# בטוח שברצונך לכבות את המחשב כעת?‏



## zaw

Hi,

I had a couple of questions about the sentence בטוח שברצונך לכבות את המחשב כעת?

1. Where is its subject?
2. How do you pronounce שברצונך? My guess: she be ra tson kha
3. Why use the Biblical כַּעֵת instead of the modern עַכשָׁיו?

Toda raba


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## Abaye

1. For the main sentence: the sentence is short for either: האם אתה בטוח ש and then the subject is (the implied) אתה, or האם זה בטוח ש and then the subject is (the implied) זה. Both alternatives make sense.

For the secondary sentence ברצונך לכבות את המחשב: I think that practically there's no subject although formally there may be one, perhaps again an implied זה like: זה ברצונך.

2. she-bir-tson-kha. There are explanations for the differences between your intuitive guess and the actual pronunciation, please ask if you want elaboration.

3. כעת is no more biblical than thousands of other words that are used since the bible until today.


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## Ali Smith

שברצונך is pronounced שֶׁבִרְצוֹנְךָ because the vowel in the first syllable of רָצוֹן reduces to a שוא with the addition of the pronominal suffix (əḵā). Why? Because rā becomes a propretonic syllable whose vowel was historically short. Remember, historically, רָצוֹן 'will, willpower; favor, benevolence' was raṣun > rāṣо̄n.

Then, when you add the preposition בְּ, you have two שוא נעs in a row, which is not allowed. The first one changes to a חיריק, and voilà! You have בִּרְצוֹנְךָ.


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## Abaye

And one more comment: the letter ר has שווא נע but the שווא is not pronounced at all, as if it was שווא נח, because preceded by one of the בכל"מ prefix letters.


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## amikama

Abaye said:


> 1. For the main sentence: the sentence is short for either: האם אתה בטוח ש and then the subject is (the implied) אתה, or האם זה בטוח ש and then the subject is (the implied) זה. Both alternatives make sense.


I think only the former makes sense. The latter would be "Is it safe that you want to..." .
I agree that the subject is the implied אתה. 



Abaye said:


> For the secondary sentence ברצונך לכבות את המחשב: I think that practically there's no subject although formally there may be one, perhaps again an implied זה like: זה ברצונך.


I think that the subject is לכבות את המחשב. You could rewrite it as לכבות את המחשב זה ברצונך (although it's very awkward), so you can see that לכבות את המחשב is the subject and ברצונך is the predicate.


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## Abaye

amikama said:


> I think only the former makes sense. The latter would be "Is it safe that you want to..." .


What I had in mind is: "Is it a sure thing that you want to...".


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## Drink

Ali Smith said:


> Remember, historically, רָצוֹן 'will, willpower; favor, benevolence' was raṣun > rāṣо̄n.



It is -ān, not -un. It's a common suffix across Semitic languages, so there isn't much of a question about it.


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## amikama

Abaye said:


> What I had in mind is: "Is it a sure thing that you want to...".


OK, that makes sense. But still "Are you sure you want to..." makes more sense  That was my first interpretation before reading your reply.


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## Ali Smith

Drink said:


> It is -ān, not -un. It's a common suffix across Semitic languages, so there isn't much of a question about it.


Yeah, that works, too. What would the third root letter be if it’s not nun though?


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## Drink

Ali Smith said:


> Yeah, that works, too. What would the third root letter be if it’s not nun though?


Look at the meaning of the word and I'm sure you can figure it out


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