16 Comments
The verb generally means wasting.
The dictionary gives "spending" since it's sometimes used in context of (generously) spending money.
You waste water and spend money in English, this is a meaningless translation. Can you use this verb to spend money and spend time? Also in English spending money is different from wasting money, spending time is different from wasting time, is it the same in Hebrew?
Hebrew doesn't really have a verb for spending. It would use to use, put out, or other alternatives.
The verb לבזבז means to waste, though it might be used in a taunting way on someone spending too much (in the speakers opinion).
English has similar uses and/or metaphorical extensions with expressions such as "waste", "squander", "throw away", and "blow" (e.g., money).
http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/squander?s=t http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/waste
Would like an explanation as to when to include את. Before certain words such as זה I've cottoned on to, other than that I use it rather randomly. It doesn't help when the speaker includes it and then marks it wrong when I do
It indicates that the next word will be a direct object (the person or thing that's receiving the action). If we were to do the same thing in English, it would look like this: "The cat drank [את] the milk" or "The boy hit [את] the ball" or "The child wasted [את] his allowance."
307
In this case, it came before "כל" because technically, "כל" is the object in this sentence. It is a noun in Hebrew, you can say "הכל" for example, because in Semitic languages the distinction between nouns and adjectives is more fluid than that in European languages. OK, fine so "כל" is the direct object, but why is it definite in this context? Because when something is possessed by something definite, it's definite. Compare how in English you'd say "all of the water", as if "all" belongs to the water. The Hebrew construction is semantically similar, so since "כל" is possessed by "המים", it becomes definite in itself.
And a definite object is preceeded by "את", regardless of whether it's definite because of a ה-, or because it is a pronoun, a demonstrative, or even a whole clause. This very skill has a sentence that says "בירה משנה את איך שאתה חושב" ("Beer changes how you think.") In this case, we use "et" because "how you think" is a particular way of thinking. Consider how "how you think" can just as easily be replaced with "the way you think": "Beer changes the way you think."
This lesson starts for me without being introduced to new words...i have to translate from english to hebrew, without any clue, what it should mean...and now I have to listen to a word I've never heard...
- 307
You hover over a new word on the computer, or tap on a new word on a phone. See how certain words are orange? This means that you've never meant them before and you should point at them to find out what they mean. But you can do this at any time to any word, including greyed out old ones too. Except on a placement test, I suppose.
- 955
Can it also mean יuse up’ as in ‘she used up all the hot water’ or does it always imply waste, as if someone left the tap on?
You mean in a way, that nought is left? Maybe הֵם גוֹמְרִים אֶת כׇּל הַמַּ֫יִם?
- 171
I am not trying to be picky, but I want to make sure I understand the placement of exclamation marks. In the Hebrew solution, the exclamation mark is all the way to the right. Is this where it is supposed to be? Or is a technical glitch that I also have when typing Hebrew letters and English characters?
