I’m Cold, I Feel Like: Feelings with לי
Cold, bored, fed up, in pain: in Hebrew you normally don’t say “I am” for these. The feeling comes first, and the person who feels it gets לְ: קַר לִי, מְשַׁעֲמֵם לִי, כּוֹאֵב לִי.
Think “cold to me”, not “I am cold”. Once the person sits on לְ, the rest of the sentence falls into place.
I’m cold: קר לי, not אני קר
The feeling first, then לְ + the person
English says “I am cold”, with “I” as the subject. Hebrew builds this sentence with no subject at all: first the state, קַר (cold), then the person who feels it, on לְ. קַר לִי is literally “cold to me”. “I’m hot”, “I’m bored” and “it’s hard for me” work the same way: חַם לִי, מְשַׁעֲמֵם לִי, קָשֶׁה לִי.
A sentence that starts with אֲנִי describes you. אֲנִי קַר would say that you yourself are cold: a cold, distant person, or cold to the touch. You saw this in the sentence-structure lesson: הַקָּפֶה חַם is “the coffee is hot”, because the coffee itself is hot. When a person feels hot, the heat is “to” them: חַם לִי.
With no person at all, the sentence is about the weather or the place: קַר הַיּוֹם (it’s cold today), חַם פֹּה (it’s hot in here). None of these sentences has a verb: the present tense has no “am” or “is”.
The thing itself is hot or cold
הַקָּפֶה חַם.
ha-kafe kham
The coffee is hot.
הַמַּיִם קָרִים.
ha-mayim karim
The water is cold.
Someone feels hot or cold
חַם לִי.
kham li
I’m hot.
קַר לָנוּ.
kar lanu
We’re cold.
First sentences
קַר לִי. אֶפְשָׁר לִסְגּוֹר אֶת הַחַלּוֹן?
kar li. efshar lisgor et ha-khalon?
I’m cold. Can we close the window?
חַם לִי! אֵיפֹה הַשָּׁלָט שֶׁל הַמַּזְגָן?
kham li! eifo ha-shalat shel ha-mazgan?
I’m hot! Where’s the remote for the air conditioner?
מְשַׁעֲמֵם לִי, אֵין פֹּה מָה לַעֲשׂוֹת.
mesha’amem li, ein po ma la’asot
I’m bored, there’s nothing to do here.
Not every feeling: אֲנִי עָיֵף, אֲנִי רָעֵב
Tired, hungry, thirsty, sick and happy are ordinary adjectives that describe you, so they take אֲנִי and agree with you: אֲנִי עָיֵף, אֲנִי רְעֵבָה (a woman), אֲנַחְנוּ צְמֵאִים. Never עָיֵף לִי. A rule of thumb: if the word can also describe the place or the situation itself, with no person at all (it’s cold outside, it’s boring in class, it’s hard at work), the person who feels it goes on לְ. Nobody says “tired outside”, so it’s אֲנִי עָיֵף.
Who feels it: לי, לך, לדני10 forms
Only the ל form changes
To say who feels it, use the forms of ל you know from יֵשׁ לִי: קַר לִי, קַר לְךָ, קַר לָהּ, קַר לָנוּ. With a name or a noun, attach לְ to it: לְדָנִי קַר (Dani is cold). Before the article הַ the two merge, as in the possession lesson: לַיְלָדִים מְשַׁעֲמֵם (the kids are bored).
The word for the feeling never changes: a man, a woman and a whole group all say קַר. So a woman says קַר לִי too, never קָרָה לִי. קָרָה is also the past of “happen”, and קָרָה לִי sounds exactly like “it happened to me”.
These are the same ten forms as in עוֹזֵר לִי and יֵשׁ לִי: one set of forms, now with a third job.
Ten persons, one word
| Person | Sentence | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| אֲנִי | קַר לִיkar li | I’m cold |
| אַתָּה | קַר לְךָkar lekha | you’re cold (to a man) |
| אַתְּ | קַר לָךְkar lakh | you’re cold (to a woman) |
| הוּא | קַר לוֹkar lo | he’s cold |
| הִיא | קַר לָהּkar la | she’s cold |
| אֲנַחְנוּ | קַר לָנוּkar lanu | we’re cold |
| אַתֶּם | קַר לָכֶםkar lakhem | you’re cold (to men or a mixed group) |
| אַתֶּן | קַר לָכֶןkar lakhen | you’re cold (to women) |
| הֵם | קַר לָהֶםkar lahem | they’re cold (men or mixed) |
| הֵן | קַר לָהֶןkar lahen | they’re cold (women) |
Every row has the same קַר; only the form of ל tells you who is cold. Listen for the difference between לְךָ (lekha), to a man, and לָךְ (lakh), to a woman.
With a name or a noun
לְדָנִי קַר, הוּא רוֹצֶה שְׂמִיכָה.
le-Dani kar, hu rotse smikha
Dani is cold, he wants a blanket.
לַיְלָדִים מְשַׁעֲמֵם בַּבַּיִת.
la-yeladim mesha’amem ba-bayit
The kids are bored at home.
לְ and הַיְלָדִים merge into one word, לַיְלָדִים.
לְסַבְתָּא קָשֶׁה לִשְׁמוֹעַ בַּטֶּלֶפוֹן.
le-savta kashe lishmoa ba-telefon
Grandma finds it hard to hear on the phone.
קַר לִי or לִי קַר?
With a pronoun, the feeling usually comes first: קַר לִי, נָעִים לָנוּ. Put the person first when you want to stress who feels it, usually in contrast with someone else. A name or a noun often opens the sentence anyway, as in לְדָנִי קַר, though קַר לְדָנִי is fine too.
לִי קַר, וְלוֹ חַם.
li kar, ve-lo kham
I’m cold, and he’s hot.
Quick check
Noa wants to say “I’m cold”. What does she say?
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Frequently asked questions
- How do you say “I’m cold” in Hebrew?
- Say קַר לִי (kar li), literally “cold to me”: the feeling comes first, and the person who feels it is on לְ. For other people only the ending changes: קַר לְךָ (to a man), קַר לָךְ (to a woman), קַר לָנוּ (we’re cold). A woman says קַר לִי too. Don’t say אֲנִי קַר: it describes you as a cold person.
- How do you say “I’m bored” in Hebrew?
- מְשַׁעֲמֵם לִי (mesha’amem li), literally “it’s boring to me”. אֲנִי מְשַׁעֲמֵם means “I’m boring”, so avoid it. אֲנִי מְשֻׁעֲמָם (I’m bored) is also correct, but less common in speech.
- What does בא לי mean?
- בָּא לִי (ba li) is everyday spoken Hebrew for “I feel like”: בָּא לִי פִּיצָה (I feel like pizza), לֹא בָּא לִי לָצֵאת (I don’t feel like going out). It’s informal: in writing, מִתְחַשֵּׁק לִי is the neutral choice, and in a formal setting you can simply say אֲנִי רוֹצֶה.
- Why is it כואבת לי הבטן but כואב לי הראש?
- Because the body part is the grammatical subject, and the verb agrees with it: בֶּטֶן (stomach) is feminine, רֹאשׁ (head) is masculine. The person in pain is on לְ and doesn’t affect the form. The past works the same way: כָּאֲבָה לִי הַבֶּטֶן, כָּאַב לִי הָרֹאשׁ.
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- I’m cold: קר לי, not אני קר
- Who feels it: לי, לך, לדני
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