Sunday, January 17, 2010

The Girl with a Price Tag

In the last post we have seen a guy who got lucky, his misspelled Hebrew tattoo had a different-from-expected meaning, but it wasn't that bad. Today's victim, though, is very much the opposite:


This poor girl wanted her Hebrew tattoo to say a spiritual "I am free". She got her Hebrew backwards, but that's the least of her troubles. This unfortunate creation actually says "I'm for free". Really, this Hebrew tattoo beats any tramp stamp hands down!

The troublemaker here is of course the word "free". In English, this one tiny word contains many meanings. There is liberty (free as a bird) and then there is without cost (a free sample).

In Hebrew, the different meanings of "free" are contained in two different words. There is Chofesh that means "freedom", and there's Chinam - translated as "for free". I bet you know by now which one was unwittingly chosen by our poor victim...

Are you after your own "I am free" tattoo? This is how you correctly write it in Hebrew:


Mind, free as in "I am free" is gender specific. The free in "Free samples" is not.

6 comments:

Ethan said...

Or as they say in the Free/Open Source Software community, free as in beer versus free as in speach.
I actually appreciate this rare occasion where Hebrew is richer than English. The FOSS comunity here came up with חופשי זה יותר מחינם, or Chofshy ze yoter me'chinam, which means free(dom) is more than free (cost)

Jotii said...

hey. i saw this site @google, while i was searching for a hebrew translation!.. my boyfriend wants to tattoo his back. he wants hebrews 11:1. he founded a translation in hebrew in the internet but he isn't sure. Could you help me? Would be very nice. :)
Greets from germany. hehe

Typo Tat said...

@Jotii - There are several ways to write "Hebrews 11:1", I prefer this:
אל העברים י"א 1

You should be aware though, this book was not originally written in Hebrew, but in Greek.

Anonymous said...

I guess Jotii wanted to find the actual verse in Hebrew rather than "Hebrews 11:1" in Hebrew...

Anyway, if you were looking for "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" - in Hebrew it's:

כי האמונה היא בטחון במה-שנצפה לו והוכחת דברים שאינם נראים

(http://www.kirjasilta.net/ha-berit/Ivr_ln.11.html)

Anonymous said...

hai.
i also found a translation..
could you check it?
is it the same as you have??
אמונה זה לבטוח בתקווה ולסמוך על מה שנסתר מהעין

thanks a lot.
greets jessy

Typo Tat said...

Hi Jessy,

Your translation actually says "Faith is trusting in hope and relying on what's hidden from the eye". It's not a very good translation.

The translation suggested by Anonymous is much better.

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