ראש
“ראש” (рош) — head in Hebrew. Noun, level A1. Rosh hashana is the New Year, literally "the head of the year": the head has a lot of work in Hebrew. When it hurts — koev li harosh, you cannot say it more exactly. In a live sentence: “הראש כואב מהרעש.” — My head hurts from the noise. Written with the characters ר, א, ש. A word from the everyday Hebrew course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | ראש |
| Read in Latin letters | рош |
| Translation | head |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Rosh hashana is the New Year, literally "the head of the year": the head has a lot of work in Hebrew. When it hurts — koev li harosh, you cannot say it more exactly
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.
- הראש כואב מהרעש.ха-рош коэв ми-ха-роэш.My head hurts from the noise.
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 “head” in Hebrew?
«ראש», read “рош”. In a live sentence: “הראש כואב מהרעש.” — My head hurts from the noise. Noun, level A1; written with the characters ר, א, ש.
How is “ראש” written in Latin letters?
рош. 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?
Rosh hashana is the New Year, literally "the head of the year": the head has a lot of work in Hebrew. When it hurts — koev li harosh, you cannot say it more exactly. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.