# Last night



## girloncrack

What is the most common way to say "last night, "last year", "last week", etc?  I've heard "ha'shanah she'havra" and "ha'pa'am ha'achronah".  Are they both equally acceptable?  What are the rules for the use of "havra"?  (I think that there is also "havru", so I guess it is a verb but I don't know what the infinitive of it is...)


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## JaiHare

girloncrack said:


> What is the most common way to say "last night, "last year", "last week", etc? I've heard "ha'shanah she'havra" and "ha'pa'am ha'achronah". Are they both equally acceptable? What are the rules for the use of "havra"? (I think that there is also "havru", so I guess it is a verb but I don't know what the infinitive of it is...)


What you're hearing is the verb לעבור _la'avor._ It's gender should match the word being attached to it:

השנה שעברה - _shanah she-avra_ - last year (feminine)
השבוע שעבר - _ha-shavua she-avar_ - last week

For "last night" you would say אתמול בלילה _etmol ba-laila_ (literally, "yesterday in the night"). Also, אתמול בערב _etmol ba-erev_ serves for "yesterday evening" (that is, "yesterday in the evening").

Hope this helps.

JaiHare


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## girloncrack

מצוין, תודה!!​


גם אפשר לאמור החודשים שהברו? למשל, "אני באמריקה דרום לשלושה החודשים שהברו"...​ 
וזה נחון לאמור "אני באמריקה דרום לשלושת החודשים האחרונה" (אני לא בטוחה אם זה נחון להשתמש שלושת או שלושה)​


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## Flaminius

How is אמש (emesh) popular for "last night" in Hebrew used in today's Israel?


> I can't seem to get the right to left formatting to "stick" when I save...


As mentioned in the sticky thread (the very first thread) in the Hebrew forum, please wrap Hebrew texts with [rtl] and [/rtl] tags like this:
[rtl] אמש [/rtl]

Then, if necessary, apply centring, align right or align left.


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## OriGinal

girloncrack said:


> מצוין, תודה!!​
> 
> 
> גם אפשר *לומר החודשים *שעברו? למשל, "אני באמריקה דרום לשלושה החודשים *שעברו"...​
> וזה *נכון *לומר "אני באמריקה דרום לשלושת החודשים האחרונה" (אני לא בטוחה אם זה *נכון להשתמש שלושת או שלושה)​


 
hamm I'm not really sure what you were trying to say so I think you should
write it down in English and then I'm sure that we could help you, but
I'll give it a shot...

For the first sentence:

אני הייתי בדרום אמריקה בשלושת החודשים האחרונים

And for the second sentence:

אני אהיה בדרום אמריקה בשלושת החודשים הבאים/ בשלושת החודשים הבאים אני אהיה בדרום אמריקה


I hope I understood what you were trying to say.
If not please write it in English and then I could accuratly translate it into Hebrew


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## girloncrack

Sorry, OriGinal.  I left out the הייתי by accident; both sentences were supposed to be the same ("I was in South America for the last three months").  

I just wanted to know 1. if it is correct to say "שלושת חודשים" as a word pair, and 2. if it is equally correct to say "שלושה/ת החודשים שהברו" or "שלושה/ת החודשים האחרונים"


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## albondiga

I'm also interested in hearing answers to what Flaminius asked regarding אמש...  I've heard it in at least one Sarit Hadad song, but would it actually be used in daily conversation?


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## Gadyc

אמש  is the right word, and the only one. Though, it is a little high registered as colloquial.
לילה שעבר - is definitly very low register. 
אתמול בלילה - low register but colloqialy used.


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## just a normal guy

If to be correct, last year is אשתקד (Eshtakad) but it is rarely used.


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## dukaine

Gadyc said:


> אמש  is the right word, and the only one. Though, it is a little high registered as colloquial.
> לילה שעבר - is definitly very low register.
> אתמול בלילה - low register but colloqialy used.



I don't really know what this is saying.  Can someone confirm that אמש is an ok word to use in conversation?


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## just a normal guy

אמש is fine when the conversation is formal or when the use is for formal purposes (e.g: on TV, radio, in a conference or in a study)
between friends you'll never use אמש.


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## dukaine

just a normal guy said:


> אמש is fine when the conversation is formal or when the use is for formal (e.g: on TV, radio, in a conference or in a study)
> between friends you'll never use אמש.



Thanks.  I get it now.  Appreciate it!!


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## anipo

> *girloncrack*
> ​Sorry, OriGinal. I left out the הייתי by accident; both sentences were supposed to be the same ("I was in South America for the last three months").
> ​I just wanted to know 1. if it is correct to say "שלושת חודשים" as a word pair, and 2. if it is equally correct to say "שלושה/ת החודשים שהברו" or "שלושה/ת החודשים האחרונים"



שלושת  החודשים     the three months
שלושת חודשים
שלושה חודשים         three months
שלושת החודשים האחרונים   the last three months 
בשלושת החודשים האחרונים הייתי בדרום אמריקה    During the last three months I was in South America
בשלושת החודשים ש*ע*ברו הייתי בדרום אמריקה   Is not used, even if it should be OK since you can perfectly say בחודש שעבר הייתי בדרום אמריקה.

Thinking about it, it seems that you can use both words when you talk about only one week,month or year, but you only use אחרונים/ות for the plural.

שבת שלום


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## taufik

JaiHare said:


> השבוע שעבר - _ha-shavua she-avar_ - last week



So if I wanted to say "He arrived last week" would I say higi'a ba-shavu'a she-avar?


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## shalom00

yes


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## taufik

Thank you.


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## Ali Smith

I believe _etmol ba-erev_ is much more commonly used than _etmol ba-layla_, at least in colloquial Hebrew. The problem is that _etmol ba-erev_ is ambiguous, for it could mean "last night" or "last evening".


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## bazq

Ali Smith said:


> I believe _etmol ba-erev_ is much more commonly used than _etmol ba-layla_, at least in colloquial Hebrew. The problem is that _etmol ba-erev_ is ambiguous, for it could mean "last night" or "last evening".



They aren't really competing. 
I use אתמול בלילה when I want to talk about something that happened yesterday from about 21:00, or 22:00, to 03:00 (after which point it turns into לפנות בוקר, up until 05:00-06:00 which is בוקר).
I use אתמול בערב when talking about something that happened from about 17:00 or 18:00 to 21:00.


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## Drink

Just to point out that the English phrase "last night" most commonly refers to evening and not night.


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