# דבר for adjectives



## sawyeric1

I've come across sentences where instead of just using the adjective with the noun, דבר is added with the adjective modifying it instead. Ex:

Boot camp will be challenging, but I can do it
טירונות תהיה דבר מאתגר, אבל אני יכול לעשות את זה

Teaching is challenging but rewarding
ללמד זה דבר מאתגר אבל מהנה

I thought it was a coincidence that they both used the adjective, "challenging", but maybe this form is particular to this adjective. But if not, I was wondering how to know when to use the דבר + adjective form.

Thanks


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## aavichai

if I'll translate it literally

then it is 
boot camp would be / will be a challenging THING, but...


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## slus

You can say:
זה יהיה דבר נפלא
זה יהיה דבר נהדר
זה יהיה דבר מפחיד
etc.
But you can also say the same things without "דבר":
הטירונות תהיה מאתגרת, אבל אני יכול לעשות את זה
ללמד זה מאתגר, אבל מהנה


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## sawyeric1

Okay, so maybe saying "דבר + adjective" is just a more common expression in Hebrew than in English. The examples would sound wrong if translated literally into English


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## sawyeric1

A button is a hard thing to find
כפתור זה דבר שקשה למצוא

Why can't you say "כפתור זה דבר קשה למצוא" (without the -ש)?


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## slus

Without the ש the translation would be:
A button is a thing hard to find.
This ש is called ש הזיקה. Is represents the word אשר.


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## shalom00

slus said:


> Without the ש the translation would be:
> A button is a thing hard to find.



Which you could say in English.
Another translation would be:
A button is something hard to find.


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## sawyeric1

shalom00 said:


> Which you could say in English



You can't say "A button is a thing hard to find" in English, because adjectives don't follow their nouns. So if that's what it would translate to without the ש, then that means that it can't be a correct sentence unless it has the ש. Is that the case?


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## Egmont

sawyeric1 said:


> You can't say "A button is a thing hard to find" in English, because adjectives don't follow their nouns. So if that's what it would translate to without the ש, then that means that it can't be a correct sentence unless it has the ש. Is that the case?



However, you can say "A button is a thing _that is_ hard to find" in grammatically correct English. Allowing for the English use of the second "is" that Hebrew doesn't have in the same way, that would be a literal translation of the Hebrew "כפתור זה דבר שקשה למצוא" . The English "that" here corresponds to the Hebrew "ש" or "אשר" .


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