It's a waste of time (to argue) ! חבל על הזמן

Today we are going to talk about the word חַבַל.

The very basic and most common meaning of the word, is “a shame” or a “a pity”.

A pity, as in “what a pity” - חבל!

A shame, as in “what a shame” חבל!

When we want to show empathy to someone's misfortune, we use it along with “i am really sorry to hear that”: חֲבָל, אֲנִי מַמָּשׁ מִצְטַעֵר לִשְׁמֹעַ

We could use it in a cynical way to express indifference to someone else's misfortune, as saying tough luck! חֲבָל מְאוֹד! 

A recommendation to someone, to help them decide an action:

it will be the wrong thing for you to do - חֲבָל ש +(פּוֹעֵל בִּזְמַן עָתִיד) + מִלַּת יַחַס

That’s a bummer - חַבַל

What a waste of… 

I wish i stayed longer in Israel (in Hebrew it is a negative form sentence - shame i didn’t stay longer. it could also be a positive form of the same sentence, using the word הלוואי instead of the negative “shame” (I wish I could have stayed longer...).

חבל שלא…+(פועל בזמן עבר) + מילת יחס או תואר הפועל

I wish i had my computer with me 

חֲבָל שֶׁאֵין לִי פֹּה אֶת הַמַּחְשֵׁב שֶׁלִּי, הָיִיתִי יָכוֹל לַעֲבֹד

זֶה יִהְיֶה מַמָּשׁ חֲבָל אִם…it would really be a shame if

חֲבָל שֶׁלֹּא אָמַרְתָּ לִי קֹדֶם - i wish you told me that before, i could have done something to help you

חֲבָל עַל הַזְּמַן: intensifying a quality (high or low) of an adjective, basically means "very+adjective" in the sentence structure.

This expression is actually a shortcut of a sentence like: “ it would be a waste of time to argue about it, it is just the best movie ever”.

For a google sheet table with all the expression in this post, click here