Questions & Answers about אני רוצה תשובה כנה, גם אם היא קשה.
Why does the sentence start with אני רוצה? Do I always need אני?
אני רוצה means I want.
In Hebrew, the verb רוצה already changes for gender and number, but it does not fully show the person as clearly as English verbs do. Because of that, Hebrew often includes the subject pronoun:
- אני רוצה = I want (said by a male speaker)
- אני רוצה = I want (said by a female speaker too, in present tense the form is often the same in writing here?)
More precisely, in the present tense:
- male speaker: אני רוצה
- female speaker: אני רוצה
Same spelling, same pronunciation here.
You can sometimes omit אני if the subject is obvious from context, but in normal clear speech, אני רוצה is very common and natural.
What does תשובה כנה literally mean, and why is there no word for a/an?
תשובה כנה literally means an honest answer.
Hebrew does not use an indefinite article like a or an. So:
- תשובה = answer / an answer
- תשובה כנה = honest answer / an honest answer
If Hebrew wants to say the honest answer, it would use the definite article ה־:
- התשובה הכנה = the honest answer
So the absence of ה־ usually means the noun is indefinite.