# זוכרת לך



## airelibre

I just wanted to clear up some confusion I had about a line in a song:
חיוך אחד שזוכרת לך

http://www.yosmusic.com/article.asp?id=12084&xyz=100

I know you can say:
זוכרת אותך 
remembers you 
and
מזכירה לך
reminds you

but I don't think you can say זוכרת לך, on its own, is that right?

Besides, חיוך is masculine so זוכרת definitely refers to the singer. What I'm unsure of is what לך means.
"A smile for you that I remember"?


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## arbelyoni

זוכרת לך is perfectly fine on its own.
Compare Jeremiah 2:2: זכרתי לך חסד נעורייך (I remember thee the kindness of thy youth). There are many occurences of this structure in the bible and it's very common in Modern Hebrew too.
I can't find a proper equivalent in English, so I'd say it's something like "to remember to one's credit".

Edit: Ok, I just learned that it's called dative of interest, and you may find this and this link (p. 208) useful.


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## airelibre

Hmm, I still don't understand. I read through all of the links you provided, and it was all stuff I already understood implicitly, which was then given confusing linguistic terminology. I didn't understand which parts are supposedly relevant to my question.

What is the difference in meaning between:
חיוך אחד שזוכרת אותך ניצח את השיכחה
חיוך אחד שזוכרת לך ניצח את השיכחה
?


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## Tararam

airelibre said:


> Hmm, I still don't understand. I read through all of the links you provided, and it was all stuff I already understood implicitly, which was then given confusing linguistic terminology. I didn't understand which parts are supposedly relevant to my question.
> 
> What is the difference in meaning between:
> חיוך אחד שזוכרת אותך ניצח את השיכחה
> חיוך אחד שזוכרת לך ניצח את השיכחה
> ?



The first one is meaningless, the second one means "a smile I remember to your credit (to your favor) beat oblivion ("forgetfulness").
לזכור את = remember X 
לזכור ל = to remember to X's credit (that...)

It doesn't always have a good connotation:
"תמיד אזכור לך שנטשת אותי" = "I will never forget you abandoned me!" (I resent you for it).

Basically, "לזכור ל" means to remember a specific thing X has done/been, and express gratitude/resentment towards it (according to context).


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## airelibre

I don't know what you mean by "to your credit, to your favor". Any other way of wording  this, in English or Hebrew?


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## Tararam

Oh, of course. I only meant that "חיוך אחד שזוכרת אותך ניצח את השכחה" is not correct.


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## airelibre

Tararam said:


> Oh, of course. I only meant that "חיוך אחד שזוכרת אותך ניצח את השכחה" is not correct.


Sorry, maybe you wrote this before I edited my post.


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## arbelyoni

airelibre said:


> Hmm, I still don't understand. I read through all of the links you provided, and it was all stuff I already understood implicitly, which was then given confusing linguistic terminology. I didn't understand which parts are supposedly relevant to my question.
> 
> What is the difference in meaning between:
> חיוך אחד שזוכרת אותך ניצח את השיכחה
> חיוך אחד שזוכרת לך ניצח את השיכחה
> ?


Sorry, I didn't mean to make things more complicated. This kind of "ל..." is very common in Modern Hebrew (the first link provides a lot of good examples in the second page, "dative of interest"), but almost isn't found at all in English; therefore we find it particularly difficult to translate it.

Maybe if we'll take it as an expression it would be easier to understand:
לזכור למישהו משהו means either "hold something against someone" or "give someone credit for something". In other words in Hebrew: לזקוף מעשה לזכותו או לחובתו של מישהו.
For example:
1) הוא כבר לא משחק טוב כמו פעם, אבל אני עוד זוכר לו חסד נעורים (that is- I remember favorably his good times).
2) אני זוכר לו את מה שהוא אמר עלי מאחורי הגב (that is- I hold it against him)

In the song, חיוך אחד שזוכרת לך means that she remembers his smile favorably (לזכותו). We know that she remembers it in a good way because of the context (apparently it beats oblivion, so it must be a positive memory).


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## airelibre

Ok, that's clearer to me, thank you.


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## Ali Smith

Tararam said:


> לזכור את = remember X
> לזכור ל = to remember to X's credit (that...)



But לזכור can also mean "to think of/about", can't it?


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## GeriReshef

Ali Smith said:


> But לזכור can also mean "to think of/about", can't it?


To remember and to think are done in the mind, so when you remember something yo think about it;
but I don't remember (or think?  ) there is a use of לזכור which is a synonym of לחשוב על.
The oposites of both verbs (לזכור לשכוח to remember to forget Vs. לחשוב לא-לחשוב to think not-to think) imply about the difference.
Do you have an example that makes you think so?


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## Ali Smith

Not really. It's just that my Hebrew-German dictionary translated it as _denken an_, while my Hebrew-French dictionary translated it as _se rappeler_. The latter is what I had expected; the former surprised me.


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## amikama

It seems that your dictionaries often confuse you. לזכור doesn't mean "to think of/about".


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## Drink

It seems you shouldn't be using dictionaries in French and German if you don't know French and German well enough.


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