# ניתן לפנות



## Serafim.

Hello , 

ניתן לפנות  means "please contact" but I could not see any word comes to mean "please" and "contact" in it. What does this mean word by word ?
Does it mean "allowed to talk" ? If so, is  ניתן an adjective or verb in this phrase ? 

Thank you


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## ks20495

ניתן means "possible."
לפנות most basically means "to turn" and "to face," but by extension it means "to approach/to contact (seeking information...not like contacting a friend)".

ניתן is a verb in present tense. It is בניין נפעל; the root is נ-ת-נ. (It literally means "is given". But, idiomatically, it means "is possible".)


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## wolfman1

great answer by ks20495


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## Serafim.

Thank you very much for your help.


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## OsehAlyah

I'm curious why would ניתן be used instead of אפשר?


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## ks20495

ניתן is more formal and less about physical capability (sort of like the difference between "may" and "can").


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## OsehAlyah

ks20495 said:


> ניתן is more formal and less about physical capability (sort of like the difference between "may" and "can").


Thanks ks. But I'm afraid I'm even more confused now.   Does that mean אפשר denotes physical capability only/mostly/generally? If this is the case I'm wondering why would יכל not be used? I'm also wondering if ניתן really means "Here is ..." or does it really mean "Possible ..."?
Sorry, I'm trying to pin down the subtlety of the varying meanings behind נ-ת-ן

Thank You.


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## ks20495

I'm not sure how to verbalize this...So, I'll just give examples of each in a context they might be heard:

אפשר:
?אפשר ללכת לשירותים
_May I go to the bathroom?_

.אפשר לטוס למזרח אסיה
_You/one can fly to east Asia._

יכול:
.הוא יכול לקרוא ספר בשעה
_He can read a book in an hour._

.אני יכול לדבר רוסית
_I can speak Russian._

ניתן:
.ניתן לשנות את החוקים
_The laws can be changed._
_It is possible to change the laws._


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## Ali Smith

So, if I wanted to say "May I speak to/address you in Hebrew?" could I say the following?

האם ניתן לפנות אליך בעברית?


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## Techref

?אפשר לדבר לך בעברית


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## Ali Smith

Thanks, but לפנות can be used with the same meaning, can't it?


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## Drink

לפנות refers to the direction of your speech, not the words you're saying. So it wouldn't make much sense to say לפנות with a particular language.


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