This afternoon as I was ordering lunch, I looked at the menu and wondered what to drink with my meal. I decided on tea. As I waited, I thought about how to say I want tea in Hebrew.

The Hebrew verb meaning ‘to want’ is לרצות (leer-TSOHT). It’s pretty regular when conjugating it, especially in the present tense. Here it is in it’s conjugated form:

Just four forms is all that’s needed for this article. So let’s see how we use this in conversation. In the first example, we’ll use the masculine form רוֹצֶה. Listen for it:

אתה רוצה מיץ לימונ?
לֹא. אני רוצה קולה.
1. What was offered?
2. What did he want instead?

Here we’ll ask a woman what she wants.

את רוצה סלט?
לֹא תודה. אני רוצה סוקולד.
1. What was offered?
2. What did she want instead?

I want to go to

Now that you want something, what if you want to go somewhere? This is done by adding on “לִנְסוֹעַ” (to travel, go, drive, ride, journey, voyage) after רוצה:

אני רוצה לִנְסוֹעַ ל… – I want to go to…

אני רוצה לִנְסוֹעַ לישראל. – I want to go to Israel.
אני רוצה לִנְסוֹעַ לאמריקה. – I want to go to America.
אני רוצה לִנְסוֹעַ לתל אביב. – I want to go to Tel Aviv.