בשביל

Hebrew

Root
שׁ־ב־ל (sh-b-l)

Etymology

From בְּ־ (b'-, “in”) +‎ שְׁבִיל (sh'vil, “trail of”); hence, literally, “in the trail of”.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

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Preposition

בִּשְׁבִיל • (bishvíl)

1. For, for the sake of, for the benefit of, in order for.

Usage notes

• While most senses of בשביל are also senses of ל־ (l'-), the reverse is not true; so, in some cases only ל־ is possible (because בשביל does not have the requisite sense), and in some cases only בשביל is possible (because ל־ would imply something different). For example, גנבו לי את המכונית (“[they] stole my car”) cannot be rephrased with בשביל; and גנבו את המכונית בשבילי (“[they] stole the car for me”) would likely be misunderstood if it were rephrased with ל־.

Inflection

Inflection table

Non-personal-pronoun-including form				בשביל (bishvíl)
Personal-pronoun- including forms	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
First person	בשבילי (bishvilí)		בשבילינו (bishvilénu)
Second person	בשבילך (bishvilkhá)	בשבילך (bishvilékh)	בשבילכם (bishvilkhém)	בשבילכן (bishvilkhén)
Third person	בשבילו (bishviló)	בשבילה (bishviláh)	בשבילם (bishvilám)	בשבילן (bishvilán)

Synonyms

• (for): ל־ (l'-, “to, for”)