# התור לקניית הלחם שלך ארוך יותר



## cfu507

Hi, how would you say in English:

אני רואה איך התור לקניית הלחם שלך ארוך יותר.

(למשל מהתור באטליז)

תודה


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## elroy

_I can see how much longer the line of people waiting to buy your bread is._
(if you mean the degree to which the line is longer than the other one)

or

_I can see that the line of people waiting to buy your bread is longer._
(if you simply mean the fact that the line is longer than the other one)

I'm not quite sure which one איך...ארוך יותר means.


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## cfu507

elroy said:


> _I can see how much longer the line of people waiting to buy your bread is._
> (if you mean the degree to which the line is longer than the other one)
> 
> or
> 
> _I can see that the line of people waiting to buy your bread is longer._
> (if you simply mean the fact that the line is longer than the other one)
> 
> I'm not quite sure which one איך...ארוך יותר means.


 
Hi Elroy, 
If I changed the world איך with את, how would you say it?


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## elroy

Would that work?


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## cfu507

I think in Hebrew it works.
אני רואה את התור לסופר ארוך יותר
Maybe ש is better: אני רואה שהתור לסופר ארוך יותר, but not in my context.
When I wrote אני רואה איך ש I meant that I imagine that... I don't realy see it. I can't explain you what איך means here. Maybe it is wrong, but sometimes we say:
אני כבר רואה איך נשרף לנו היום כאן
It means that you see (imagine) something about the future. The day haven't been "burnt" yet. [hope you say it in English too]


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## elroy

If you mean that you don't know for sure that the line is longer but that you can imagine that it is (for whatever reason), then you can simply say

_I can imagine that the line of people waiting to buy your bread is longer._

And no, I don't know what you mean by the day being "burnt."


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## cfu507

יום שרוף זה יום שנגמר והיה מבוזבז.
הזמן נשרף = הזמן עובר/עבר (ואולי אף אוזל), גם כאן הכוונה בדרך כלל שהזמן "מתבזבז/מבוזבז". - מתאים לעבר והווה​


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## elroy

So does the sentence mean something like _I already know this is going to be a wasted day?_


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## eshcar

cfu507 said:


> I think in Hebrew it works.
> אני רואה את התור לסופר ארוך יותר
> Maybe ש is better: אני רואה שהתור לסופר ארוך יותר, but not in my context.
> When I wrote אני רואה איך ש I meant that I imagine that... I don't realy see it. I can't explain you what איך means here. Maybe it is wrong, but sometimes we say:
> אני כבר רואה איך נשרף לנו היום כאן
> It means that you see (imagine) something about the future. The day haven't been "burnt" yet. [hope you say it in English too]


 
Hmmm, I think maybe you could say both sentences like this:

1. "I can see the line to buy your bread being longer", i.e. "I can imagine why/it seems reasonable to me that the line to by your bread would be longer".

2. "I already see us wasting the entire day on this", i.e. "I think it's very likely/there is the distinct possibility that we're going to waste our time on this".


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## elroy

1. "I can see the line to buy your bread being longer"

This doesn't sound good.  For one thing, I wouldn't say "the line to buy your bread" and for two, I don't like the structure "I can see ... being" in this context.

I think in this case "I can imagine," which I suggested earlier (Post 6), works very well.  It is often used to mean "I have reason to believe," "I can see indications that," etc.

2. "I already see us wasting the entire day on this"

This is a good suggestion, but I would use "can" after "I."


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## eshcar

elroy said:


> This is a good suggestion, but I would use "can" after "I."


 

It's funny, I was just thinking about it and logged on to fix it when I saw that you beat me to it. 

As for "I can imagine" vs. "I can see", I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree - I prefer it over "i can imagine" in this context...


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## elroy

eshcar said:


> As for "I can imagine" vs. "I can see", I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree - I prefer it over "i can imagine" in this context...


 It's not just a question of "imagine" versus "see." What I mean is that you can't just replace "imagine" with "see" in my sentence - it would take on a new meaning.

Your sentence, with "I can see," has an entirely different structure that is unfortunately unnatural in this context. I'm not sure I can explain why, but I'll try.

1. I know he loves popcorn, so I can totally see him eating nothing else at the party. (action) 
2. He's a very unfriendly person, so I can see him being nasty to her. (behavior) 
3. Your bread is delicious, so I can see your line being longer than his. (state) unnatural

My guess is that the "I can see" structure generally sounds natural with an action or a behavior, but not with a state. In the third scenario, the "I can imagine" structure would sound far more natural.


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