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- "שלום, קוראים לי יוסי."
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Why is "I am called Yossi" counted as incorrect? That's the closest English equivalent beside the quite literal "They call me Yossi"
"I am called" is incorrect, because that would translate to אני נקרא or אני קרוי (which nobody uses to introduce themselves). If you want to translate קוראים לי literally you should write "they call me", though that sounds weird. But קוראים לי is really one of those phrases that no longer has much to do with the literal meaning. It just means "my name is".
Well, "I am called" isn't incorrect, it's just not literal. A lot of colloquialisms are better translated non-literally, as the literal translation would sound off or be completely meaningless in another language. Granting "They call me..." Doesn't sound that weird in English. It's used in movies by rough, mysterious figures.
Hello, my name is Yossi. - that would translate: שלום, שמי יוסי
שלום, קוראים לי יוסי - this can not be translated literally in English--> "hello …. calls me yossi" / in Dutch one would translate: "hallo MEN noemt mij yossi".
English does not have a word for "men" (as in Dutch).
I think "I am called Yossi" comes closer than: "Hello, my name is Yossi"
and I think that both of them should be approved
because both translations are a bit "unlike", which can not be otherwise because it can not be translated literally.
"I am called Yossi" is not idiomatic as an introduction. We'd say "Hello, I'm Yossi.", "Hello, my name is Yossi."
It depends. The original translation was "קראו לי ישמעאל" using the imperative - "kir'u li Yishma'el". The new translation is "קוראים לי ישמעאל".
An interesting alteration. The original English is an imperative and immediately suggests an ambiguity about the character, questioning whether it is his real name, and why he refers to himself by that. It also connects the reader to the biblical character. The new translation קוראים לי ישמעאל changes the intent of the opening line. Instead of having the narrator say "Call me Ishmael", casting himself into the story, he now says "They call me Ishmael", suggesting that others interpret him as such, but that he sees himself as distanced from such. I wonder why they changed the translation, and who authorized it. Ishmael's role in Moby Dick is central, as narrator and as contrast with Ahab. Just as Ishmael plays an important role in contrast with Isaac, Abraham's second son. But, that's a whole nuther story.
You are right. For example, "קוראים לי ספר" would be understood as "they read a book to me" and not as "my name is a book" (notice the form מקריאים would sound better in this case).
Not only does מקריאים לי sound better, it's the right way to say it. קוראים לי is incorrect, although people say it pretty often. If someone is reading to you, you have to use מקריאים. So קוראים לי can only be "[They] call me" (or "my name is").
Could one say שמה לי יוסי (don't know how to spell it properly) to literally mean "my name is"? Would that be a correct expression? In many languages these both forms are equally accepted (e.g. 'me llamo Yosi' and 'mi nombre es Yosi' in Spanish).
In Spanish "Me llama Yosi" means "Yosi calls me". Maybe this was a typo for "Me llamo Yosi" (literally "I call myself Yossi", but meaning "My name is Yossi") or, as you correctly pointed out, "Mi nombre es Yosi," which is much more formal. In Hebrew, you could say "Sh'mi Yossi" (Meaning "My name is Yossi") or "Korim li Yossi" (literally "They call me Yossi", but meaning "My name is Yossi.") I don't know enough Hebrew to know if one is more formal than the other. "Hashem sheli Yossi" (literally " The name of me is Yossi", is technically correct, but I don't think anybody would say that.)
Thanks again. Yes, it was definitely a typo in my Spanish - it should've been me llamO. I corrected my post.
You can say either שמי or שמ שלי, but watch out that you don't say שמה לי, but I'm just going to assume that was a typo
Thank you Yitzhak. It wasn't a typo, I just don't know how to write or say it correctly. Yet... :-). So, the two options are "shmi" or "shem sheli", if I am reading it correctly, right? And what I wrote above - what does it mean?
Can anyone tell me why 'Yossi' - spelt with double 's' in English , is spelt יוסי, with one 's' only in Hebrew?
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I'm not sure there is an official reason but double "s" is a thing in the English language (plus, the English pronunciation is Yos-si), but double samechs (סס) is not a thing at all.
With proper nouns, there aren't really steadfast rules.
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I think because in English, a single letter "s" between two vowels is often pronounced as "z", like in "rose", or in the full name "Joseph" so to avoid ambiguity, it's spelled with double s.
On other occasions, double letters in English are used when a letter has a dagesh in Hebrew, like שבת, which is transliterated as "shabbat".
"Hello, my name is... My name is... My name is... Yossi!" Music helps with remembering sentences ;-)
