מסדר זיהוי: מי אתה ומאיפה אתה

How do you say “from” in Hebrew?

In this who-are-you lineup, everyone answers with a place: רות מתל אביב, “Ruth from Tel Aviv,” אורי מקיבוץ חולדה, “Uri from Kibbutz Hulda.” The “from” is just the letter מ, glued straight onto the place name. Hebrew runs several of its core prepositions this way — ב “in,” ל “to,” מ “from” — so a whole English word shrinks to one letter riding on the next word.

That’s why מאיפה אתה, “where are you from,” carries the מ up front — literally “from-where you.” And notice the question itself keeps switching: מי אתה to a man, מי את to a woman — in Hebrew, even “you” is gendered.