Would is a modal verb. If Hebrew does not have modal verbs, there is no perfect translation. I think you need the conditional, but I am not sure.
Thank you, dear friend. Chaim has privately told me how the sentence would be expressed, so that's good. But yes, Hebrew can take a lot of words to say something that in English takes much fewer (is that what they call "periphrastic?"). This is ironic since Biblical/Mishnaic/Rabbinic Hebrew can say in just a few words what takes many more words to say in English (eg, "qal vachomer").
I have been fascinated by languages my entire life. Even as a kid I would read the encyclopedia and wish I could see or hear such exotic languages as Albanian, Basque, Mongolian, etc. One of the best thing about the Internet is that now I can see how just about any language looks when written *and* hear what it sounds like.
I go into and out of "kicks" (I always have) and I'm just coming out of another language "kick" where I've been watching videos about other languages. This inspired me to try learning Israeli Hebrew again. I spent much of yesterday studying one of my books which is very well-written and teaches through reading and writing, which is how I learned Biblical Hebrew. The problem: even if I systematically worked through the whole book
I still wouldn't be able to speak Hebrew! I took Spanish courses in high school that were based on this same principal but despite being able to translate on paper and making good grades, I was still totally unable to speak Spanish! Evidently I am simply unable to learn the way living languages must be learned. I prefer deductive to inductive learning, but I am finding out that deductive learning doesn't teach you how to speak a language--only how to translate it on paper. Even reading aloud the Hebrew lessons in this book is extremely difficult for me. Whenever I try I stumble and stutter something terrible. This contrasts with Biblical Hebrew which I can read pretty fast.
I really don't know what the problem is. Maybe it's because I'm somewhere on the autistic spectrum. Or perhaps it's because I don't have the requisite patience (and at 61 I don't have much time left) or perhaps it's just laziness.
What I really need to do is to
think in Hebrew. The problem here, is when one learns inductively one first learns expressions for which I have absolutely no use. I don't conduct very many conversations with anyone to tell the truth, and I certainly don't order stuff in restaurants. My mother and I are basically homebound. Any attempt to begin learning are frustrating because they always deal with how to say things I'm probably never going to say.
One blessing/curse of being on the spectrum is that despite my provincial background I nevertheless find myself constantly Thinking Profound Thoughts which run continuously in the background of my mind, and I simply no of any way to think
these thoughts in Hebrew. Most language lessons don't teach how to think about conceptual things in the new language. It's always "how are you today?" or "I would like to order some coffee" or some such. I never think these things!
The simplest explanation may simply be that because I learned Biblical first I don't have the patience to start with stuff I already know, yet I can never find where precisely to "rejoin" the lessons later. I have heard that learning Israeli first makes Biblical harder, but I have also told the reverse isn't true. It seems to be true for me.
But in a few days I'll be off this kick altogether and obsessing about something else altogether. Maybe that's the problem.
Sorry to be so long-winded. How do I say all
this in Hebrew???
Topic: The mystery of "would" (Read 9560 times)