"שברי את הטלוויזיה ובואי נלך לישון!"
Translation:Break the TV and let's go to sleep!
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Thanks, Dov, that makes sense of the pronunciation, but potentially creates a different problem, namely that you can tell someone to "smash the television", but telling them to "break the television" is not a proper use of the verb "break" (or לשבור). So I had assumed that the pi'el verb was correct.
You can say that someone "has broken the television" by pressing buttons or turning knobs, or by trying to fix a minor problem by tampering with the wiring only to put the set completely out of order. But the actual breaking here is the inadvertent result of other actions.
You can also deliberately break a simple object, such as a plate or a glass (like waiters at some Greek restaurants to attract customers). But a television is a large and complex device, and you can't "break" it in this sense, any more than you can deliberately "break" a car.
My dictionary of first recourse (the Prolog dictionary app) agrees with you that לשבור is simply "to break". But before writing off the Duolingo sentence as just another of their misjudgements, I decided to check pealim.com, and found that although "smash" is the first listed meaning for the pi'el verb, it is also on the list of meanings for the pa'al verb ("break" is first on that list).
Interesting point! I hadn't considered it in such depth, but what you say makes sense.
Of course the deliberate breaking of a glass is not just a Greek thing, it's a well-known custom at Jewish weddings; but I can't remember that I've ever heard it described in Hebrew and so I can't comment on which binyan of the verb is used. No doubt someone in this forum can tell us.
2695
No kidding! Seriously, is this the Hebrew equivalent of "Turn off the TV" or is there some other expression like "כבה את הטלויזיה"? Thanks.
2695
Thanks for the additional clarification. When I go over the various pronouns again I will make sure to come back to this!
1638
Well, it says "let's go to sleep" not "come to sleep." "Come to sleep" is what you'd say if you were already in bed and calling somebody in, for example. It's not necessarily the exact same thing.