"A mouse is an animal."
Translation:עכבר זה חיה.
11 Comments
What role does זה play here? Because I would have assumed, based on what I know of the "to be" verb in Hebrew, that עכבר חיה would have been sufficient: A mouse [is] an animal.
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Since both עכבר and חיה are nouns you must use one of the words "זה" or "הוא" as a "verb-like" word (It is called "Copula", in Hebrew אוגד).
Well, the verb אָגַד tie up is not used in Modern Hebrew except maybe in poetry, so אוֹגֵד is restricted to its use as a grammatical technical term.
Can we use both זה and הוא here? Do they have any difference in such sentences?
I would think the use of זֶה makes it more of a definition, like "Can you define, what a mouse is? Yes, a mouse, that is an animal". On the other hand הוּא is a simple statement, like a mouse is brown or a mouse has whiskers, whiskers and brownness do not define a mouse.
Well, בַּ֫עַל־חַיִים ("owner of life") is correct too, only less used for animal.
