In a message dated 7/26/2005 12:35:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time, joel AT exc.com
writes:
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.]
But I have also heard "ma ratsita?" (lit. "what did you want?") to mean
"what do you want?" or better: the more polite (in English) "what would you
like?"