Questions & Answers about אני לא רוצה להתחיל ויכוח כזה עכשיו.
How is this sentence pronounced?
A natural pronunciation is:
ani lo rotse / rotsa lehatchil viku'ach kaze akhshav
A few notes:
- רוצה is pronounced rotse if the speaker is male, rotsa if the speaker is female.
- עכשיו is pronounced akhshav.
- The ח sound in ויכוח and עכשיו is the throaty kh/ch sound, like in Bach.
Why is אני included? Can Hebrew leave it out?
Yes, Hebrew can sometimes leave subject pronouns out, but here אני is very natural and often helpful.
Why?
- In the present tense, Hebrew verbs usually do not clearly mark person the way English does.
- רוצה can mean I want, you want, or he wants, depending on context and pronunciation.
- So אני makes the sentence clear: I do not want...
You may hear לא רוצה להתחיל ויכוח כזה עכשיו in casual speech if the context already makes I obvious.
How does Hebrew say don't want here?