# take care



## i heart queso

Hello everyone,

I don't know a whole lot about Hebrew, but I researched a little bit and thought I had found an acceptable way to say "take care" to a male: תשמור על עצמך.

However, when I wrote it to my friend, he told me that it wasn't right, or at least that it wasn't said that way.  If anyone would be so kind as to clear up why not and/or give me the form in use for saying it, I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks,

queso


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## Tamar

It looks fine to me, but maybe the context was wrong (-what was the context)? 
And it could be that "take care" in English doesn't mean exactly the same as תשמור על עצמך. 
Maybe תשמור על עצמך is implying actual danger whereas in English it is simply a way of saying goodby(?)


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## amikama

Tamar said:


> Maybe תשמור על עצמך is implying actual danger whereas in English it is simply a way of saying goodby(?)


I don't think it implies actual danger in Hebrew. My impression is that its usage in Hebrew is similar to that in English (saying goodbye, etc.).

And I would say שמור על עצמך, which is a bit more acceptable than תשמור על עצמך. Maybe it's what Queso's friend meant.


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## i heart queso

"Take care", just saying goodbye to someone.  I'm glad it doesn't imply actual danger... then I could see how it would sound silly. 

Thanks for the suggestion, amikama. I'll try that option out on him next time and see how it goes 

Thanks for both your help.


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## בעל-חלומות

I have never heard someone say תשמור על עצמך instead of saying goodbye. To me it sounds like something you add when you part with someone if you think he is going to do something dangerous or stupid.

And yes, both תשמור על עצמך and שמור על עצמך are right, although, at least the way I say it, it sounds more like צ'מור על עצמך...


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## Aoyama

I would say (sorry no Hebrew here) : _tiyé bari _...


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## Tamar

I would also say תשמור על עצמך if someone was going away for a long time.



> צ'מור על עצמך...


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## Aoyama

> "Take care", just [means] saying goodbye to someone.


whereas תשמור על עצמך and שמור על עצמך would rather be : "stay in good health", "watch out for your health", much more formal than the simple "take care" ...


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## Nunty

Formal? Not in my experience. When a friend is going into the army for his reserve duty, or someone is traveling abroad, or anything like that, שמור על עצמך is commonly used. It is more like "take care of yourself" than "take care" and is not used for leave-taking the way "take care" is, but I wouldn't consider it formal at all.


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## Aoyama

"Formal" meaning here "less casual" than the "take care" that does not really take care of anything ...


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## i heart queso

Great discussion, though a bit over my head  So then, if I've understood correctly, "tiyé bari" would be the least formal way of saying 'take care', and would be (the most) acceptable for saying a casual good-bye to a friend.

How do I write that in Hebrew then? My guess is ...תיטה ברי     

Forgive my utter ignorance


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## Aoyama

"tiyé" comes from the verb "to be" (here : lihiyot), it is an imperative/future.
As I cannot use Hebrew letters on this PC, maybe someone else can come with a better answer.
תיטה ברי = tisah bari, which could be understood as "take a trip, go on a trip", from "linsoah" to take a trip, to go on a voyage ...

This post is a mistake, see below.


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## i heart queso

Thanks, Aoyama.  Still new to the alphabet.  Hopefully someone with Hebrew characters can enlighten me


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## Nunty

Aoyama said:


> "tiyé" comes from the verb "to be" (here : lihiyot), it is an imperative/future.
> As I cannot use Hebrew letters on this PC, maybe someone else can come with a better answer.
> תיטה ברי = tisah bari, which could be understood as "take a trip, go on a trip", from "linsoah" to take a trip, to go on a voyage ...



I don't see how תיטה turns into תיסע. I think this must be a transcription error.


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## Aoyama

> I don't see how *תיטה* turns into *תיסע*. I think this must be a transcription error.


Right, my mistake for titah and tis/s/ah, my eyes where still asleep ...


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## Tararam

Did you mean "תיסע בריא"? because if so then I'm afraid I don't quite understand.
It's like saying "Drive healthy" in English - it doesn't make any sense.

And BTW, "tiyé" is only the future form of verb "to be", it's only in modern hebrew that it became common in speech as an imperative form.


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## amikama

Aoyama said:


> I would say (sorry no Hebrew here) : _tiyé bari _...


But תהיה בריא is totally different expression. It's not used as a way to say goodbye.


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## Flaminius

amikama said:


> But תהיה בריא is totally different expression. It's not used as a way to say goodbye.


Which makes me immediately wonder how תהיה בריא is used.    I've always thought it as a farewell-bidding expression on a par with בהצלכה.


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## Tararam

Just a tiny correction Flaminius, it's written "בהצלחה".
_tiyé bari_ is used when you visit a sick acquaintance and you wish him "get well soon".
It's not usually a stand-alone farewell-bidding expression (without the meaning of sickness), you can use it maybe when you say goodbye to an old person and you wish him good health (he doesn't necessarily have to be sick for you to tell him that).

Another use of this sentence is a cynic one.
For exmaple, if someone comes up with a bad idea (a stupid one), you can tell him "tiyé bari עם הרעיונות שלך". It's like "You and your ideas..." in English (although such a sentence also exists in Hebrew).


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## cfu507

Nun-Translator said:


> Formal? Not in my experience. When a friend is going into the army for his reserve duty, or someone is traveling abroad, or anything like that, שמור על עצמך is commonly used. It is more like "take care of yourself" than "take care" and is not used for leave-taking the way "take care" is, but I wouldn't consider it formal at all.


 
I would say every word Nun wrote.
I say תשמור על עצמך to someone who goes aboard, even if he goes for a long vacation in a hotel in Turkey. It doesn't imply actual danger, but it does imply that I care about the person I'm talking to.
תהיה בריא we say to someone who is sick or...
my mom tells me תהיי בריאה if I want to do something that she doesn't want me to do, and it has nothing to do with health


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## Aoyama

> Which makes me immediately wonder how תהיה בריא is used.  I've always thought it as a farewell-bidding expression on a par with בהצלחה.


Gam ani ...
Though I understand Tararam's explanation, I had thought that תהיה בריא  could be used like " stay in good health, take care of your health" -the original meaning of "take care" in English- (what the Japanese express with "odaijini"), even when used towards a person who is _not _ill.


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## Tararam

I understand the difficuly that derives from the quite similiar sense yet different use of the this Hebrew term and its English counterpart.
תהיה בריא is almost always used when talking to an ill person and you want him to get well soon. Another option which is close to the "take care" meaning is saying תהיה בריא to an old person as a goodbye, no matter if he's currently sick or not (you wish him to be healthy in general since older people usually suffer from physical conditions).

Aoyama, תהיה בריא is used in Hebrew like "bon rétablissement" is used in French.
I hope this helps.


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## Aoyama

> Another option which is close to the "take care" meaning is saying תהיה בריא to an old person as a goodbye, no matter if he's currently sick or not (you wish him to be healthy in general since older people usually suffer from physical conditions).


That's what I had in mind ...


> תהיה בריא is used in Hebrew like "bon rétablissement" is used in French.


That is a good example for one use of תהיה בריא (in English, that would be something like : "I wish you good recovery"), maybe also close to the German "Gesundheit" ...


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## Tararam

Aoyama said:


> That is a good example for one use of תהיה בריא (in English, that would be something like : "I wish you good recovery"), maybe also close to the German "Gesundheit" ...


 
yes, exactly.
תהיה בריא = bon rétablissement = get well soon/to wish good recovery (as you said). 99.9% of the time it used to wish recovery to someone.

BTW, we haven't answered the topic's question yet. 
Thinking about it for a minute, I realised there is NO expression similiar to "take care" in hebrew in its simple farewell sense.
"take care" in English is common and is said quite a lot as a goodbye whereas in Hebrew, "שמור על עצמך" (the closest translation I could think of), is used, as was said here, before someone is going to do something dangerous or goes on a trip abroad (or as Nun said, when they go to the army).


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## Aoyama

> I realised there is NO expression similar to "take care" in Hebrew in its simple farewell sense.
> "take care" in English is common and is said quite a lot as a goodbye whereas in Hebrew, "שמור על עצמך" (the closest translation I could think of), is used, as was said here, before someone is going to do something dangerous or goes on a trip abroad (or as Nun said, when they go to the army).


That is what I had also in mind (as well as Flaminius, probably).
In that sense, I'd say it would be in English "take care _of yourself_" or "watch out (for yourself)".


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## i heart queso

Well, I'm glad I started the thread, 'cause I see that people have learned a lot from it. 

and Surprise! I asked my friend again what he would have said, and appparently he was making a joke I didn't get when he told me תשמור על עצמך wasn't used. (Something like, people who speak Hebrew don't say it...har har har...) 

Anyway, thanks for all your contributions and your clarifications as to its uses.

שלים!


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## Aoyama

Thank you, but please note that של*י*ם (here shalim) is written with a vav, not a yod (של*ו*ם) ...


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## i heart queso

Crap, I always do that.
Thanks.

שלום!


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