סיפור עממי
“סיפור עממי” (сипур амами) — a legend in Hebrew. Noun, level B1. Literally a story of the people: what is passed from mouth to mouth. Agada is taken by the fairy tale in the course, and mesoret by the tradition. In a live sentence: “סבתא מספרת סיפור עממי ישן.” — Grandma tells an old legend. Written with the characters ס, י, פ, ו, ר, ע, מ, מ, י. A word from the everyday Hebrew course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | סיפור עממי |
| Read in Latin letters | сипур амами |
| Translation | a legend |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally a story of the people: what is passed from mouth to mouth. Agada is taken by the fairy tale in the course, and mesoret by the tradition
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.
- סבתא מספרת סיפור עממי ישן.савта месапэрэт сипур амами яшан.Grandma tells an old legend.
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 “a legend” in Hebrew?
«סיפור עממי», read “сипур амами”. In a live sentence: “סבתא מספרת סיפור עממי ישן.” — Grandma tells an old legend. Noun, level B1; written with the characters ס, י, פ, ו, ר, ע, מ, מ, י.
How is “סיפור עממי” written in Latin letters?
сипур амами. 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 a story of the people: what is passed from mouth to mouth. Agada is taken by the fairy tale in the course, and mesoret by the tradition. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.