מסילה
“מסילה” (месила) — railway track in Hebrew. Noun, level A1. The derech, the road in general, is taken; the rail track is the mesila, literally a rut: the train goes along it. In a live sentence: “אסור ללכת על המסילה.” — One must not walk along the railway track. Written with the characters מ, ס, י, ל, ה. A word from the everyday Hebrew course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | מסילה |
| Read in Latin letters | месила |
| Translation | railway track |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
The derech, the road in general, is taken; the rail track is the mesila, literally a rut: the train goes along it
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.
- אסור ללכת על המסילה.асур лалехет аль ха-месила.One must not walk along the railway track.
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 “railway track” in Hebrew?
«מסילה», read “месила”. In a live sentence: “אסור ללכת על המסילה.” — One must not walk along the railway track. Noun, level A1; written with the characters מ, ס, י, ל, ה.
How is “מסילה” written in Latin letters?
месила. 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 derech, the road in general, is taken; the rail track is the mesila, literally a rut: the train goes along it. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.