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- Topic: Hebrew >
- "אהבה באה."
282 Comments
Is Hebrew like German, as in, love comes is the same as love is coming? Thanks.
I'm starting to wonder if English is the only one with a continuous tense...
Plenty of languages have the continuous (it's an aspect, not a tense, though).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_and_progressive_aspects
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Rae.F, thanks for this. In my blinkered way, knowing only two languages (French and Russian) other than English, neither of which has a present continuous, I had assumed English was unique. Your wikipedia link tells me other languages have it too. But as far as I can see from this article, there's only Icelandic and Italian. I wouldn't call that "plenty". Do you know of many others?
That article lists 16 different languages that have the progressive aspect.
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Ah, my mistake. I was thinking of the present continuous. Looking back over our messages, I see that was only in my mind. It was in my mind because neither French nor Russian have it, even though they have aspects for other tenses. Apologies. ...Though, actually, given that the original question (Is Hebrew like German, as in, love comes is the same as love is coming?) was referring only to the present tense, I think I might be forgiven.
Irish Gaelic has both a present continuous and a present habitual tense that differ from the standard present tense. For example,
I run = Rithim
I am running = Táim ag rith
I (usually) run = Bím ag rith
But it is a rather rare tense (or aspect).
AAVE and other non-standard English dialects have this too.
I run. I'm running. I be running.
More on the habitual "be" in AAVE.
It is a common misconception that AAVE speakers simply replace is with be across all tenses, with no added meaning. In fact, AAVE speakers use be to mark a habitual grammatical aspect not explicitly distinguished in Standard English. For example, to be singing means to sing habitually, not to presently be singing. In one experiment, children were shown drawings of Elmo eating cookies while Cookie Monster looked on. Both black and white subjects agreed that Elmo is eating cookies, but the black children said that Cookie Monster be eating cookies.
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Then how does be eating (=habitually) differ from the simple present - eats, which also denotes habitual action?
It's called a present participle, not to be confused with a gerund. I know that it's in Russian, French, Spanish, Chinese. It's just that English uses it a whole lot more than those languages for some reason and, en lieu of that which, they gravitate to the indicative or infinitive.
No, languages like Farsi, hindi, etc, Have the present continuous as well
I speak English, Spanish and some Italian and all of those have a continuous mood. I also assume Portuguese, French, Catalan, Latin and Esperanto all have it as well. However it does make the grammar a little easier for me in Hebrew that there is no continuous mood that I have to worry about. Just got to learn to those darn letters now...
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No, French doesn't. I only know French and Russian which don't have a continuous present, so I'd ignorantly assumed most languages didn't. It's good to learn. Except when people say they assume French and Latin have it
Spanish also uses continuous tense
I run - yo corro I am running - yo estoy corriendo
Spanish uses the gerundio to indicate that something is actively in the process of happening right now. It is not the same as the English continuous aspect.
Hebrew has a very simple tense system - past, present, future, and imperative. On the contrary, it has a vast conjugation system.
the conjugation is crazy with this language. Not always easy. I mean there are patterns I've noticed but then you have irregulars as well.
Some dialects of German (such as Swiss German) do have a progressive aspect: "I'm eating" is "I bi am ässe" in Swiss German but "I eat a lot" (not right now) is "I ässe viel"
You can say in German: "Ich bin am essen." I don't see a difference to the Swiss German example.
Nope. 'Amo venas' vs 'Amo estas venanta'. (The latter can be contracted to 'Amo venantas', but that would be fairly uncommon.)
Compared to other duolingo courses this starts too complex. I would like to learn hebrew in an easy fun way, supersimple. Also the letters are way too small to see them good. Also more explanation is needed.
I'm going to keep trying at it, but I felt the same way. As an English speaker, when having to deal with both a new alphabet and reading right-to-left, I expected a more gradual introduction. Finding it very hard to make out the letters.
I have to agree. Greek, whose writing system is much more similar to ours, explicitly introduces the letters in the first lesson. The other languages that don't use the Roman alphabet really ought to follow suit.
Why is the -ah put on the end after 'coming'? Is this because of the -ah on the end of 'love'? Thanks.
it may have to do with the gender of the word since most Hebrew nouns ending in -ah are feminine (not all, but most). My Biblical Hebrew is rusty but there's also a rule concerning the fact that you can't end a word with an open syllable (a CV syllable). If it ends in a vowel, there's usually an -h or an aleph at the end
The "Aleph" letter is a "glottal stop". A glottal stop happens, for instance, in the "uh-oh" word, or in american pronounciation for "button". Your throat litteraly closes itself for a little moment. But I think it's not wrong if you just speak without the stop. Just put the emphasis on the second letter (baÁH)
The emphasis is correct, but not neccesary. I would personally pronounce it without exaggerating the ah - like in this forvo pronunciation for "את באה לפה הרבה?" - http://he.forvo.com/search/%D7%91%D7%90%D7%94/ --- (Do you come here often? - the cliched pickup line)
I am not learning anything without knowing how to read the words. I just hover over to see the tooltip and guess what the sentence will be.
Yes, i also feel this does not work to learn hebrew :-( The course should start way more simple!
There is a memrise.com course called "Hebrew Alef-Bet" that helped me in reading the Hebrew letters.
This was really pointless to me until I downloaded an app called "write it hebrew" and learned a large part of the Hebrew alphabet then returned to Duolingo.
Thank you for the tip, it was seriously irritating. As incredible as it may think, the duolingo team must have a reason to have intentionaly chosen to ignore that aspect.
It's just for getting introduced to the Hebrew alphabet. It doesn't have to make sense for you to learn it, and, in fact, it's probably better if it doesn't make sense, since it'll make it more memorable.
There was a sentence in Dutch that meant "Good day, Juice." Never forgot it.
I will always have a soft spot in my heart for turtles after doing the first several lessons of the Duo Dutch course. :)
Turtles appeared regularly in the Swedish and Spanish courses when I first started. :)
Have you ever heard the song "Love is on the way?" I think it's metaphorical, like that.
Is it correct that ב sounds sometimes like an English "B" and sometimes like "V"?
The lesson 'tips and notes' bit mentions that for each of the b/v, p/f, and k/X pairs (the distinction is formally called voiced/voiceless), the letter is pronounced as the former only at the beginning of a syllable; elsewhere, it's devoiced.
Stop vs. fricative, not voiced vs. voiceless. So it's a matter of fortition vs. lenition.
http://www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org/ipa-sounds/ipa-chart-with-sounds/
oh, right. thanks. (What i get for trying to remember classes i took ten years ago, i suppose....)
i also have this question, but i remember i saw somewhere else about Hebrew Alphabet(Aleph-Bet), it talks about some Hebrews alphabet may change sound with a dot or a point, i didn't finish the whole thing coz it was too much for me...
The Hebrew writing system is more of an abjad than an alphabet.
An abjad is kind of like an alphabet, except the primary letters are consonants. Vowels are rarely included explicitly.
Could someone explain to me what this means? Love is coming? Is this similar to the Yorkshire for 'love' being a person, or is this simply stating that Love (ie romance etc) is coming to a certain area / person?
You're thinking about it too hard. As @JackyDW wrote above, "It's just for getting introduced to the Hebrew alphabet. It doesn't have to make sense for you to learn it, and, in fact, it's probably better if it doesn't make sense, since it'll make it more memorable."
Then use another clear sentence that does not make things more complicated for beginners :-) That is what good teachers do!
Because there is no ה ("ha") ie "the" at the beginning of the sentence. Unless I'm confused, since I just started this language too...
Love=אהבה (ahava). The love=האהבה (Ha'ahava). You would place a ה before a noun as you would place a "the" before a noun.
Try going here: https://www.memrise.com/course/1087087/hebrew-alef-bet-print/1/
It's by the creators of the Duolingo Hebrew course. There's also another course for all the words: https://www.memrise.com/course/1031737/hebrew-duolingo/
do you read the whole thing left to right or just each word read seperately? (completely new to hebrew)
MariahLightfoot wrote: "do you read the whole thing left to right or just each word read seperately? (completely new to hebrew)"
This is another example of why this course starts too complex for beginners: why don't you explain this in the beginning?! That hebrew is read from right to left?
The tips and notes do mention that it is read right to left, but does not go into words vs letters.
We read it right to left. Read this, I think you will find it helpful - https://www.duolingo.com/comment/16251269
In exactly the same way that English is written and read left to right --->, Hebrew is written and read right to left <---.
IN English, anyway, you could say "love is coming" in a general way to say "you/one will experience love in the near future" though it would sound rather poetic or metaphorical. In a much more specific Christian religious context we sometimes talk about "love has come" to refer to Christ's coming into the world. I don't think that latter context is what's being referred to here, though. :)
I meant to say what is the meaning of : love is coming ? does that have a meaning ?
I see. Sorry. That question has already been asked, and answered, several times earlier on this board. The explanation given there is that the sentences at this stage of the course are being constructed primarily to teach the alphabet.
OK, stupid question: are there no voicing diacritics in modern Hebrew? How can you tell it's Ahava ba'ah and not Ahaba va'ah?
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There are. But as you get fluent in the language you learn to recognize words as a whole - your brain will know the word so you won't need to connect the letters each time. These nikkud signs can be found usually in school and children's books.
the answer will depend on what sort of keyboard you have. Try googling "Hebrew keyboard" + Mac | Windows | Android | iPhone as appropriate.
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+do+i+get+Hebrew+letters+on+my+keyboard+%3F
i dont understand this course they dont even freaking teach you the letters and expect americans with american keyboard to be able to type in hebrew letters with no explanation how guess ill just buy a hebrew tutor
https://www.duolingo.com/skill/he/Letters-1
And you can Google how to add a Hebrew keyboard, depending on which OS you're using.
did you read the tips and notes? Unfortunately they're not visible in the mobile apps, but the aleph-bet is fully discussed there and there is a link to info on how to type in Hebrew.
Unlike European languages, verbs in Hebrew include the gender of the subject in their conjugation.
I don't understand how I'm supposed to learn this language... am I missing something? The letters are different, so I need an explanation of the letters first. This first lesson is too advanced for me to learn anything--is there an explanation of the alphabet somewhere? Thanks for your help!
Did you try clicking on the light bulb icon?
https://www.duolingo.com/skill/he/Letters-1/tips-and-notes
Duh! Thank you so much! Somehow I missed it when I clicked on intro. Your assistance is very much appreciated.
I dont feel like this actually taught me anything other than memorizing what letters look like.
Hebrew is so confusing I think I could be able to speak it but never read it.
May depend on your browser or other factors. On the email I received notifying me of the new comment on this post, it is on the right. On the top of this page, it is on the left. The letters are still in the same order, so it's not like one is reading the RTL setting correctly and the other isn't, but I'm not sure what the actual issue is.
It should be on the left, as Hebrew reads right-to-left. If it's not, you may wish to report it. The mechanism for this will depend on which interface you're using, but may look like a 'flag' button next to or near the button to access the forum....
Interesting. I hadn't noticed, but (in internet explorer) the dot was correctly on the left in the actual exercise, but is showing on the right at the top of this discussion page.
It seems that one should not be penalized for writing the translations in English for a phrase in Hebrew such as "Love come(s)", which I assume is the correct Hebrew form. Asking users to use precise English grammar--"Love is coming"-- is no way to teach proper Hebrew grammar.
So where did "is coming" pick up the ב? It wasn't there in the translation of "the father is coming"
I can't type love in hebrew because I don't have a hebrew language setting
If you Google your OS and the phrase "Hebrew keyboard" you should find instructions on how to add/access that.
I'm not seeing much of a pattern and all I can do is memorize what characters make up what words
Hebrew is written right-to-left and generally just writes the consonants, not so much the vowels.
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Rae, speaking about reading right to left, I've been gone from Duolingo for a year and when I came back last week, I noticed that all the new, blue, Hebrew sentences at the top of the discussion pages are written backwards. Do you have any idea why this error happened, how long the problem has been going on, and why it hasn't been fixed yet? Thanks.
update 8/2019: It took months but the problem has been fixed and the words I see in the answers in blue at the top of the discussion pages are now going in the correct direction from right to left instead of left to right. Thanks Duo!
I don't know why you're asking me. I haven't done Hebrew for a while and I'm not one of the course contributors. But I took a quick look at the top of this page and it's not backwards.
If you think there's a problem, you'll need to take a screen shot and submit a bug report.
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I asked you because you are frequent and knowledgeable contributor who has been on the site more recently than I have. I thought you might have been following a discussion or heard some other way about this issue. The Hebrew in blue at the top of this page reads "באה אהבה" instead of "אהבה באה" on my computer. I turned in a bug report a couple of days ago but, since Duolingo does not respond back to individual bug reports, I was hoping someone else had an idea what is causing the problem and if it can be fixed.
Are you using Windows and Android, or Apple? If Windows or Android, you can download Hebrew keyboard settings.
There's also a Chrome extension for Duolingo to make typing any script easier. The instructions for this are in the tips for Letters 1.
which one is free can i use for windows, i tried to download one but it doesnt work
Go here: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/17767515 And follow the links for whatever browser you're using.
Is it me or are they just throwing us into this heads first with a single sign of hope.
There is no audio when selecting the words to compare with the original recording that we are supposed to try to write in Hebrew. This seems too difficult when there is no beginning alphabet to try to discern the letters, no audio to compare each word to the original phrase, and none of the words have been strongly taught in a previous lesson. Please fix to make it more fair to the learner. It is frustrating and discouraging to have to guess entire words and phrases over and over without having learned individual words or letters from the phrases. This is only one of the first lessons in the very first skill tree, yet we are supposed to understand an entire sentence orally and select the corresponding words visually with zero audial context.
Yes, it is a downside of this course. Your best bets are to learn the letters and then the words covered by Duolingo via the associated Memrise courses: https://www.memrise.com/course/1087087/hebrew-alef-bet-print/ https://www.memrise.com/course/1031737/hebrew-duolingo/
Also make sure you check the tips and hints pages for each skill.
And be aware that the comments pages are not monitored by the Devs so if you want to bring something to their attention, you need to flag it.
|b| and |v| have the same shape? Or maybe it's the way I heard them!
Yes - it's depends on their placement in the word. If you use the website, rather than app, you'll get better access to the tips and hints where it's all explained. If you can't access that, go here https://duome.eu/tips/en/he for all the tips and hints for the course.
Yes, I'm using both, but now I'm on the website. Thanks a lot (I would use the Hebrew word for 'thank you' if I knew it).
It's a possibility to learn hebrew from spanish? Could you present the different letters, because they are different?
No, it doesn't for the Hebrew course because of the way that they recorded the audio. The audio is of people reading whole sentences rather than individual words that can be spliced together.
If you want to hear how an individual word is pronounced, try forvo.com or the memrise course that matches the Duolingo Hebrew course - try starting here: https://www.memrise.com/course/1031737/hebrew-duolingo/1/
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A trip down memory lane. Just finished that course at the end of last year. תודה רבה
~Vir pius sacrificat~
I think i need to learn the alphabets because I have know clue what im reading
There's also the tips and notes at the start of the first three lessons, which are all about teaching the alphabet.
It is always a good idea to learn the alphabet before you start learning the rest of the language. Fortunately, there are plenty of places online for that. Just Google "learn hebrew alphabet".
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Rae.F, though there may be plenty of places online for learning the Hebrew alphabet, I'd like to say that the Duolingo introduction to - I mean the first lessons in - Arabic are a dream. You learn the alphabet without even noticing that you are. Totally painless. Congratulations Duolingo! What a shame you haven't done it for Hebrew.
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It's very easy to shame things you don't know enough about. Did you know Hebrew was made as the first non-alphabet language course on Duolingo? That was done years before Arabic, which was made on the new platform, which was made after they realized Hebrew was not user friendly, in order to support other such languages. The course creators have states several times already that transferring the Hebrew course onto the new platform would require an entirely new tree, not just a small upgrade. And a new tree takes a lot of effort and time, because they are all volunteers.
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danny912421, thank you for the information, which explains a lot. But how was I to know? Arabic was my first experience with Duolingo (lucky me), so I was spoiled. My heart goes out to the course creators, if they have people like me complaining all the time!
In the tips, it says, "A common example for the use of "א" as a silent letter is the word לא (/lo/), which means "no"." I don't understand why it's called "silent" when it seems to represent "o"???
Follow that double asterisk back up to the notes on aleph:
(usually silent or similar to the letter "a" in English: a placeholder for vowels)
This is not really an alphabet. It's an abjad (albeit an "impure" one), just like Arabic. The aleph/alif can hold the short vowel points (niqqud), written or not.
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Lovely! The REPLY function has reappeared. Thank you veyr much for this interesting link, which I'll read tomorrow (it's past 1am in London). (I'm proud to say I knew about abjad, becasue of learning Arabic - so why do they call it the Hebrew alphabet?) I still think that this statement - "A common example for the use of "א" as a silent letter is the word לא (/lo/)" is not helpful. Good night!
Yes, Duolingo cuts off replies after a certain depth, which is why I replied to your highest-level comment.
Abjads and abugidas are subtypes of the general category "alphabet". That and not a whole lot of people know those words, so it's easier to just over-simplify and call them alphabets.
And yeah, perhaps they could re-word that a bit. What they mean is that א holds the "o" vowel. If you scroll down the Omniglot link a little bit, there's a section where it talks about niqqud and shows the diacritics.
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Rae.F, I tried the link you give, but it's circular: it takes me back to this very page. Did you mean to give a different link? I had assumed you were directing me to where this subject had been discussed in the past.
There are no replies to the one that says this:
There's also the tips and notes at the start of the first three lessons, which are all about teaching the alphabet.
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Rae.F, yes, I hadn't replied to your other post, but there wasn't any point. I always look at Tips, but my point was that in the Arabic course, the course creators make it very easy for you. Here, it's quite hard and boring to go through the alphabet and teach yourself the letters without any help. Incidentally, I see that the Hebrew course has the same irritating feature of the Arabic one (and probably all of them), that at a certain point, the REPLY function disappears, ,and you have to find a different message to reply to. However, Duolingo is very good at alerting the addressee of a new reply, even if it doesn't follow immediately after the addressee's message. I don't suppose you know any app that babies you along to learn the Hebrew alphabet?
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In the tips, it says, "A common example for the use of "א" as a silent letter is the word לא (/lo/), which means "no"." I don't understand why it's called "silent" when it seems to represent "o"???
Is there a beginner's level for those who have no prior knowledge of the language? Seems to go straight to translation tests.
Why aren't we going through the alphabet first like in the Hindi course
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Hebrew course was made much earlier than Hindi, when they didn't have the same tools, so the letters are taught in the tips and notes of the first three skills. (accessible only on the browser version)
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danny, is there any chance that Hebrew might eventually incorporate an alphabet-teaching section in the course? That would be heavenly. Or is that not technically feasible?
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Yes. The Hebrew team have stated that they are working on the new tree, which would teach the letters differently. But it takes time to build a new tree from scratch, so we'll just have to wait.
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Oh hurray! Will we be notified? I'm too stupid to learn the alphabet on my own, but I've been longing to learn Hebrew, if it weren't for this barrier. Thank you for telling us the good news, though I realise it won't happen immediately.
I can't see how anyone can possibly learn from scratch through this course
I don't see how anyone can possibly learn this course from scratch with such little information
Aren't you supposed to like start with me knowing the alphabets? I don't recognize anything you're bringing up, I'd appreciate if it's started with alphabets
You seem to be addressing the course contributors. You'll have a much better chance of catching someone's attention if you post this to the main forum instead of burying it in a sentence discussion.
https://forum.duolingo.com/topic/932
That said, you can read the lesson tips and notes here, where the Hebrew alphabet is introduced:
https://preview.duolingo.com/skill/he/Letters-1/tips-and-notes
https://preview.duolingo.com/skill/he/Letters-2/tips-and-notes
https://preview.duolingo.com/skill/he/Letters-3/tips-and-notes
Ehy doesn't the bet in "love" have a dagesh mark? It sounds like a "v," but it soesnt have the mark that makes it a vet.
Can anybody explain me? בא באה They both means is coming but when do I use each one?
I came here with the same question. Earlier on the page people have said that בא is a masculine form (used with אבא ) and באה is a feminine form (used with אחבח).
in hebrew we have also words that are male and female for example "שולחן" (table) is a male word so you would say שולחן בא ('table is coming', if that makes sense) But a word like אהבה is a female word so you'd say אהבה באה. there are tons of words in hebrew and you have to learn which words are male and which words are female to know if to say בא or באה.
Same thing and even easier with people. When its a woman coming youd say אישה (woman) באה (a woman is coming)
And when its a man you'd say איש בא (man is coming)
Its with other words to. For example, יפה (pretty)
a man is יפה (yafe) a woman is יפה (yafa)
Colors also. For example, red. (אדום adom)
the table (a male word) is אדום the box (קופסא, a female word) is אדומה
"Love is coming" --said no one ever in any language. What the hell kind of retarded sentence is this?
It's a way of getting you to learn the letters in an easy to remember way.
Think of it as poetry - e.g. U2 - When Love Comes to Town
Bull! You can learn an alphabet by much more valuable means, such as an alphabet song, or diagrams, or even words that start with each of the letters, instead of having to memorize sentences or phrases that you will almost with certainty never use in an actual conversation. "Love is coming" teaches me nothing, except how to waste everyone's precious time with empty, scripted mismatch of words.
If it doesn't work for you, that's fine - find another way to learn it. No-one is forcing you to use Duo.
As for words starting with each of the letters, that's not going to work 100% as some letters change depending on their position in the word.
IT'S BACKWARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!! But at least it isn't completely backwards like Japanese.
I love how Duolingo's very first step in learning Hebrew is to learn to say "love is coming" - deep
They're teaching us a few letters at a time. This is what they could cobble together from that limited subset.
That's what these initial lessons are teaching. Be sure to read the tips and notes before diving into the quizzes. Also, what do you mean "hebrew letters in English"?
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I imagine SmileAlway9 meant s/he wanted the Hebrew transliterated into the Roman alphabet, no?
Welcome to Duolingo. These sentence discussions are for learners to help each other with the lessons. This is not a social forum.
You haven't replied to anyone, so I don't have the context for your comment. In what way do you think Hebrew is like German? Because there are some fundamental ways in which they are very, very different.
I presume Quinny2006 is replying to the first comment of the discussion, by EpicPowerHero. There seems to be some app for accessing Duolingo which only allows the user to see the first comment on a sentence, and not any subsequent replies or comments. It seems to lead to a lot of misunderstandings!
Does that app also prevent people from replying directly to a comment, forcing them to make a top-level comment?
I'm struggling with the Android app myself. I type out a comment, and it won't post! (I'm on my computer right now.)
I'm not sure whether it is possible for them to make a reply, as such. But since they cannot see any replies themselves, they are completely unaware of the true structure of a page like this. They see the sentence, and a comment asking a question about it - so they reply by commenting themselves. I have seen one person specifically comment that they cannot make replies (in explaining why they would not be able to respond to anyone who replied to their own, top-level, comment), so I think that it may be so.
For myself, when I access Duolingo via the Windows phone app, I have access to neither the discussion boards nor the "Notes and Tips"! (needless to say, I am currently on a computer...)
Yep. If you realise that you are getting a cutdown version, you can access Duolingo via the browser, which gives a bit more functionality. But the worst of it is, there is no indication that you are not getting the full facility - I suspect that a lot of the angry, frustrated comments on Hebrew come from app users with no idea that the Tips and Notes exist!
However, yedish , not hebrew is a language between the two languages hebreu and german
No. Yiddish is entirely a Germanic language. It is written using the Hebrew alphabet, and some Yiddish speakers might include some Hebrew loanwords, but that in no way makes the language "between Hebrew and German".
La, Elham. I think its grammar isn't far from Arabic, differs but still not far. Maybe we should also try to check the original Hebrew sounds (like 'ain.. qaf). For now, I'm ok with this. Enjoy learning it.
yo escribo las palabras en español y sale malo porqe debe ser en ingles y nose nada de ingles y necesito qe se pueda escribir la respuesta en español
Por supuesto que quiere las respuestas en inglés. Esta es la lección de inglés a hebreo, no la lección de español a hebreo. No tienen español al hebreo todavía.
Cool course not a fan of the flag and country because I support Palestine but the language is very interesting! (though duo doesn't have the sound for all the words yet)
Well, I support sharia laws and Muslim independence in those European towns with Muslim majority (several are on the way), but what does my political opinion, or yours, has to do with a language learning. I think we all better keep our political opinions to political oriented forums.
