להסתבך
“להסתבך” (лехистабех) — to get tangled up in Hebrew. Verb, level B1. To get tangled in business, in contracts, in lies. You know hitbalbalti — got mixed up in the head; lehistabech is to get tangled for real, in business. In a live sentence: “הסתבכתי בכל החוזים של העבודה.” — I got tangled up in all the contracts of the work. Written with the characters ל, ה, ס, ת, ב. A word from the everyday Hebrew course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | להסתבך |
| Read in Latin letters | лехистабех |
| Translation | to get tangled up |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
To get tangled in business, in contracts, in lies. You know hitbalbalti — got mixed up in the head; lehistabech is to get tangled for real, in business
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.
- הסתבכתי בכל החוזים של העבודה.хистабахти бе-коль ха-хозим шель ха-авода.I got tangled up in all the contracts of the work.
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 get tangled up” in Hebrew?
«להסתבך», read “лехистабех”. In a live sentence: “הסתבכתי בכל החוזים של העבודה.” — I got tangled up in all the contracts of the work. Verb, level B1; written with the characters ל, ה, ס, ת, ב.
How is “להסתבך” written in Latin letters?
лехистабех. 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?
To get tangled in business, in contracts, in lies. You know hitbalbalti — got mixed up in the head; lehistabech is to get tangled for real, in business. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.