וחצי
“וחצי” (ве-хеци) — one and a half in Hebrew. Numeral, level A2. Hebrew has no separate word for it: they say an hour and a half — shaa ve-chetzi. Chetzi — the half — you already know. In a live sentence: “אני גר כאן שנה וחצי.” — I have been living here for a year and a half. Written with the characters ו, ח, צ, י. A word from the everyday Hebrew course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | וחצי |
| Read in Latin letters | ве-хеци |
| Translation | one and a half |
| Part of speech | numeral |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Hebrew has no separate word for it: they say an hour and a half — shaa ve-chetzi. Chetzi — the half — you already know
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.
- אני גר כאן שנה וחצי.ани гар кан шана ве-хеци.I have been living here for a year and a half.
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 “one and a half” in Hebrew?
«וחצי», read “ве-хеци”. In a live sentence: “אני גר כאן שנה וחצי.” — I have been living here for a year and a half. Numeral, level A2; written with the characters ו, ח, צ, י.
How is “וחצי” written in Latin letters?
ве-хеци. 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?
Hebrew has no separate word for it: they say an hour and a half — shaa ve-chetzi. Chetzi — the half — you already know. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.