Me Be

Surprising your Grace

The piece below is terribly spiritual. It's meant to say "Surprising Grace" in Hebrew, referring to the sacrifice of Jesus... You know, the usual stuff.



And as usually happens, it went wrong. The tattoo above actually says "Charm Surprising".

I always warn against plugging a sentence into online translators and inking it on as is, since the above result is pretty much guaranteed.

This is how you correctly write "Surprising Grace":


Now, let's analyze our victim's mistakes:

1. The words are in reversed order. See, in Hebrew grammar you put the noun (Grace) before the adjective which describes it (Surprising).

2. The word "Grace" holds many meanings in English. In Hebrew, however, the meanings are separated.

The word "Grace" used in the tattoo is "Chen", its meanings are charm, attractiveness, elegance. It is also a popular female (and sometimes male) name. Nothing divine about it.

The word for "Grace" you'd want to use in a spiritual context, is "Chesed" which holds the meanings: kindness, charity, favor.