- Forum >
- Topic: Hebrew >
- "How do you speak Hebrew?"
"How do you speak Hebrew?"
Translation:איך מדברים עברית?
17 Comments
There is no "you" among the Hebrew words listed in the translation. So, my guess is that the developers meant to say "How does ONE speak Hebrew?" This refers to the knowledge of Hebrew. The question as currently phrased in English "How do you speak Hebrew?" could mean "How is it that you speak Hebrew?" referring to parentage or education. Or, it could mean, more literally, "Are you using an interpretation device to speak Hebrew?" (Star Trek universal translator?) The English should be fixed to reflect the actual Hebrew translation.
Your guess is correct, the given translation selects the meaning "How does one speak Hebrew" out of the possible meanings of this sentence.
That's a general problem how to translate Impersonal Plural. The text for the skill Determiners explains the different ways to translate אוכלים תפוחים
" There are several options that can be considered: One eats apples. (Can sound a bit old-fashioned nowadays.) You eat apples. (You as in "anybody" - can be confused for actual "you") We/They eat apples. (You have to know who is being spoken about, to know whether the speaker is including or excluding him/herself from the group) Apples are eaten. (At times using the passive can be the most elegant solution, but is not always an option)"
it is grammatically incorrect, you missed the "את" before the "מדברת". how do you speak Hebrew- איך את מדברת עברית, how speak Hebrew-איך מדברת עברית.
if you mean the quality of the Habrew one speak (knowledge of language, accent, vocabulary, etc.) than you can ask "איך הוא/היא מדבר/ת עברית?" or "איך העברית שלו/שלה?" (literal: "how is his\hers Hebrew), both common though the last one is slightly inccorect. other way (but much more formal) to ask it is "איך העברית שבפיו/שבפיה" (literal "how is the Hebrew in his\hers mouth").
Very interesting, but my question was about the impersonal Plural. How to say 'how did one speak hebrew'. Like in french 'on' and german 'man'. English doesn't really have this word.
The "hidden" pronoun is third person plural masculine (הם), so in past tense you'd say "איך דיברו עברית" and in future "איך ידברו עברית".
In English we use "you" impersonally often. It means we're not asking you specifically, but generally. Also, we don't clarify if "you" is singular or plural, but other languages require it. In this case, the "you" is implied and not even included in the Hebrew sentence.
312
. "איך מדברות עברית" why does the feminine form show up as incorrect ? Could someone please explain. Thanks .
The sentence uses an impersonal pronoun (similar to "how does one speak Hebrew?"). In such a case, you use plural masculine in Hebrew, without a pronoun.
Radagast is correct, but a comment to the curious: in recent years there are a few feminist writers (newspaper columns, social media) who strive to fix the (alleged) male preference of Hebrew; and they would make it a point to write sentences like איך מדברות עברית. Most Hebrew readers would come to a screeching halt when encountering such a sentence. Maybe that's the point.
It is not possible to know whether "you speak" in the sentence "How do you speak Hebrew?" represents an impersonal verb, or the "you" is an actual person. Therefore the only logical thing for the Hebrew team to do is accept both answers.
