נגמר החשמל
“נגמר החשמל” (нигмар ха-хашмаль) — the power went out in Hebrew. Phrase, level A1. You have met chashmal, the electricity; about a dead light an Israeli says the electricity has run out, not the light went out. In a live sentence: “נגמר החשמל בבית.” — The power went out at home. Written with the characters נ, ג, מ, ר, ה, ח, ש, מ, ל. A word from the everyday Hebrew course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | נגמר החשמל |
| Read in Latin letters | нигмар ха-хашмаль |
| Translation | the power went out |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
You have met chashmal, the electricity; about a dead light an Israeli says the electricity has run out, not the light went out
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.
- נגמר החשמל בבית.нигмар ха-хашмаль ба-байт.The power went out at home.
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 “the power went out” in Hebrew?
«נגמר החשמל», read “нигмар ха-хашмаль”. In a live sentence: “נגמר החשמל בבית.” — The power went out at home. Phrase, level A1; written with the characters נ, ג, מ, ר, ה, ח, ש, מ, ל.
How is “נגמר החשמל” written in Latin letters?
нигмар ха-хашмаль. 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?
You have met chashmal, the electricity; about a dead light an Israeli says the electricity has run out, not the light went out. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.