What is the most common English mistake Hebrew speakers make in meetings?

The one that shows up most — “Depends from” instead of “depends on”. It comes out as “It depends from the API.” where a fluent colleague would say “It depends on the API.”. Hebrew uses a preposition here that maps to “from”. It is one of the most recognisable tells, and it appears in almost every technical conversation.

Why do Hebrew speakers say “Since two months we are working on it.”?

Hebrew has no present perfect, so duration comes out as a present tense with “since”. It reads as a status update from someone who is not quite in command of the timeline. The version that lands is “We’ve been working on it for two months.”. It is interference from Hebrew rather than a gap in your English, which is why it survives years of fluency.

Do these Hebrew patterns matter if everyone understands me anyway?

Being understood and sounding authoritative are different bars, and in a client meeting you are held to the second one. None of the 5 patterns on this page stop you being understood — that is precisely why nobody corrects them, and why they are still there after ten years.

How do I find out which Hebrew habits I actually have?

Paste a transcript from a real meeting and say which speaker is you. Every finding quotes your own sentence back with the version a native speaker would have used, across 5 categories of Hebrew interference, and the ones that keep recurring build into a profile so you can see the habit rather than a one-off.

English mistakes Hebrew speakers make in meetings

Hebrew speakers usually arrive at fluent English fast and then plateau on a handful of patterns that never quite go away. None of them stop you being understood. All of them are audible to a client, and a few make you sound blunter than you mean to.

“Depends from” instead of “depends on”

It depends from the API.

It depends on the API.

Hebrew uses a preposition here that maps to “from”. It is one of the most recognisable tells, and it appears in almost every technical conversation.

“Since two months” instead of the present perfect

Since two months we are working on it.

We’ve been working on it for two months.

Hebrew has no present perfect, so duration comes out as a present tense with “since”. It reads as a status update from someone who is not quite in command of the timeline.

Articles on abstract and mass nouns

We need to check the performance on a production.

We need to check performance in production.

Hebrew marks definiteness differently, so articles land in the wrong places — usually one too many.

“It’s not talking about” for “we’re not talking about”

It’s not talking about a big change.

We’re not talking about a big change.

A direct rendering of a Hebrew impersonal construction. English needs a person there.

Directness that reads as abrupt

No, this is wrong.

I don’t think that’s right — here’s what I’m seeing.

Israeli business culture treats directness as respect for the other person’s time. US and UK clients often read the same sentence as dismissive. The fix is not hedging — it is one clause of framing.

Questions Hebrew speakers ask

What is the most common English mistake Hebrew speakers make in meetings?: The one that shows up most — “Depends from” instead of “depends on”. It comes out as “It depends from the API.” where a fluent colleague would say “It depends on the API.”. Hebrew uses a preposition here that maps to “from”. It is one of the most recognisable tells, and it appears in almost every technical conversation.
Why do Hebrew speakers say “Since two months we are working on it.”?: Hebrew has no present perfect, so duration comes out as a present tense with “since”. It reads as a status update from someone who is not quite in command of the timeline. The version that lands is “We’ve been working on it for two months.”. It is interference from Hebrew rather than a gap in your English, which is why it survives years of fluency.
Do these Hebrew patterns matter if everyone understands me anyway?: Being understood and sounding authoritative are different bars, and in a client meeting you are held to the second one. None of the 5 patterns on this page stop you being understood — that is precisely why nobody corrects them, and why they are still there after ten years.
How do I find out which Hebrew habits I actually have?: Paste a transcript from a real meeting and say which speaker is you. Every finding quotes your own sentence back with the version a native speaker would have used, across 5 categories of Hebrew interference, and the ones that keep recurring build into a profile so you can see the habit rather than a one-off.

Which of these do you actually do?

Reading a list is not the same as knowing which habit is yours. Paste a transcript from a real meeting and find out.

Check a real meeting

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