# How difficult would it be...



## airelibre

I'm interested in how you would construct the follow sentence, when translating into Hebrew. I have an idea myself of how to translate it but it would like to see how you would translate it without any influence from my attempt.

"How difficult would it be to teach them to behave?"


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## Tararam

כמה קשה יהיה ללמד אותם להתנהג (יפה)?


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## airelibre

Ok thanks, I was expecting it to be less like the English version.
Firstly I thought I would have to resort to saying something like "?אם היינו מלמדים אותם, בכמה קושי היה", which just sounds awkward and I'm not sure parts of it are correct?
Also I didn't think you would be able to use להתנהג without a qualifying adverb.

So, I've unnecessarily complicated matters for myself and it's good to see that it's actually much easier to say that sentence in Hebrew.


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## Tararam

It should be "להתנהג יפה", but in certain cases where the meaning of "to behave nicely" is explicit you can drop the adverb, much like in English.
Please note that "קושי" is "difficulty/hardship" and not "difficult", thus you can't say "בכמה קושי".
You could say: "כמה קושי יהיה כרוך בחינוכם להתנהגות טובה?", which is literally: "How much difficulty would be bound/involved in teaching them good behavior."


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## airelibre

Ok, thanks.


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## AlonVi

"כמה קושי יהיה כרוך בחינוכם להתנהגות טובה"
That's not something you'll hear on a normal colloquial conversation. In my opinion, a better way to say this sentece is:
עד כמה יהיה קשה לחנך אותם להתנהג טוב?


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## airelibre

Ah, thanks. עד כמה is indeed a good way of saying this.


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## arielipi

מצטער אלון, הגרסה שלך פשוט לא נשמעת טבעית.
כמה מאמצים\מאמץ ידרשו\ידרש כדי לחנך אותם?
גם הגרסה של רעש חסר סיבה טובה.


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## airelibre

How about ?עד כמה מאמץ ידרש לחנך אותם להתנהג טוב. ?


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## AlonVi

הגרסה שלי דווקא כן מתאימה.
לדוגמא:
עד כמה קר בחוץ?  - how could is it outside?


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## Tararam

עד is not required in your example in my opinion. "עד כמה" = "to what degree" or "to what/which extent".
"כמה מאמץ ידרש על מנת לחנך/ללמד אותם להתנהג טוב" is good.

I must say though that "להתנהג יפה" sounds more natural to me than "להתנהג טוב", what do you guys think?


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## AlonVi

I agree with both your corrections tararam.


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## airelibre

Tararam said:


> עד is not required in your example in my opinion. "עד כמה" = "to what degree" or "to what/which extent".
> "כמה מאמץ ידרש על מנת לחנך/ללמד אותם להתנהג טוב" is good.
> 
> I must say though that "להתנהג יפה" sounds more natural to me than "להתנהג טוב", what do you guys think?



When we say in English "how difficult...?" the how means "to what extent?". So this suggest to me that עד is in fact necessary. However, if it sounds so unnatural to you, as a native speaker, then I suppose it's not right. Does it really sound so unnatural?


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## arielipi

in one word Yes!


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