?איך אמרים בעברית

[Southern Noachide]

Yes folks, after being online from home for almost 22 years, I finally have a Hebrew font on my keyboard!  Though it's taking me a long time to memorize the keys.

I have been trying to learn Israeli Hebrew for a very long time.  I thought the relative ease with which I learned Biblical Hebrew would help me, but it seems to have only sabotaged me.  I tune out the beginning of any lesson because it covers stuff I already know, but by the time I rejoin the lesson they've already moved beyond me.  I have no one to practice with and thought perhaps you folks here could help me out from time to time.

I know the very common and basic words, of course, but I have great difficulty translating various phrases because I don't have the vocabulary or know the syntax.  I'm going to try to type a phrase in Hebrew now and hope you will correct me.

The phrase is from one of my all time favorite movies, The Secret of NIMH (1982).

First the English:

"You can open any door if you only have the key."

Here is my instinctual Hebrew translation based on what little I know now:

.אפשר לפתוך כול דלת רק אם יש לך המפתח

What all did I say wrong?

Thank you all!

[Hrvatski Noahid]

Congratulations for the Hebrew font! I hope you get an answer!

[Zelhar]

 you got it correct other than the spelling for  כל.
If you want to keep the subject as you rather than using general "subjectless" form (I have no idea how you call it neither in Hebrew nor in English)
you could say:
אתה יכול לפתוח ...

[Hrvatski Noahid]

you got it correct other than the spelling for  כל.
If you want to keep the subject as you rather than using general "subjectless" form (I have no idea how you call it neither in Hebrew nor in English)
you could say:
אתה יכול לפתוח ...

It is called "you" understood: https://www.thoughtco.com/you-understood-grammar-1692618

[Binyamin Yisrael]

First the English:

"You can open any door if you only have the key."

Here is my instinctual Hebrew translation based on what little I know now:

.אפשר לפתוך כול דלת רק אם יש לך המפתח

What all did I say wrong?

Thank you all!

Google says: "אתה יכול לפתוח כל דלת אם יש לך רק את המפתח.".

I think it should be "Ata yachol liftoach kol delet, ha'im haya lecha ha'mafteach" or "Ata yachol liftoach kol delet, ach haya lecha ha'mafteach" or "Ata yachol liftoach kol delet, ilu haya lecha ha'mafteach".

I think it's saying "You can open any door if only you had the key.". I don't know if it's translatable exactly.

[Southern Noachide]

Google says: "אתה יכול לפתוח כל דלת אם יש לך רק את המפתח.".

I think it should be "Ata yachol liftoach kol delet, ha'im haya lecha ha'mafteach" or "Ata yachol liftoach kol delet, ach haya lecha ha'mafteach" or "Ata yachol liftoach kol delet, ilu haya lecha ha'mafteach".

I think it's saying "You can open any door if only you had the key.". I don't know if it's translatable exactly.

Yes, that's a far more literal translation.  I was trying to think how a Hebrew speaker would get the same idea across.

However, I don't think  את  is used with  יש .

[Southern Noachide]

I have two more questions.

If I want to say "I would like to do so-and-so" would it be

הייתי אוהב לעשית מהשהו?  (Still having trouble with punctuation marks!)

I know that Hebrew doesn't have as many past tenses as English, so how would one say "I have been doing" something recently or "I have done" something in the past?

Please forgive my ignorance.  I really want to learn Israeli Hebrew but every time I try I seem to run into another brick wall.

[Zelhar]

Google says: "אתה יכול לפתוח כל דלת אם יש לך רק את המפתח.".

I think it should be "Ata yachol liftoach kol delet, ha'im haya lecha ha'mafteach" or "Ata yachol liftoach kol delet, ach haya lecha ha'mafteach" or "Ata yachol liftoach kol delet, ilu haya lecha ha'mafteach".

I think it's saying "You can open any door if only you had the key.". I don't know if it's translatable exactly.

רק אם = only if
אם = if

[Zelhar]

I would say: " הייתי רוצה לעשות כך וכך"
and you cann also formulate it with normal tenses
זה משהו שאולי ארצה לעשות

also note:
הייתי עושה זאת = I would have done it (hypothetical past tense,  ...but I didn't do it...)

to your second question: I think we normally use present tense and the temporal לאחרונה = recently
משהו שהתעסקתי בו\אתו לאחרונה
משהו שאני עושה לאחרונה

and I have done it without context, I would say just use normal past tense it's not much of a different from past simple (I did it, I have done it)
to say I used to do it: נהגתי לעשות ...

I have two more questions.

If I want to say "I would like to do so-and-so" would it be

הייתי אוהב לעשית מהשהו?  (Still having trouble with punctuation marks!)

I know that Hebrew doesn't have as many past tenses as English, so how would one say "I have been doing" something recently or "I have done" something in the past?

Please forgive my ignorance.  I really want to learn Israeli Hebrew but every time I try I seem to run into another brick wall.

[Southern Noachide]

Thank you, Zelhar.

It was so easy for me to learn Biblical Hebrew, but as for Israeli Hebrew classes, materials, workbooks...nothing has worked so far.

I sometimes wonder if there is some "block" in the way that, should I ever get through it, would make it much easier to learn.  Of course, going into the lowest classes where they were just beginning to study some of the stuff I already knew made me impatient and frustrated.

[Zelhar]

You seem to have acquired a large vocabulary and you know the major rules of grammar. I think you can simply read and listen to Hebrew  sources whenever you have time.

Thank you, Zelhar.

It was so easy for me to learn Biblical Hebrew, but as for Israeli Hebrew classes, materials, workbooks...nothing has worked so far.

I sometimes wonder if there is some "block" in the way that, should I ever get through it, would make it much easier to learn.  Of course, going into the lowest classes where they were just beginning to study some of the stuff I already knew made me impatient and frustrated.

[Southern Noachide]

You seem to have acquired a large vocabulary and you know the major rules of grammar. I think you can simply read and listen to Hebrew  sources whenever you have time.

::Sigh::  Most of my vocabulary comes from years of Biblical Hebrew, the rest from years of trying to learn modern Hebrew.  But I don't seem to be getting anywhere.  No matter how many words I learn, it's never enough.  There will always be another subject on which I know absolutely no words at all.

Also, while reading the Bible is a snap, Modern Hebrew is extremely difficult.  First, the vocabulary is limitless and I'm always going to see words I don't know how to translate.  Second,  they are unpointed.  And third, they are different from the Biblical letters I'm used to, which are too holy to use for everyday purposes.  Once again I'm becoming very discouraged.  I've been using online flash cards and once again they're unpointed, and they're either Biblical words I already know or something so different I can't believe it's Hebrew.

I will try to keep listening and studying, but right now it looks like my lifelong dream of learning another (spoken) language will never come true.

PS:  When it comes to actually listening to modern Hebrew, they speak so fast that I don't understand the words, even if they're words that I already know.  I believe that even if I were fluent in speaking Hebrew I still would not be able to understand it.

[Binyamin Yisrael]

Some words you might see in modern Hebrew are not Hebrew. It could be the transliteration of an English name and you would have no way of knowing what it is without vowels unless you know what they're talking about.