News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) According to a recent study conducted by Hebrew University professor Ram Frost and graduate student Hadas Velen, the “Cambridge University Effect” does not work in Hebrew as it does in English.  The Cambridge Effect, discovered in 2003, refers to readers’ ability to understand words in English, French, and Spanish even if the letters are out of order, as long as the first and last letters are in the proper place.

Frost and Velen found that 28 subjects who were bilingual in Hebrew and English could understand misspelled English words much better than misspelled words in Hebrew.  Eighty-one percent were able to identify misspelled words in English, while only 59 percent could do the same in Hebrew. 

Frost suggested that the difference was caused by language structure.  In Hebrew, he said, unlike in English or French, words are identified by their grammatical roots.