Can you please answer these questions on Hebrew?
OK, here it goes:
I took a look at a hebrew dictionary at a bookstore. It says that “Ate” in Hebrew is “‘achal”. It also says that “Shall want” is “Ratsa”, if I remember correctly.Howcome in one word, the vowel a indicates past tense, yet does the opposite in another? And if Hebrew verbs are inflected for the gender of the subject, which suffix/prefix inidcates a male speaker and whihc suffix/prefix shows a female one?
What’s the equivalent of the english suffix “-ing” in Hebrew?
In both biblical and modern hebrew, how do you say “In the beginning God created the Heavens and Earth”?
What’s the word ofr “Sun” and “Moon”?
If Hebrew verbs are inflected for gender and tense, are they also inflected for whether or not they’re third-person (he she they), first-person (I, we,, or second-person (you) and for how many people are doing the verb? Is it true that in the Israeli version of the TV show “Code Lyoko”, Xana is referred to as female, not male? (Xana is a computer AI like HAL)
Chosen Answer:
Since Hebrew verbs has to agree with many things that English don’t agree with, you can’t really use your knowledge of Enligh directly to Hebrew.
English verbs has to agree with number and tense.
Hebrew verbs need to agree also with:
Mood (7 forms of passive and active)
Gender of subject
number of the speker
person (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
And on top of that, each verb is assigned to a group (and sub-grpou) that behave according to it’s on set of rules. And of course, many-many exceptions.
The only thing that is more simple in Hebrew (vs English) is that Hebrew has only 3 tenses.
So… “ate” may be translated as “A-KHAL”, “AKH-LU”, “AKH-LA”, depend on the number and gender of the subject.
The translation in the dictionary will give you the translation assuming that the subject is single and male.
“wanted” is “RA-TZA”, assuming, again, that it’s single and male. Otherwise it may be “RA-TZU”, or “RATZ-TA”, and it’s in a different group of verbs from the former verb. (“shell want” is “YIR-TZE” or “YIR-TZU” or “TIR-TZE” or “TIR-TZE-NA”, depend on number and gender, assuming that you don’n mean the biblical “LORD is my shepherd, I shell not want”)
In Hebrew there is only one present tense and there is no equivalent. If you want to emphesize that an action is happening at this very moment, you need to specify it.
SUN = שמש = SHE-MESH
MOON = ירח = YA-RE_AKH
Xana is a software or a “spirit”, and since nouns in Hebrew has gender (like French and Spanish), and since both “spirit” and “software” in Hebrew are female… yes, in Hebrew Xana is a female!
BTW – While in English one can write a general love song and then (often times) it may be sang by a man to a woman, a man to a man, a woman to a man and a woman to a woman… when you translate the song to Hebrew you have to decide how the verbs agree with the gender and it may not be interpreted in other ways!
by: Davis Jr.
on: 29th May 09
the word “ate” is represented by the verb root achal which is the exact confugation of the simple past.
“wanted” is “ratza” — this is not the future “will/shall want” which is dependent on gender and number.
the ing suffix in english does two things — it creates a participle or a gerund. as the former, it is represented by whatever hebrew adjectival form is closest, but usually that is the prefix “she-” meaning “who/which” with the verb afterword (the walking man” =”the man who walks”)
as to the latter, there is no exact gerund form — often people use the infinitive verb form (instead of “walking is tough” one might say “to walk is tough”)
sun = shemesh
moon = yare’ach
and i haven’t seen the TV show so I can’t answer about a character on it.
Since Hebrew verbs has to agree with many things that English don’t agree with, you can’t really use your knowledge of Enligh directly to Hebrew.
English verbs has to agree with number and tense.
Hebrew verbs need to agree also with:
Mood (7 forms of passive and active)
Gender of subject
number of the speker
person (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
And on top of that, each verb is assigned to a group (and sub-grpou) that behave according to it’s on set of rules. And of course, many-many exceptions.
The only thing that is more simple in Hebrew (vs English) is that Hebrew has only 3 tenses.
So… “ate” may be translated as “A-KHAL”, “AKH-LU”, “AKH-LA”, depend on the number and gender of the subject.
The translation in the dictionary will give you the translation assuming that the subject is single and male.
“wanted” is “RA-TZA”, assuming, again, that it’s single and male. Otherwise it may be “RA-TZU”, or “RATZ-TA”, and it’s in a different group of verbs from the former verb. (“shell want” is “YIR-TZE” or “YIR-TZU” or “TIR-TZE” or “TIR-TZE-NA”, depend on number and gender, assuming that you don’n mean the biblical “LORD is my shepherd, I shell not want”)
In Hebrew there is only one present tense and there is no equivalent. If you want to emphesize that an action is happening at this very moment, you need to specify it.
SUN = שמש = SHE-MESH
MOON = ירח = YA-RE_AKH
Xana is a software or a “spirit”, and since nouns in Hebrew has gender (like French and Spanish), and since both “spirit” and “software” in Hebrew are female… yes, in Hebrew Xana is a female!
BTW – While in English one can write a general love song and then (often times) it may be sang by a man to a woman, a man to a man, a woman to a man and a woman to a woman… when you translate the song to Hebrew you have to decide how the verbs agree with the gender and it may not be interpreted in other ways!