Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>]

and it's not only motion verbs

"Gamarnu!" = End it!

or "Gamarnu?" = Are we/you done yet?

Shoshanna




In Modern Hebrew, past-tense motion verbs (but not other
verbs) are used for future-tense suggestions (e.g., "HALAXNU?,"
literally "did we go?"  meaning "shall we go?") [This example is
doubly interesting because "SHARNU," "did we sing?" cannot mean "shall
we sing?"  It basically only works with motion verbs.]



It's "halachnu?" - and it's an idiom, idioms are in a class by themselves.