B-Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Forum

Jason Hare wrote: ↑Wed Oct 06, 2021 10:30 am
So, once we've established that we're using the past tense, it is most natural to continue the past tense with the vayyiqtol form. This means getting the IMPERFECT form and adding וַ ּ.

I need to think about this a ton - I've read this type of information a billion times, but for some reason it's NOT sticking. I was clearly using the perfect, and the instant you said vayyiqtol I knew I had the wrong form)

thanxs for the feedback!

Glenn

part of my confusion can be seen in my quote from Jonah 2:1 (2:2) - it says

וַיִּתְפַּלֵּ֣ל יוֹנָ֔ה אֶל־יְהוָ֖ה

so it starts with the vayyiqtol, but yet in our translation exercise we started with the perfect and then "midstream" we went to the vayyiqtol. (LOL - oh and another thing that adds to my confusion is when you have a verse like "and he said ' xyz ' " (i.e. a quote within narration)

I think what I'll do to help understand this better is to re-read all of Jonah and pay attention to the verbs

It isn't relevant to אֶל־, which does separate off.

Glenn Dean wrote: ↑Wed Oct 06, 2021 11:00 am part of my confusion can be seen in my quote from Jonah 2:1 (2:2) - it says

וַיִּתְפַּלֵּ֣ל יוֹנָ֔ה אֶל־יְהוָ֖ה

so it starts with the vayyiqtol, but yet in our translation exercise we started with the perfect and then "midstream" we went to the vayyiqtol. (LOL - oh and another thing that adds to my confusion is when you have a verse like "and he said ' xyz ' " (i.e. a quote within narration)

I think what I'll do to help understand this better is to re-read all of Jonah and pay attention to the verbs

Yes! Read through and pay attention to the word order. Look for embedding particles like כי and אשר. Look for verbs that are NOT vav-consecutive. Look for backgrounded information. It will open your eyes.

Jonah is an excellent beginning text. That's why Kutz and Josberger chose it for their intermediate reader.

Jason Hare wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 8:34 pm For those who might be interested in continuing with the compositions:

Sarah the wife of Abraham bore (to) him a son and she called his name Isaac, as the word which the angel spoke to Abraham her husband.

Feel free to translate it below with the [​hide-he] tag.

שרה אשת אברהם ילדה לו בן ותקרא את שמו יצחק כאשר דבר המלאך לאישה

Okay, I made this translation before reading your discussion with Glenn. I left off the second “Abraham” because he was already identified in the beginning of the sentence, and because it felt awkward to include the name a second time.

I also left off הדבר because it felt stilted and unnatural.

These are fun, when I have time for them. But don’t expect me to translate exactly as Weingreen writes the English because word for word from him doesn’t sound right.

Karl W. Randolph.

Wonderful | נִפְלָא

I'll post the next exercise for whoever wants to participate.