Questions & Answers about אם היו לנו עוד עציצים במרפסת, היינו משקים אותם כל בוקר.
Why do היו and היינו look like past tense forms in a sentence that means something like if we had ..., we would water ...?
Because Hebrew often uses past-looking forms to express a hypothetical or unreal condition.
So in this sentence:
- אם היו לנו... = if we had...
- היינו משקים... = we would water...
This is similar to English, which also uses past forms for unreal situations: If we had more plants, we would water them. It does not mean that this really happened in the past.
How does היו לנו mean we had?
Hebrew usually expresses possession with יש / אין / היה / היו + ל־.
Literally, היו לנו עוד עציצים is something like:
- there were
- to us
- more potted plants
So Hebrew says there were to us, where English says we had.
A few comparisons:
- יש לנו עציץ = we have a plant / pot
- היה לנו עציץ = we had a plant / pot
- היו לנו עציצים = we had plants / pots
Why is it היו and not היה?