"לדבורה יש זנב?"
Translation:Does the bee have a tail?
39 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
With the prepositions ל and ב, when they are followed by the definite article, the ה is absorbed and leaves it's nikkud, לְהַדבורה becomes לַדבורה.
I get that, but would the question be any different had it been הדבורה instead of the ל preposition? Does it add anything new in this instance?
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.
"Does a bee have a tail" is also an accepted translation, as there is no way to tell which is meant without the vowels.
That was an accepted answer when I got this sentence without audio. I've since had it with a sound recording and you can hear lahdvorah so it's supposed to be the bee.
Although this sentence means "does the bee have a tail?" the literal meaning of the sentence is "Is there a tail to the bee?" 'יש' meaning "is there" and "לדבורה" meaning "to the bee". If we omit the "-ל", it will just be "the bee", and the sentence will not make sense.
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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.
If that's no personal pronoun we must use ל with noun or name "I have", "she has" etc. start like יש לי, יש לה etc. cuz these are personal pronouns. But if ..cat has, bee has etc..always לדבורה יש. Sorry in advance if i explain with mistakes I am not english speaker.
kind of the translation :) it's the hebrew form of Deborah, Devorah, Dvorah etc. it's all the same name, only it's with hebrew letters
Why would people call their daughter "bee"? Is it associated with industriousness? Or does it carry a different connotation? In English you might associate a stingy person ;p
- 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.
Why does the יש go after the subject noun here? I thought יש had to come first?
- 382
it may be that way round to put the emphasis on the bee (as distinct from another animal)
Alot of times i dont know the english or hebrew word but when i see the options below i remember it. Should i still write the correct answer?
- 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.
I think your question was "Is it correct to choose a word provided in the options of a word which I do not remember/know ? " ?
I think not (if this is what you meant) because all the options under the word are correct synonyms, but not all can correctly fit into the context of the sentence.
So how do i say "does bee have a tail?" without referring the spesific "(the) bee"? Or is it impossible to say that both in hebrew and in English?
- 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.
You could say "does a bee have a tail?" or you could say more generally "do bees have tails?"
bee IS SINGULAR, HENCE THE ANSWER must be "has" and not "have" "bees have" "bee has"
But this is a question, where the rules for 'has' and 'have' change. 'Have' is the correct word here.
whats this rule about?, sorry im not a native english speaker so im confused , i though it would be has too
- 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?"
Why "the" bee? I would expect "hey" before lamed dalet, no?
I put "does a bee have tail" (I wanted to put "a tail" at the end, but there was only one "a" in the word bank), so I got it wrong.
I typed the word "tail" three separate tries, but it disappeared each time.
I am dutch and made the mistake has in stead of have and that cost me a heart....not okay for I learn hebrew not english
- 1258
Does the bee... - yesh la-dvora...
Does a bee... - yesh li-dvora... (or colloquially le-dvora)
Audio says LA.
I dont think we otherwise had the lamed before a noun at the start of a sentence so would someone please explain this. Todah.
- 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.