"מים טעימים."

Translation: Tasty water.

[KarpAdrian]

Please explain why is there "מים טעימים." and why is incorrect "מים טעים"?

[misterram]

In Hebrew water (מים) is considered plural

[skimber5]

Words that end in -ayim used to be dual (in contrast to singular or plural, for two things) and take plural adjectives. Hebrew doesn't have proper dual words anymore, but historically-dual words still agree with plural words.

[martino464996]

And now my question is: why was water even dual in the first place?!

[Tielbert]

Because it comprises oxygen and hydrogen :)))

[Marc383010]

I'm guessing it has to do with creation in genesis.

[BradyPostma]

I can see that. The Lord divided the waters. As they are divided than they are also plural.

[YardenNB]

I wonder if it's well-established that it was ever dual (indeed strange!), rather than plural that happened to look like dual (makes just a bit more sense), or even singular (that happened to look like plural/dual, and hence people started to pluralize adjectives and verbs that attach to it.)

[Silsool]

how would you say "water is tasty"?

[cyanivde]

I would say "מים זה טעים" or "מים הם טעימים".

[flootzavut]

I came here with the same question! :)

[750.aBN79NyO3ET2]

My favorite jewish cuisine.

[Texanberg]

מים

has been present since early on this course and thought nothing more of it. Now that I learning adjectives declension: wether plural, singular, for males or females gender words. And I saw water followed by the plural adjective:

טעימים

I recognized the ending as a plural male word. "A lightbulb went on inside my head" and I saw...water is plural in Hebrew! Waters? ¿Aguas?

I wrote: "tasty waters" thinking also in Spanish "aguas deliciosas"

But sadly my answer was marked wrong!

Live and learn.

The water is an unusual word in Spanish.

El agua. The plural form: Las aguas.

This happens because otherwise we will have a "glotal" stop. Thus, el agua sounds better.

We will say: ¡El agua es fría y deliciosa!
The water is cold and delicious!

Notice the singular female declension of the adjective despite the "male" definitive article.

But I have lost myself in a happy tangent of the world of languages...

Now...I would like to drink some tasty water... ;)

[Melanie109207]

Have you ever tried distilled water? Tasteless and disgusting. If the minerals are missing or off balance, water doesn't taste good. Of course water can be tasty!

[danny912421]

máyim te'imím.

[justeturki]

Why add ים to taste

the ים for The masculine plural

[flootzavut]

Because in Hebrew, water is plural.

[FlorenceAvalos]

I wrote a delicious water and it was marked incorrect

[flootzavut]

That doesn't make sense in English.

[AaronBuckley0]

I thought water was supposed to be flavorless.

[leysont]

Not in Israel

[tre_mojosa]

Tastes like 6000 years of beautiful tradition.

[ranb5]

You're invited to Israel to taste our water here (and at the same time - try the Israeli Cottage cheese... ;-)

[MorlandLaura]

Oh, my goodness, you have cottage cheese in Israel? I'm an American living in France since December 2019, and I miss cottage cheese so much!

I admit that I didn't pay attention to the taste of the water in Israel -- I was just so happy to have chilled water of any kind when hiking in the desert. On my next trip, I'll pay more attention.

[C.Albuquerque.S]

I automatically though: Wow, how does a tasty water tastes like?

[SaloOom.yag]

it sound like ( tehemim ) not (te'emim )

[Myer.green]

Google translates the Hebrew phrase as " water is tasty" but DL has marked it WRONG

[flootzavut]

If you believe you've been marked wrong in error, you should report it as an alternate translation. However, it is very unwise to rely on Google translate for translations into your target language.

(I think the correct Hebrew translation of that phrase would be מים הם טעימים, but I'm not a native and my Hebrew is very out of practice.)

[Vered898883]

Can't you accept "water is tasty"?

[danny912421]

That would be מים הם טעימים.

[Federica850740]

but why? there is no need of copula here, right? because noun+adjective don't need a verb...

[danny912421]

Copula is not needed when the noun is definite, but it is needed when the noun is indefinite. It is needed to make a difference between various meanings. Here is how all those examples would look like:

מים טעימים - tasty water

מים הם טעימים - water is tasty

המים טעימים - the water is tasty

המים הטעימים - the tasty water

So, copula and the definite article change the meaning. That is why it is important to learn how to use them properly.

[Federica850740]

thank you!!!

[Abd_Nd]

There is no tast for water

[Sof533791]

Why is "water is tasty" wrong here?

[danny912421]

Sof, there are already several posts in here that explain why that is wrong. Please, look around.

Water is tasty would be מים הם טעימים.