לא התכוונתי
“לא התכוונתי” (ло хиткаванти) — I did not mean it in Hebrew. Phrase, level A2. Literally "I did not have in mind", from kavana — intention. An apology not for a deed but for an accident — and that is the most frequent case. In a live sentence: “סליחה, לא התכוונתי.” — Sorry, I did not mean it. Written with the characters ל, א, ה, ת, כ, ו, ו, נ, ת, י. A word from the everyday Hebrew course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | לא התכוונתי |
| Read in Latin letters | ло хиткаванти |
| Translation | I did not mean it |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "I did not have in mind", from kavana — intention. An apology not for a deed but for an accident — and that is the most frequent case
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.
- סליחה, לא התכוונתי.слиха, ло хиткаванти.Sorry, I did not mean it.
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 did not mean it” in Hebrew?
«לא התכוונתי», read “ло хиткаванти”. In a live sentence: “סליחה, לא התכוונתי.” — Sorry, I did not mean it. Phrase, level A2; written with the characters ל, א, ה, ת, כ, ו, ו, נ, ת, י.
How is “לא התכוונתי” written in Latin letters?
ло хиткаванти. 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 did not have in mind", from kavana — intention. An apology not for a deed but for an accident — and that is the most frequent case. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.