Questions & Answers about אני לא רוצה לקנות סוכרייה לפני השיעור.
How do you pronounce this sentence?
A common pronunciation is:
ani lo rotse/rotsa liknot sukariya lifnei ha-shiur
A more detailed breakdown:
- אני — a-NI
- לא — lo
- רוצה — ro-TSE if the speaker is male, ro-TSA if the speaker is female
- לקנות — lik-NOT
- סוכרייה — su-ka-ri-YA
- לפני — lif-NEI
- השיעור — ha-shi-UR
Hebrew stress often falls near the end of the word, as in likNOT, lifNEI, shiUR.
Why is לא used here?
לא is the normal Hebrew word for not.
In this sentence, it negates the verb phrase:
- אני רוצה — I want
- אני לא רוצה — I do not want / I don’t want
Unlike English, Hebrew does not need a separate helping verb like do. So Hebrew says literally:
- I not want to buy...
That is the normal way to say I don’t want to buy...
Why is it רוצה לקנות and not some other form of ?