# Ahalnu ota - אכלנו אותה



## Chazz

Hi,

Is there a similiar idiom / expression in english?


For example: Ha malon lo haya tov, *ahalnu ota legamre.*



Toda


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## tFighterPilot

"We're screwed"


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## arielipi

כן נכון,אבל....זה קצת פחות לטעמי


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## David S

What is ota referring to?


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## arielipi

its an idiom/expression.
i guess itd point to the goodness - hatova.(=the good fate we had seized)


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## origumi

arielipi said:


> its an idiom/expression.
> i guess itd point to the goodness - hatova.(=the good fate we had seized)


Usually the opposite - bad fate. As in הו הא מה קרה צ'סקא *אכלה אותה* when the Russian team lost the game to Maccabi. I think that אותה alone doesn't have any specific meaning in this content (but maybe someone else knows more about the idiom's origin).

And then there's the other side as in *אכלנו אותם* בלי מלח which shows victory. Here  אותם is the opponents.


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## arielipi

yes, thats why i thought it could be directed as hatova as we finished our good times for now.


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## arbelyoni

> What is ota referring to?


Nothing in particular - it's impersonal, a dummy object.
According to Ruvik Rosenthal and Avshalom Kor, it's a loan translation from Arabic (namely Maghrebi Arabic) in which impersonal elements are usually feminine.


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## David S

arbelyoni said:


> Nothing in particular - it's impersonal, a dummy object.
> According to Ruvik Rosenthal and Avshalom Kor, it's a loan translation from Arabic (namely Maghrebi Arabic) in which impersonal elements are usually feminine.



Okay, so it's like when people say "zot omeret" to mean "that is..."


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## origumi

arbelyoni said:


> it's a loan translation from Arabic (namely Maghrebi Arabic) in which impersonal elements are usually feminine.


If only in Maghrebi - could be Arabic interpretation of the Latin languages reflexive verb.


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## arielipi

zot omeret = (im going to) explain (what i have just tried to) better/further.


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## Gwunderi

origumi said:


> ... as in *אכלנו אותם* בלי מלח which shows victory.


Does that mean "We ate them without salt"? And does it mean that we won over them (slang)?
Can you use it for sports, or war, or a play, or for all of them?
I like it, and it would be the first slang expression i learn in Hebrew


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## arbelyoni

> Does that mean "We ate them without salt"? And does it mean that we won over them (slang)?
> Can you use it for sports, or war, or a play, or for all of them?


It means we defeated them very easily (a humiliating defeat).


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## Gwunderi

arbelyoni said:


> It means we defeated them very easily (a humiliating defeat).



I imagined that - Toda raba!


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