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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 37:15

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Vadim Cherny <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 37:15
  • Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 10:13:59 +0100

On 26/09/2005 09:11, Vadim Cherny wrote:

Can we translate Gen37:15:
A man asked him, asking, "What dost thou will?"


Not into modern English, you can't. This should be: A man asked him, "What do you want?"


That blurs the future tense inherent in "will."


There is no future tense inherent in "will", as an independent verb. It is simply a rare synonym of "want" or "decide", which would never be used in such a context.

...


"What dost thou wilt?" is the closest to the future tense I could find in English. ...


This is not a future tense in English. In fact this is ungrammatical, but "What dost thou will?" would be grammatical pre-modern English, or else "What wilt thou?". But in this case "will" or "wilt" is acting as an independent verb, and so is not a future tense or in any way "future-oriented".

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/





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