"יש להם פחות דבש מהדובים."
Translation:They have less honey than the bears.
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I couldn't make out the "hadovim". It sounded like "hadudim" or "hadugim" to me.
I don't understand why it is not they have less honey than bears. I got it right because of the meaning. But how do you say: They have less apples than oranges, and They have less apples than the children? I would really like to see the difference. Toda
Well, מֵהַדֻּבִּים essentially only means in comparison to the bears, but as דְּבַשׁ honey is indefinite, you compare the bears to the possessors. But even in English יֵשׁ לָהֶם פָּחוֹת תַּפּוּחִים מִילָדִים they have less apples than children could mean two things. You could reformulate is as יֵשׁ לָהֶם פָּחוֹת תַּפּוּחִים מֵאֲשֶׁר יֵשׁ לִילָדִים they have less apples than children have, if you compare their apples to the medium amount of apples children have generally, or יֵשׁ לָהֶם פָּחוֹת תַּפּוּחִים מֵאֲשֶׁר יֵשׁ לַהֶם יְלָדִים they have less apples than they have children, if you compare the amount of their apples to the amount of their children.
In addition to what IngeborgHa14 said, I would like to point out that, in proper English, the word “fewer” is used instead of “less” for comparing the numbers of countable objects (They have fewer apples than oranges and They have fewer apples than the children [do/have]). Also, if the number of fruit is compared with the number of children, the idea is more likely to be expressed as follows: There aren’t enough apples for the children.
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For example, they have less honey that comes from the bears than honey that comes from the shop? I would say the same, יש להם פחות דבש מהדובים. If I felt that this sentence was ambiguous, I would say יש להם פחות דבש מאשר לדובים or יש להם פחות דבש ממה שיש לדובים to make it definitely "less than the bears". But... for some reason I don't feel that it's ambiguous. :-)
Thank you. My question really was about how to distinguish between MI(M) meaning "than" and MI(M) meaning "from". For that matter it could be "less honey from the bees" (there is more logic to it), meaning, for example, "less than before".
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You're right, it's the same preposition - מ is from, but פחות מ/יותר מ means less / more than. I think some Hebrew-speaking English learners can be heard to say "less from" at first. It's just that a sentence like "they have less something from someone or somewhere" needs some context to make sense. Thinking of a way to demonstrate it: "this pizza is not so much from the oven, it's more from the microwave". הפיצה הזאת היא פחות מהתנור ויותר מהמיקרוגל.
Why sometimes bear is "dov" and the plural forme here was "dobin"? I've noticed that words which has the letters "ב,כ" kaf/ckaf. bet/vet changes when it is whithin a phrase. explain that people who know.
Well, the word דֹּב is formed from a root דבב "to move gently, to walk softly". The word for bear was originally formed -דֻבּ DUBB- with endings, so that you could hear a [b]. In the plural this form continues. But as the singular lost its case edings, the double BB was reduced to a single B, which meant phonologically a [v], but the vowel was lowered (and originally lenghtened) as a compensation from [u] to [o], producing the new singular דֹּב.
Thank you, but Could you plz give me some few examples with another word?/for exemplo: We have the word עכביש where in it's plural form I've heard עכבישים(Ackvishim) so , the caf turned into ckaf, is there a sense for this? When it usually happens? Can I keep speaking "akavishim, Dovim", or do I have to changes my mind about it?
Well, I think in English people would understand "childs and "mouses" as well, but would recognise that you made an error. The reason, עַכָּבִישׁ changes in the plural is, that the syllable [ka] is no longer pretonic, but shifted one syllable more away from the stressed syllable. In this case Hebrew has a tendency to shorten it. Sometimes there even happens a resyllabification, so that a syllable is lost, like in עִפָּרוֹן [iparon] pencil, which has the plural עֶפְרוֹנִים [efronim], with the same change of the plosive [p] to the fricative [f].