"אין לנו שום חיות."

Translation: We have no animals.

[whyhoffman]

Why doesn't the translation "We don't have any animals" work?

[JamieWeisbach]

That's what I wrote too and it marked it wrong as well... I reported it, so I guess we'll see what they say.
I'm almost certain it's correct.

[Djekki]

What does this literally mean? There is no to us שום animals. I can't get the שום exactly.

[Walrosse]

It's quite funny because the word "שום" hast two meanings which are opposites. It can mean nothing, but it can also mean something, which is rarely used (mostly in literature). In spoken Hebrew it just comes for emphasis, exactly like the words "no" or "any" in English

In this case, since we use double negation in Hebrew for a negative sentence this sentence literally means: "We don't have no animals". Which will be translated as: "We don't have any animals / we have no animals".

[Djekki]

thank you for a rapid answer! Can you tell me also how it is pronounced? Shom hiot ? Sum khaot?

[Pumbush]

Shoom Ha-yot

[AlmogL]

Walrosse, can you give an example of where שום is used in the sense of something? I don't think I knew that.

[BezalelP]

BTW, the word כלום also means both "something" and "nothing", now try to explain what you mean when you say שום כלום :P

[Walrosse]

Like I said, this meaning is not really used anymore and has more literature relevance.

It can be used instead of why to indicate a purpose or a reasoning for something: "על שום מה"

[AlmogL]

Thanks! Interesting, I'll look it up.

[xnaut]

And how is שום חיות pronounced? I haven't encountered the word for animals ever until now, and this lesson is a review one...

[BezalelP]

shum chayot