# להות [להוותי]‏



## Colla

On an online dictionary the meaning of the word "להות" is given as:
"unfortunately, tragically", but I wonder if that is correct since I found this translation only in one of the several dictionaries I examined.


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## yuval9

Are you sure you spelled the word right?
maybe you meant:
להיות
להוות
להוט
?


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## Colla

I am sure of the spelling. This is the link to the dictionary: http://morfix.mako.co.il/Default.aspx?q=להות


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## origumi

I share yuval's feeling that you may need another word.

Anyway, in the Bible the word הוות (for which להות could be the infinitive form) appears several times and means tragedy, distress, trouble, mishap. In modern Hebrew we use only a certain form of the word, להוותי (in 1st, 2nd, 3rd body, sing. or pl.) which usually means "unfortunately" or similar. For example: להוותי נכשלתי במבחן = I was unfortunate to fail the exam. It's high register though and used rarely. The root is הוה, which looks like "to be" but is most likely not related. I remeber seeing cognates in other Semitic language(s) but do not have any reference ready.


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## berndf

origumi said:


> Anyway, in the Bible the word הוות (for which להות could be the infinitive form) appears several times and means tragedy, distress, trouble, mishap.


If להות is an adverb. Could ל be a preposition for the common noun הות, i.e. the the whole thing being an adverbial meaning _to-tragedy_=_tragically_?


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## origumi

Ok, I didn't read the nikkud correctly. It's לְהַוַּת and according to Morfix an adverb. Literally להוות is "to the הווה of", להוותי is "to my distress" and so on. This is the usage I described above for modern Hebrew, while in the Bible it appears a lot with no initial ל (Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Micah).

Is an expression like "to my sorrow" in English regarded as an adverb? this is the same structure.


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## berndf

origumi said:


> Is an expression like "to my sorrow" in English regarded as an adverb? this is the same structure.


Yes, it is an adverb*ial* (the term I used above), i.e. a group of words collectively having the syntactic function of an adverb.


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## Colla

Yes the correct spelling is "לְהַוַּת", as shown in the link above. However I didn't understand if for you this exact word means what the dictionary reports.


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## origumi

לְהַוַּת means exactly what Morfix says. Note that this is a construct state (סמיכות) so requires something to follow, such as להוותי or להוות האומללים.


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