"I do eat bread."
Translation:אני כן אוכל לחם.
50 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
I have the same question! Did you get an answer... It should just be, "i eat bread" i thought...
I'd say that it is to show us that the word for 'yes' also is used for 'do' in an active positive confirmation of something. Think 'I do believe in fairies' from Peter Pan.
seems to be similar to spanish structure, do might be translated as "si" afirmation.
Just adding that you can use the word אַכֵן (indeed) instead, for a closer translation, but It might sound a bit archaic
I live in Israel and speak hebrew daily and I dont think I have ever hear it said like that. It would be כן אני אוכל לחם. But not this.
1696
I see everybody is upvoting pesach9 and commenting in his support. But he is wrong. He said - "I don't think I have ever heard it said like that". If he hasn't heard it, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
This sentence is correct! The כן is used for emphasis, like "do" in the English sentence. In a parallel discussion to this one, a Hebrew native speaker confirmed that this is indeed correct phrasing.
- 315
By suggesting that "כן אני אוכל לחם" and "אני כן אוכל לחם" are equivalent (or that only the former is correct), pesach9 shows the basic confusion about this exercise. Although both sentences assert the same fact, they work as replies for two different situations.
~ If asked "Do you eat bread?", one may answer "כן אני אוכל לחם" "Yes I eat bread". This is a simple answer to a routine inquiry.
~ If told "You don't eat bread!", one may say "אני כן אוכל לחם" "I DO eat bread!". This is an emphatic correction of a rejected assertion.
b201 rich739183
I totally agree, I've never heard it that way ever. I understand Hebrew for a 5 year old because my parents spoke it at home until I was 5 and what you say is familiar but for כן to be in the middle of a sentence like that, it just doesn't sound or feel correct!
I don't speak hebrew fluently but this sentence sounded off where the כן was placed.
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To say "I do..." something, translating word for word, would that always be "I yes..." whatever? "I yes eat bread." ??
that reminds me of my favorite palindrome:
go hang a salami im a lasagna hog
I guess the use of the word כן here has the same nuance it has for us in Spanish. In a context where most of people around me do not eat bread or someone is implying that no one present eats bread I would say "Yo sí como pan." In other words, that amongst all the people in the group where the conversation is taking place (even if it is only two people) I emphasize that unlike the others, I DO eat bread.
In arabic
انا فعلا آكل الخبزmean
I really eat read
Or
نعم انا آكل الخنزير
Mean
Yes i eat pork
How to know when not to include it? Is it, only when you want to say yes but aren't allowed to? That'd be odd, when wouldn't you just say, I eat bread.. Or yes I eat bread. Or, that's true.
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I think the sentence presumes there is a question, do you eat bread?.. i do (yes) eat bread.
I'd say that it is to show us that the word for 'yes' also is used for 'do' in an active positive confirmation of something. Think "I do believe in fairies" from Peter Pan.
- 1470
אני כן אוכלת לחם I have been told that there is a typo in this but, being female, I have used the feminine ending, so why is this regarded as a typo? It makes sense for me to learn to use the appropriate ending?Perhaps just an error as I have chosen to type the feminine verb ending before and not been told there was a typo?
What you have looks right to me (but I am not a native speaker either). Try flagging it - sometimes DL develops glitches.
Responding with, Yes I do eat bread. Is a grammatically structured sentence Why is it incorrect?
Where does the כן come from. I believe it is an error . It is not a question . I do not think that this is the right way to translate a normal phrase
It is used as emphasis. There are some other comments in this thread that explain it well.
- 1426
Presumably, you wanted to write אני לאכול לחם. Yes, this is wrong. After a pronoun, you can't have the verb in infinitive (לאכול). If it's present tense, like in this example, it needs to be either אוכל if it's a man speaking or אוכלת if it's a woman speaking.
My question is this: am i supposed to know it was a man talking? I put in the feminine answer and it says it was supposed to be masculine.
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If it doesn't specify if it's a male or female speaking, I have always seen it take either. Perhaps you made another error.
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If you submit אני כן אוכלת לחם and it's rejected, please use the flag/report button to notify the developers that your answer should be accepted. There is no guarantee when or if they'll fix it, though, especially with all the other issues.
Of course, if you get a "Type what you hear" exercise, then you don't get to choose the gender.
b201 rich739183
Sorry, I didn't understand your arguments. I also do not would use do in English what should the do mean?! I am a German native speaker an I don't understand it. If I use the exact English words (with do) to translate it to Hebrew I see the ken but it makes no sense for me if I translate the excat English to German there is no difference to the same words without a do - so in the back translation the do is missing and when I translate this text from the back translation or if I use German there is no ken in the Hebrew. So sorry but your explanations makes no sense to me I don't understand it, sorry. Maybe here is a German that can explain it to me. I can try to ask my wife, she speaks German, English and Hebrew (German and Hebrew native) but she has dyslexia so I think she cannot explain it.
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There isn't a direct translation into German. The closest to it would be using "doch". Imagine this exchange:
A: Isst du kein Brot? = אתה לא אוכל לחם? = Don't you eat bread? B: Doch, ich esse Brot! = אני כן אוכל לחם! = I do eat bread!
The word כן here is used to disprove the previous negative statement. The same goes for the English "do".