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- "אני שותֶה את הקפה."
34 Comments
It introduces the direct object of a verb. אני שותה קפה = I am drinking (a) coffee אני שותה את הקפה = I am drinking the coffee
I would like to add it is pronounced "et" rather that "aht" which means you (f.)
That sounds odd nowadays, but there have been times and places where this was OK. FWIW, David Ben Gurion fought against את in this kind of sentence - not sure why, among all the important wars he fought, he found time for this strange one - and he would have actually preferred your suggestion.
They really should include those in mobile. I only use mobile and found they are indisepensable especially in advanced lessons.
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Is it pronounced "at" or rather "ta" as being conjugated to the following word?? Confused :(
It is pronounced "et". Aní shoté et hakafé.
When conjugated, it changes accordingly: him=אותו (otó), me=אותי (otí), us=אותנו (otánu).
In colloquial speech, however, את ה often becomes ta. So the sentence above would be pronounced colloquially as "aní shoté takafé ".
That's exactly what I heard! I couldn't work out what תקפה was! I thought it was pronounced badly, but it's good to know that's the common pronunciation.
It's even more devilish here, because שותה ends with /e/ which joins the /e/ of את. So even when talking "properly", at a reasonable speed it's hard to distinguish between /shote et hakafe/ and /shote takafe/. Though listening carefully you should hear that in the former the /e/ is longer (two /e/'s).
- 185
They need a better speaker, as this is supposed to be teaching people new to the language how to correctly pronounce things!
You’ve probably listened to native speakers of English teaching an English course where they enunciate each word carefully so that listeners will better understand. “I don’t know”, they might say, enunciating the “t”. But in ordinary conversation, native speakers don’t enunciate the “t”, so people taking such a course would have difficulty understanding an ordinarily spoken “I don’t know”.
Similarly in the long run it’s best to hear Hebrew spoken at normal speed and with normal smooshing together of sounds.
Memrise Duolingo is a site where the words are spoken more clearly and there are pauses in between the words. It’s effective and enjoyable.
- 185
Yes, Memrise is awesome. Someone on here suggested it awhile back, and have been using it in tandem with Duolingo ever since.
Would this sentence actually be used in everyday conversation? Or would it be אני שותה קפה? I'm thinking of a phone call where I'm asked "What are you doing?" and I say "I'm drinking coffee."
You're right. אני שותה קפה is how you would say "I drink coffee" or "I'm drinking coffee". However, it is also said quite a lot like in this sentence, depends on context. Some examples where I would use the definite article:
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It's a specific cup of coffee I'm talking about. ״אני שותה את הקפה ובא״ - meaning something like "I'm just gonna drink the (cup of) coffee and I'm coming"
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It's a specific kind of coffee. I drink my coffee without sugar = אני שותה את הקפה שלי בלי סוכר. I drink the Ethiopian coffee = אני שותה את הקפה האתיופי.
A good one - everyday. Coffee is an important part of Israeli's workday.
If you do have vowel-dots in your examples, I can't see a single one of them! :( I'm on the app, android, samsung keyboard. (If I long-press my keys, no vowel-punctuation shows up... but that should not influence my ability to see other people's letters?!)
I wrote this without the full stop, which said I was incorrect; is this normal? Does punctuation Matter? "אני שותֶה את הקפה."
- 758
But it is הקפה. Do you perhaps mean why isn't it just הקפה without את? The answer is simple - when the object is definite, both את and ה before the noun must be included -> אני שותה את הקפה - I drink the coffee. That is how Hebrew works.
Or another example: אני אוכל את הלחם - I am eating the bread.
If it were "I drink coffee" then it would be אני שותה קפה. Or if I were to say "I eat bread" אני אוכל לחם.
