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- "אין לנו שום חיות."
"אין לנו שום חיות."
Translation:We have no animals.
June 26, 2016
12 Comments
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".
BezalelP
1931
BTW, the word כלום also means both "something" and "nothing", now try to explain what you mean when you say שום כלום :P