מדי בית ספר
“מדי בית ספר” (мадей бейт сефер) — school uniform in Hebrew. Noun, level A1. The madim is taken by the uniform in general — military and sports; the school one is specified: the uniform of the school. In Israeli schools there is almost none; people know the word from films. In a live sentence: “בבית הספר שלנו אין מדי בית ספר.” — There is no school uniform in our school. Written with the characters מ, ד, י, ב, י, ת, ס, פ, ר.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | מדי בית ספר |
| Read in Latin letters | мадей бейт сефер |
| Translation | school uniform |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
The madim is taken by the uniform in general — military and sports; the school one is specified: the uniform of the school. In Israeli schools there is almost none; people know the word from films
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.
- בבית הספר שלנו אין מדי בית ספר.бэ-бейт ха-сефер шэлану эйн мадей бейт сефер.There is no school uniform in our school.
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 “school uniform” in Hebrew?
«מדי בית ספר», read “мадей бейт сефер”. In a live sentence: “בבית הספר שלנו אין מדי בית ספר.” — There is no school uniform in our school. Noun, level A1; written with the characters מ, ד, י, ב, י, ת, ס, פ, ר.
How is “מדי בית ספר” written in Latin letters?
мадей бейт сефер. 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 madim is taken by the uniform in general — military and sports; the school one is specified: the uniform of the school. In Israeli schools there is almost none; people know the word from films. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.