# מה הולך



## trigel

What is the connotation of this expression? Is it an Anglicism from "what's going on"?


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## GeriReshef

Probably- yes: מה הולך or איך הולך or מה קורה could be a colloquial way to say "hello" among good friend.


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## hadronic

Can this be traced back to German "wie geht’s" ?


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## GeriReshef

My German is even worse than my English.. `-)
As far as I know this expression was known here as an Yidish one, and today is not much used (unless you are 80 years old..).


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## C_J

How's it going? = wie geht's? = איך הולך?
מה הולך is a variety, perhaps influnced by מה נשמע/מה קורה


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## anipo

The verb "to go" is not only used in Hebrew or German meaning "how are you?".

Spanish: ¿Cómo te va?
French: Comment allez vous? Comment vas tu?
Italian: Come va?
And there may be more...


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## C_J

anipo said:


> The verb "to go" is not only used in Hebrew or German meaning "how are you?".
> 
> Spanish: ¿Cómo te va?
> French: Comment allez vous? Comment vas tu?
> Italian: Come va?
> And there may be more...


I can confirm:
Polish:Jak idzie?
Greek:πώς πάει
Afrikaans:Hoe gaan dit?
Dutch:Hoe gaat het?

But that's not the point. Some of the languages that have had the greatest influence on modern Hebrew are Yiddish, German, English, Russian and Polish (not necessarily at that order). So when discussing the modern Hebrew's "מה הולך" it is of relevance to compare it to _those_ languages and not to others.


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## anipo

C_J said:


> I can confirm:
> Polish:Jak idzie?
> Greek:πώς πάει
> Afrikaans:Hoe gaan dit?
> Dutch:Hoe gaat het?
> 
> But that's not the point. Some of the languages that have had the greatest influence on modern Hebrew are Yiddish, German, English, Russian and Polish (not necessarily at that order). So when discussing the modern Hebrew's "מה הולך" it is of relevance to compare it to _those_ languages and not to others.



While it is clear which languages influence/ed modern Hebrew, my intention was to show that is a common trait of many languages. It could be that, while the direct influence comes from one language, this one may have been influenced by a third language. (Look at all those Hebrew words ending in "atzia" or "atia". The direct influence may be from Russian, but almost all (if not all) of these words are of Greek or Latin origin).


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## Ali Smith

But הולך can also mean "going" in the sense of something happening in the future, right? For example, I heard this earlier today:

אני יודע בדיוק מה הולך להיות.
I think it means "I know exactly what's going to happen."


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## GeriReshef

Ali Smith said:


> But הולך can also mean "going" in the sense of something happening in the future, right? For example, I heard this earlier today:
> 
> אני יודע בדיוק מה הולך להיות.
> I think it means "I know exactly what's going to happen."


When the verb הולך is followed by another verb,
the הולך gives it a future context.
מה הולך? What is going on? (now)
מה הולך להיות? What is going to happen? (future)


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