"זה עצוב."

Translation: This is sad.

[lebensfrei.]

this is so sad alexa play despacito

[nettale]

Would this describe a situation?

[AlmogL]

Yes. Never a person. That would be הוא עצוב / היא עצובה.

[danny912421]

ze atzúv.

[BrotherDavid]

For those interested in Semetic roots: So עָצָב means a "NERVE" in Heb, in cousin language Arabic it's exactly the same word عصب and same pronunciation. But the Hebrew adj עָצוּב "sad" is 'haziin' or 'za'laan' in Arabic. However the root עצב = عصب pops up again in the verb: bit'aSab 'alay (بتعصب علي) in Arabic is to get upset/angry with s/o or to be intolerant of them.

[icannotchoose]

Don't forget غضب!

[marcoiris1]

זה די עצוב אלקסה נגני דספסיטו

[MiriS16]

Can this mean both 'it is sad' and 'this is sad'?

[NirYaniv]

Yes.

[AllanCruz0311]

זֶה עָצוּב

[tprodanov]

Could "זאת עצובה" be also used?

[Feras..]

But what is the prounounce of ע here?

[sarahperodri]

a, it's atsúv

[edo_farias]

which letter is pronounced as "s" in the second word?

[DiscipulusKiwius]

Indeed, the sound is often approximated by 'ts' or 'tz'.
It is also the same as the sound of letter 'Z' in German, as in 'Mozart'.

[Skulte91]

TC or Latvian C = צ

[SkipNewber]

Why doesn't one pronounce "sad" in hebrew always "aht soov" instead of just "soov" in this sentence? "Zeer soov" This is sad. Couldn't one say: "Zeer aht soov" for example. Why is the "ע" in this case silent?

[DiscipulusKiwius]

Pay attention to the exact letters and the sounds represented by them:

'זה' = ZEH / ZE
(no 'R' sound is present')

'עצוב' = ATZUV / ATZOOV
(a single word; 'ע' is corresponds here to the 'A' sound, 'צ' to the 'TZ' sound, 'ו' to the 'U' / 'OO' sound, 'ב' to 'V')

In normal speech, the vowel sound at the end of a word may often be connected to the word that follows. This may explain to some extent why it seems tricky.

[SkipNewber]

תודה רבה!