"לדבורה יש זנב?"
Translation:Does the bee have a tail?
39 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
The ה is implied by the vocalization "lah-d'vorah". If it had been pronounced "l'd'vorah" where the vowel in the ל's syllable was very short (?), it would mean 'a bee' as opposed to "la-d'vorah" which means 'the bee'. Sorry, I can't type vowels and I don't really know how to talk about them in English, but I hope you get what I mean.
158
I believe it's because of the grammatical structure of 'to have'. It might have looked more accurate if it was 'יש לדבורה. After יש you need the ל.
1531
The same reason as giving them a name after animals like Raven, Lark, Robin, Kitty, Buck, Leo(n) in English. Or after plants, like Olive, Rosemary, Ginger, Jasmine, Daisy and many, many more. Some cultures have more of those, and some have less. I'd say both Hebrew and English are high on that spectrum.
I've never heard bees being associated with being stingy, just diligent.
382
it may be that way round to put the emphasis on the bee (as distinct from another animal)
163
This is a learning process. Sometimes we learn from being told what a word means; sometimes we learn from figuring out the meaning from the options presented to us. And sometimes we learn by making an error, seeing the correction, and getting it right the next time. It's all good.
163
Between our sentence "Does the bee have a tail?" and your sentence "Does a bee have a tail?" the only difference is the first vowel, which we hear in the audio as "LaDvorah" (instead of "LiDvorah" or "LeDvorah"). Without audio, we would need context or nikkud to make the distinction.
1258
In affirmative sentences you have "has", which becomes "have" in both interrogative and negation sentences.
"The bee has", but "the bee doesn't have" and "does the bee have?"
1258
Does the bee... - yesh la-dvora...
Does a bee... - yesh li-dvora... (or colloquially le-dvora)
Audio says LA.
1258
There is no "to have" in Hebrew, so they use יש ל construct, where ל is attached to a pronoun or a noun. לדבורה יש = the bee has (literally there is to the bee). It could have also been יש לדבורה. When you have a pronoun, usually יש comes first and when you have a noun, usually ל comes first. The other word order is possible, but changes the emphasis.