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- "A tomato is not a strawberry…
"A tomato is not a strawberry!"
Translation:עגבנייה זה לא תות!
74 Comments
When you're equating a noun to a noun. To be more "correct", you would use זאת or היא in this sentence, since עגבנייה is feminine, but Hebrew speakers often use זה regardless of the gender.
Was wondering why using זה is correct in this sentence. You've answered my query, thank you.
Although this structure is new to me, I believe what is meant is a copula. A copula "couples" two things together. In English, "to be" serves as the copula. "A strawberry is a fruit." "A tomato is a fruit." "A tomato is not a strawberry."
This is equating a noun with a noun. Most verbs indicate some kind of action, but the copula further defines the first noun.
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Two reasons: 1) you are using the word for olive rather than tomato, and 2) your sentence is "this is an olive; this is not a strawberry" (or possibly "it's an olive; it's not a strawberry"), so the grammatical structure is different: your subject is this/it rather than olive/tomato.
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It also further defines the second noun as it states that you won't find tomatoes among the strawberries. (June 2020)
Yes! This structure can be referred to as a "Subject Complement" as it uses the COPULA "to be" as the main verb: 1. Copula links noun (subject of sentence) to NOUN: A strawberry is a fruit. תות זה פרי OR 2. Copula links noun (subject of sentence) to ADJECTIVE: A strawberry is tasty. תות זה טעים
In Ulpan we learned that this is something called an אוגד...it's pretty confusing. I don't really remember anything more than the name, but it's basically a way to break the sentence up if you're about to say something confusing about the thing before the "זה". Like a dash (--) in english.
Without the word זה,the sentece would say, "A tomato, no strawberry". With the זה, the sentence compares/couples the two together: "A tomato, (it) is not a strawberry".
In this type of sentence, the זה has a similar role to the be verb "is", although it is not a verb. You can say: עגבניה זה לא תות or עגבניה היא לא תות.
If I understand this correctly זה has the same gender as the noun after זה. But היא refers to the first noun. Is this assumption correct regarding Hebrew copulas?
זה means this Ie this is. זה לא means this is not or it is not. If you would say עגבניה לא תות, you would be saying "a tomato, not a strawberry". Because you would like to say "a tomato IS NOT A strawberry" you would have to insert a pronoun (and the word "not"). Since Hebrew labels items as male or female, you can use the word "she"/היא (because tomato is female) or "it"(f)/זאת. While the female version is more grammatically correct, in spoken Hebrew the word "it"(m)/זה is used.
YES. And WHY. Please. I know some arabic, which helps me wit the grammar, but this is a little confusing without a go to rule. The rule I can make is if I am comparing a noun, I need to use the appropriate 3rd person pronoun, or זה before making the comparison. Why>>>>>>
That was actually my first reply, but that was said to be incorrect as well. When I used what was said to be the right answer, that was when it was the incorrect phrase.
I am level 17. I have a 146 day streak. I don't know how high the levels go.
My first time. I was fine until I got to "there is" and I had problems. Someone told me that I had to understand לי, לך, לו, לה or I would never get the rest. Took awhile to get past that. Now the clothing is where I am stuck.
Oh, you mean the various clothing verbs like חובש, נועל, גורב, עונד, etc? They're tricky at first but if you practice them outside the app, in front of the mirror or walking around literally talking to yourself, you'll get it
There is an article and (it also links to a Memrise course on "wearing" verbs) @ https://www.pealim.com/articles/how-to-dress-in-hebrew/
The levels go up to 25. The crowns go up (for this course) to 420. There are 446 lessons in 84 skills (as of 8 August 2019).
You can see how far you've gotten @ https://duome.eu/USERNAME/progress Replace your username where USERNAME is for information on your progress & the tips & notes.
i used זו and got it autocorrected even though my grammar's right. Hebrew is my native language, so I know for sure that you can use זו or זאת when referring to a feminine object. Guys, you shouldn't use זה because it isn't correct even though it might sound better. Weird...
I thought a תות is a berry... any berry. Is תות שדה not used for "strawberry"?
You are correct. As explained to me, the "default" berry in hebrew is just understood to be the strawberry, by convention. (Amusingly, a tomato is, in fact, a berry, horticulturally speaking.)
And ironically, strawberries (and raspberries) are not berries, horticulturally speaking. :)
It should be אינה because it's feminine. But note that it's very formal. It might raise an eyebrow if you say it in a shouq for example.
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If עגבנייה is feminine then does that mean i could say עגבניה זאת לא תות instead of עגבניה זה לא תות
Formal as in business or as used fine dining & in writing but not a text message? Is it old fashioned אינו etc.? It seems useful instead of ze lo.
Formal like business or writing? Or is there another version for Hebrew, like formal language like writing out cannot instead of can't? Can you give your take for tomato having two yuds. I noticed you used two before, I can't discern a pattern in the difference. I tried searching with no success.
Very formal. Used in scholarly articles for example. Tomato can have one or two yuds.
The word order is wrong. Also, technically it should be זאת not זה because עגבנייה is feminine:
עגבנייה זאת לא תות
That is what I thought also. That זה refers to the second noun and that היא refers to the first noun. Correct me if I'm wrong.
but i thought in hebrew the לא comes before the verb, and זאת in this case acts as the verb to be
It functions as a copula here so it could be argued that it is in this context.
All "to be" verbs might be copula but not all copula words might be verbs...I think
Think of it, as if it were French. Use c'est/ce sont when the object is a noun, but il/elle est when referring to adjectives.
I wrote this עגבנייה זה לא תות! and was told I was wrong. The correct answer was said to be: עגבניה אינה תות, which included, אינה which has not even been covered, to the best of my knowledge. when I used what it said was the correct solution, it told me: "Another correct solution: "עגבנייה זה לא תות!
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There are a lot of problems with this. Whatever current Israeli mangling of the language I would hope that Duolingo would stick to proper grammatical Hebrew. עגבנייה is feminine. My suggestions are עגבנייה זאת לא תות Or עגבנייה איננה תות
There was a sinikar sentence which used היא before לא. Why now use זה? In particular, there is a discrepancy between genders; tomato is a feminine noun. Are היא and זה interchangeable? Is זה colloquial, and proper form זאת?
So, recently, in the grammar, words like, "האם" "זה" "את" "הוא" etc., are added to identify the noun or give some kind of emphasis (האם) with the words this or that. How do I know when to insert them into the sentence? I thought I could just write, "עגבנייה לא תות" but is was wrong and I needed the "זה, this" to translate it properly. How do I distinguish when to do this, and how to do it properly?
I think I have been seeing both עגבנייה and עגבניה to mean "tomato." Is one of these correct and the other is incorrect, or do they have different uses?
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The word is correctly spelled with one yod. When writing without vowels they will sometimes put in the extra yod to let you know that the word has a nee sound (the first yod) followed by a ya sound (the second yod). It's called מלא, full, meaning they write it out in full for some confusing situations.
I used זאת instead of זה and it counted it correct. It had an alternative solution that was זה . How can both be correct
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Please see airelibre's (moderator and contributor to the course) comment at the top of this long discussion. It notes that while it is technically more correct to use זאת or היא because עגבנייה is feminine, "Hebrew speakers often use זה regardless of the gender." So both are not strictly correct, but they are apparently considered acceptable.
There are things like this in English, too, such as the singular "data" and "that's me".
I do not know cause the sound parts of the lesson have worked every time for me
That's because you said 'he' instead of 'she'. In one way you're lucky it passed you, but if it hadn't it would probably stick in your head more that tomatoes are feminine, not masculine.
The English did not say "this" anywhere. Why does the answer insist on "זה"?
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Please read the whole page--this is discussed and answered. It's used in this particular type of grammatical construction.
