# להסתובב



## dukaine

A guy is swindled out of millions by a diamond jeweler that he was formerly partners with.  The cop asks him why he didn't file suit.  He replies:

יהלומנים לא מסתובבים בבתי משפט. 

I understand lehistovev to mean "to turn" or "to rotate".  I don't get what it means in this sentence.


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## arielipi

it can also mean to hang around...  ; actually you misunderstood! lehistovev is to hang around, lesovev is to turn (something),to rotate.


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## dukaine

arielipi said:


> it can also mean to hang around...  ; actually you misunderstood! lehistovev is to hang around, lesovev is turn (something),to rotate.



I was reading the caption and that was what was there. It was actually conjugated as מסתובבים.  When i looked it up with this spelling, "turn, rotate" was what came up.  I checked three places.  Maybe a typo on the caption?


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## arielipi

mistovevim can be both, almost all binyanim are both, itsone of those cases where you need to know by the context i guess...


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## dukaine

"To hang out" makes sense in this case.  It was a mafia deal that went wrong; I wouldn't hang out in court, either, if I were the mob.


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## Ali Smith

Shalom, is להסתובב lehistovev, meaning “to turn (intransitive)”, from hitpa’el? What are the root letters?

Thanks!


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## Drink

Ali Smith said:


> Shalom, is להסתובב lehistovev, meaning “to turn (intransitive)”, from hitpa’el? What are the root letters?
> 
> Thanks!



It's hitpolel. The root is סבב.


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## Ali Smith

That’s weird because להתכונן is from the same conjugation (להתפולל), but everyone says it’s root letters are k-w-n, not k-n-n!


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## Drink

As I said to you last time you asked this question:



> Yes. The hitpolel binyan is usually used for hollow roots, and it doubles the last root letter. *Often it is used for geminate roots as well, in which case the last two root letters are already double.* Sometimes other weird things happen like with התרוקן.



סבב is exactly the sort of "geminate root" I was talking about.


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