"אני לא רוצֶה רוטב, תודה."

Translation: I do not want sauce, thank you.

[deactivated user]

Why it won't accept "I do not want a sauce, thank you". Is it wrong to say "a sauce"?

[NaftaliFri1]

The original sentence can translate two ways in English. You're answer is the less intuitive, but correct.

[ABDOCHA]

Uncountable noun

[Lexflex]

What if there are serveral different sauces to choose from?

[ABDOCHA]

In English usually use partitives "a bowl of orange sauce" for instance

[Ruti518486]

It's probably been said before, but "רוטב" is also dressing, and gravy. One of the quaint challenges (and sometimes annoying, for English speakers) with Hebrew is that one word can mean many different (related) things.

[TeribleT]

Sauce is called the same in parts of the US, and by certain communities. Like Italians I've heard use gravy instead of sauce, certain states with say dressing instead of gravy. Etc. Imho there's a difference.
Dressing: for salad (or a vinaigrette )
Gravy: has thickening agent, used for animal meals or for typical sides that accompany those types of meals .
Sauce/condiment: everything else (and magic!)

[Hava_Dorit]

Thank you for saying that, over a year ago. I just tried using "dressing" in place of sauce and when marked wrong, told them my answer should be accepted.

By the way, רוטב has the same root (and letters) as רטוב - wet. That's probably why it means so many other things we non-native Hebrew speakers wouldn't think of.

[judywele]

Why like rather than want?

[NaftaliFri1]

Both work.

[judywele]

does רוצה also mean like?

[NaftaliFri1]

No. But in English "I would like" actually means "I want".

[dieprinzessin]

I am not a native English speaker but 'I would not like' instead of 'I don't want' sounds a bit off to me. As if I was trying to say: Don't give me the sauce, I would not like it anyway. I would hate every spoonful of it...

[KerenSchum]

You can't mark it as a typo of My phone doesn't have vowels

[CherryDT]

This happens all the time and you can just ignore it. The vowels are not needed of course. It's just because of the way the software works, because the vowels are shown at a few places when you need to translate from Hebrew, and therefore they are marked as correct internally. I agree they could improve that but it doesn't really matter because you don't get a penalty for it.

[Mikhail966527]

"I do not want a sauce, thanks" - wrong.
"I do not want a sauce, thank you" - correct.

Why? There is no "לך"

[Hava_Dorit]

What Ruti518486 said a year ago still applies today. Thank you. I reported it.

[AveryTrach]

I do not want a sauce, thank you. Should be accepted but was not.

[BenSumner2]

I thought he said "I don't want wet, thank you" (which makes no sense) but regardless, I put in: "אני לא רוצה רטוב, תודה" and it accepted it, marking רטוב as a typo.

[Elena671368]

Why it won't accept "I don't want sauce, thanks"? Is it always right to write "Thank you"?

[Becca_RNR]

A good way I'm going to remember this is that it looks like it has the same שרש or root as the word for wet. So it must be saying something like the tomato wet. Probably cuz sauces make things wet. Idk I'm just remembering from day School I'm not a native speaker so