How do you say “cousin” in Hebrew?

שיחה מביכה על בני דודים וזיכרון

WhatsAppGmailTelegramEmail

A1 Hebrew listening practice · Standard Hebrew · Picked for people who know a little

💡 Did you know?
בני דודים (bnei dodim)
Hebrew family logic
cousins“ — literally ”sons of uncles

The awkward reunion in this clip turns on בני דודים — “cousins.” Hebrew has no standalone word for cousin; it builds one from the family tree: בן דוד is literally “son of an uncle,” בת דודה “daughter of an aunt.” So when one speaker insists אנחנו בני דודים — “we’re cousins” — and the other flatly denies it, they are arguing, quite literally, about whose uncle is whose.

The pieces are all core vocabulary: בן “son,” בת “daughter,” דוד “uncle,” דודה “aunt” — mix and match for any cousin. The clip also opens with מה קורה — “what’s happening,” Israel’s default “what’s up” — answered, as almost always, with בסדר: “fine,” Hebrew’s all-purpose okay.

How common are the words?

How common are the words in this A1 Hebrew listening practice video?

94.2%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common Hebrew words
Most of the words in this video are common Hebrew words.

How common in written Hebrew

82.6%
Top 1,000
94.2%
Top 2,000
95.7%
Top 5,000

How common in spoken Hebrew

98.4%
Top 1,000
100%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000
👄 Words for talking
This video uses words people often say in Hebrew.

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.

See Standard Hebrew Videos You Can Understand on Reelang

Open Hebrew page