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Just to be clear, I believe this should be an in-depth Hebrew language Q&A site, this has nothing to do with Judaism or Israel, just Hebrew. – Truth Feb 6 at 19:54

29 Example Questions

active oldest votes

up vote 11 down vote

added by Monica Cellio Dec 1 '11 at 3:53

I didn't quite understand that one. Could you give an example? (I speak Hebrew, if you can write Hebrew it's preferable.) – Truth Dec 2 '11 at 14:18

Vav is usually "and", but there are cases where translators render it "or" (and sometimes "but" or other connective words) instead. The question is whether they are reasoning from context ("it can't mean 'and' there so must be something else") or if there's a rule. See: judaism.stackexchange.com/q/11051/472 . – Monica Cellio Dec 2 '11 at 17:17

Just a thought: If you want this site to get off the ground ASAP you probably shouldn't up-vote questions that already have 10 votes (unless you don't think any of the other question deserve an up-vote) – Ari A May 15 at 2:35

Agreed, though what we really need is more users. The page says we need 14 more users, but with 5 up-votes per person and needing 40 questions at 10+, we need at least 80 people (and only that few if they basically agree -- what are the chances of that? :-) ). – Monica Cellio May 16 at 14:16

up vote 10 down vote

added by Truth Nov 25 '11 at 9:51

It was already written in the bible, That when israelis people get down - they fall very deep. – ParPar Dec 18 '11 at 14:06

True, however there are newer words which do not appear in the bible. For instance, internet (אינטרנט), etc. – Truth Dec 18 '11 at 16:39

and...what did you mean to say? – ParPar Dec 19 '11 at 14:48

up vote 10 down vote

added by Monica Cellio Nov 27 '11 at 22:50

There is a pattern although it is very complicated. – ParPar Dec 18 '11 at 14:08

Sometimes there is not a pattern but then it comes to imply something. – ParPar Dec 18 '11 at 14:10

Not the place for answers, trying to feel out what will be good questions. – Hrafn Jan 20 at 2:56

At a stopping "ta'am", like ethnahta or sof pasuq, it will change. At "softer" stops, like segol or zaqef qoton, it sometimes will, depending on the context. – blockhead Mar 12 at 8:15

up vote 10 down vote

added by cwallenpoole Dec 19 '11 at 7:10

The most correct way is like "v", but when we want to spell some word in English contains "w", we usually use double "Vav". – ParPar Dec 19 '11 at 13:36

Also, in some cases, Vav as the first letter in the word may also be pronounced as "oo". – Truth Dec 19 '11 at 16:03

Amusing how you compromise by calling it "wav" - rather than "vav" or "waw" – sq33G Dec 26 '11 at 10:11

If you speak the Yemini dialect, "w" is more correct than "v". Also those who believe the Yemini dialect to be close to the "correct" way, will also say it that way, even if they don't normally come from that region. – GMNoob Jan 9 at 8:18

The correct way is "W". "V" is the sound of the "ב" – blockhead Mar 12 at 8:12

up vote 10 down vote

added by sq33G Dec 26 '11 at 10:23

up vote 10 down vote

added by HodofHod Jan 15 at 17:58

To be clear, the body of this question will also include further queries, such as: "Who created them?", "Where they always of the same form they are today?". This is intended as a broader question on the origins of nekudos. – HodofHod Feb 26 at 16:53

up vote 10 down vote

added by Monica Cellio Jan 16 at 4:50

	A better question would be to ask how was Tet pronounced historically, as Tet was the one who changed, not Taf (Tet was T'et, like a Tet followed by an A'in טע) – Truth Feb 6 at 19:56
	@Truth, reworded to address your concern. (Wow, is the limited character count here challenging!) – Monica Cellio Feb 9 at 19:54

up vote 7 down vote

added by GMNoob Jan 9 at 11:47

	What's Machir Pritzutz in Hebrew first? xD. Seriously though, we need to determine a correct Hebrew latiniztion syntax... – Truth Jan 13 at 15:29
	@Truth it literally means "Price explosion", and in the context of a food package it means something to the effect of "new low price" – GMNoob Jan 14 at 15:44
	In which case, that's Me(c)hir Pitzuz, there's no ר in פיצוץ. Also, It's pronounces as "e" not "a" ;). And by this question you basically mean "What is the English equivalent to [Insert Hebrew slang here]". If it's true, please edit your question to reflect that. – Truth Jan 21 at 14:07

up vote 6 down vote

added by Alex Jan 26 at 5:44

up vote 5 down vote

added by René Nyffenegger Dec 27 '11 at 17:22

I don't understand the question? (even after reading the verse) – Truth Jan 6 at 11:30

@Truth, since there are exactly two you would expect cherubayim, like yadayim for a person's two hands. – Monica Cellio Jan 15 at 5:45

up vote 4 down vote

added by HodofHod Jan 25 at 17:16

For example, sometimes you say "kol" ("all"), and sometimes "chol". Sometimes "bein" ("between"), and sometimes "vein". And the same is true when they're used as prefixes. – HodofHod Jan 25 at 17:21

Not a great question, since it is so easily answerable via wikipedia. But could be a good question if it's about exceptions to the rule – Tal Fishman Jan 26 at 15:41

@TalFishman. I disagree. For one, if you hadn't linked to it, I would never have seen that page, no matter how much searching I would've done. Second, once having found that page, I would have to spend an hour just learning all the technical terms there, before I could understand it. – HodofHod Jan 26 at 16:16

The question here is when should one use a Dagesh, which is a legitimate question. – Truth Feb 6 at 19:58

up vote 3 down vote

added by GMNoob Jan 9 at 11:48

up vote 3 down vote

added by Double AA Jan 29 at 6:16

I would have given more background were the number of characters not so limited. – Double AA Jan 29 at 6:17

up vote 2 down vote

added by sq33G Dec 26 '11 at 10:08

	This question would be better with a ltitle more context -- why is this particular word interesting? – Monica Cellio Dec 26 '11 at 15:27
	If you prefer, I can replace the particular word with <insert word here>. It was the only interesting word in the email subject I happened to have open when writing the question. – sq33G Dec 27 '11 at 11:14
	Oh, ok! So you meant this question to be analagous to the "how do I vocalize X" question? – Monica Cellio Dec 30 '11 at 14:04
	@sq33G Please do so. – Truth Jan 13 at 15:27

up vote 2 down vote

added by GMNoob Jan 9 at 11:45

up vote 2 down vote

added by HodofHod Jan 25 at 1:50

up vote 1 down vote

added by HodofHod Jan 25 at 2:08

This seems like a rather general question, I think you should be a bit more specific. (It's like asking what are the various frameworks for PHP and which is still in active development on SO, only larger :X) – Truth Feb 6 at 20:02

up vote 1 down vote

added by msh210 Jan 29 at 19:21

E.g., W=טנא; X=טני; Y=Mishna; Z=basket. – msh210 Jan 29 at 19:22

up vote 1 down vote

added by ruakh Apr 10 at 15:28

up vote 1 down vote

added by Roy Apr 17 at 14:33

up vote 1 down vote

added by Double AA Apr 19 at 7:44

up vote 0 down vote

added by Alex Jan 30 at 7:27

up vote 0 down vote

added by Roy Apr 17 at 14:28

	I've heard that many times and I don't understand why people think it. Maybe the word has some additional meaning that I don't know about , but I'm pretty sure it means 'specifically' (as in 'Why did he chose that one specifically?') – Ari A Apr 18 at 3:22
	It also has, somethimes, additional negative meaning - 'Why did you hit 'davka' me?' as in why me of all people? And there's also the phrase 'Laasot Davka', to do davka, to do something in order to make somebody angry or upset – Roy Apr 18 at 13:28
	That question seems to be less about Hebrew than about every other language . . . – ruakh Apr 23 at 19:56
	@ ruakh. I don't think so. You can rephrase it to say "Is there an accurate translation of the word 'Davka' and if so, what is it?" – Ari A May 15 at 2:29

up vote 0 down vote

added by Roy Apr 17 at 16:06

	You can look that one up in a dictionary. I don't think it's a question for this site... Unless you mean poking on facebook, which I doubt has a different word in Hebrew, but I can understand why there would be. – Ari A Apr 18 at 3:25
	well I'm not sure about it, tried looking it in the dictionary and couldn't find anything that is really a good translation for this word. Anyway I'll edit the title – Roy Apr 18 at 13:25

up vote 0 down vote

added by Ari A Apr 18 at 2:38

To clarify: Usually when the word אתה appears in Tanach and tfilah, we pronounce it מלרע (a-TAH or a-TOH. whichever you like, that's not really my point. The emphasis is on the end of the word.). Why in yoda-esq sentences* do we emphasize the first syllable instead and pronounce it מלעיל (A-tah, with emphasis on the beginning of the word)? I'm looking for a specific grammatical rule that doesn't involve star wars references. *Such as מְחַיֵּה מֵתִים אַתָּה (resurrecter of the dead you are) and מוחֵל וְסולֵחַ אָתָּה (a mighty redeemer you are) – Ari A Apr 18 at 2:39