 “to catch (an infection)” in Hebrew?
«להידבק», read “леидабэк”. In a live sentence: “הוא נדבק מהוירוס.” — He caught it from the virus. Verb, level B1; written with the characters ל, ה, י, ד, ב, ק.
How is “להידבק” written in Latin letters?
леидабэк. 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 same root as devek — glue: to catch is to stick oneself to the virus. One catches mi- — from someone: lehidabek mi-... A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.