"המחשבים האלה משלמים את עצמם."

Translation: These computers pay for themselves.

[nizdobs]

Is it משלמים את עצמם or משלמים על עצמם?

To my ear משלמים את עצמם sounds like the machines pay themselves, as opposed to paying for themselves

[radagastthebrown]

You're right, in my opinion "משלמים את עצמם" shouldn't be accepted.

[synp]

I wouldn't use either "משלמים את עצמם" or "משלמים על עצמם" in Hebrew. Both are direct translations of English idioms and neither has become commonly used in Hebrew. The verb לשלם is not used to mean "earn" If I wanted to express the meaning of the English sentence I might go with something like:

המחשבים האלה מחזירים את העלות שלהם

[Keren146]

I wouldn't say משלמים את עצמם in Hebrew. As a native speaker I couldn't understand what the sentence wanted to say at first.

[nizdobs]

I was under the impression that אלה means "these" while אלו means "those" but Duolingo seems to use them interchangeably. What's the proper use of אלה vs. אלו?

[AlmogL]

There is no difference between אלה and אלו, they are words from different phases of the language and the fashion on using them alternates from time to time. "Those" would be ההם / ההן. By the way, I would say משלמים על עצמם.

[DL-Trolls]

Rich content!

[lulubeck]

משלמים את, משלמים על, משלמים עבור
Are these right, wrong, same, different?

[radagastthebrown]

Both על and עבור are fine, there isn't a big difference in meaning, but עבור is more formal. את shouldn't be used here, it's the wrong preposition.

[Zdeka985336]

It is not changed. There is משלמים את עצמם still. Can the main translation above be changed? Something as These computers pay themselves.

[DL-Trolls]

Ingeborg suggested, elsewhere, that the computers pay themselves so the company doesn't have to. So, in essence, the effect is the same.

[AnCatDubh]

Not when it comes to poorly-filtered machine translation apparently.

[newfield]

What does this mean?

[radagastthebrown]

From Oxford dictionary "(of a thing) earn or save enough money to cover the cost of its purchase."

[Mabel544786]

I notice that the direct object marker את very often is placed at the end of the preceding word when pronounced. As I understand the את belongs to the object, but clings to to the end of the verb preceeding it in pronounciation as a rule. Am I right?

[synp]

I have never noticed it.
It may be in sentences like this one where the next word begins with a vowel, so the speaker intentionally pauses between the את and the next word to avoid it sounding like "etatzmam".