# Surely not!



## airelibre

I'm looking for a way of saying 'Surely not!'. I have heard נו, באמת for a sense of 'come on now, really?' but I'm looking for more the sense of when someone has heard something that they don't want, or hope not to be true, or something that they don't believe or are surprised at. 
Are there any closer translations to this?
Thank you


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## origumi

מה פתאום = surely not, literally "what suddenly"
בשום פנים ואופן = (followed by לא) absolutely not (strong refusal), literally "no way"
חס וחלילה = may something (horrible) not happen
לא מני ולא מקצתי = not whatever you said and not even part of it

The first one is colloquial, the other get more high register.


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## mediterraneo24

Another, very common option would be אין מצב


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## airelibre

Thank you for all the suggestions.


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## TrampGuy

mediterraneo24 said:


> Another, very common option would be אין מצב



This ^^ would be a good 'everyday-spoken' option. Another of the same sort could be לא נכון!
The intonation of these two would vary the meaning between being surprised/shocked to hoping for something not to be true.
If I were to translate them back from Hebrew to English, I would probably choose "no way!"  *EDIT - just noticed you're from England, so it might be more common as surely not over there?*.

נו, באמת - is indeed more like "come on".


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## amikama

*The discussion about the expression לא מני ולא מקצתי is now in a thread of its own.*


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## talmid

airelibre said:


> I'm looking for a way of saying 'Surely not!'. I have heard נו, באמת for a sense of 'come on now, really?' but I'm looking for more the sense of when someone has heard something that they don't want, or hope not to be true, or something that they don't believe or are surprised at.
> Are there any closer translations to this?
> Thank you


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070612  0053

Hi !

 As an additional suggestion, perhaps you might  say:

"   !  ההאם אתה מתבדח   "

or, simply, 

    "  ?  אתה מתבדח  "


I hope this might be helpful 


Best wishes


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## arbelyoni

> As an additional suggestion, perhaps you might say:
> 
> " ! ההאם אתה מתבדח "
> 
> or, simply,
> 
> " ? אתה מתבדח "


האם and מתבדח are not common in colloquial speech. A better flowing version would be: אתה צוחק עלי!


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## talmid

090612   0240

Hi Arbelyoni !

I try constantly to improve my knowledge of Ivrit and, when I have the opportunity, I do this by listening to others

I believe that I must have heard the phrase I suggested being used in general conversation  and , as far as I can recall, I may have heard it being used on more than one occasion

I sincerely welcome all comment and have noted your suggestion for my future use.
Thank you


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## arbelyoni

> I believe that I must have heard the phrase I suggested being used in general conversation and , as far as I can recall, I may have heard it being used on more than one occasion


It's very possible that you've heard it, but אתה צוחק עלי is ultimately more common and natural.
I can't imagine a native Hebrew speaker saying האם אתה מתבדח without being self ironic...


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## origumi

arbelyoni said:


> I can't imagine a native Hebrew speaker saying האם אתה מתבדח without being self ironic...


מי שאומר "האם אתה מתבדח" די מתפדח, it sounds too old fashioned.

However, the web is full of such examples, I guess all are from written (vs. spoken) cases.


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