Monday, April 11, 2005

ET

No not the movie, the particle that signifies the presence of a definite direct object in Hebrew, and once I figure out how to post in Hebrew I will post some examples!
It is very different than English because we have no such word. I am trying to sort through it by comparing similar sentences. If I were to say something like, I like classical music: ani ohevet moosica clasit, no et is required because it is an indefinite object. But if I said, I like this music, that is definite. The transliteration would be something like: ani ohevet et hamoosica hazot. But I could also say, I like Bethoven: ani ohevet et betoven. Bethoven is already definite because it is a name, that is why it is not: et habetoven. In that way it is like English, because we don't tack a 'the' onto a proper name or place name either. It is inherantly definite.
So there it is in a nutshell, the most adventuresome particle, ET.

No comments: