# לגמרי/לחלוטין



## airelibre

Are these two words completely interchangeable or do they have separate uses? Can they be used on their own to signal agreement?


----------



## arielipi

I cant think off the top of my head of a sentence where they arent interchangeable, but im sure there is.
They can be used on their own to signal agreement in fashion of totally.


----------



## anipo

I agree. They are interchangeable. They can also serve on their own to convey agreement, after some statements or questions in the same way as "absolutely" in English (but not in all cases). !אתה חושב שיעקב צודק? לגמרי/ לחלוטין
But it wouldn't work that well in ?אתה רוצה לאכול עכשיו. In English you could answer "absolutely". In Hebrew (even if there is an ad over the radio with a similar question), at least to me, it sounds quite awful. 
I wonder what other Hebrew speakers think about it...


----------



## airelibre

I think that's because you can say "אתה צודק לגמרי" but it would be strange to say "אתה רוצה לגמרי".


----------



## arielipi

airelibre said:


> I think that's because you can say "אתה צודק לגמרי" but it would be strange to say "אתה רוצה לגמרי".



on the other hand אתה לגמרי רוצה would be incredibly fine.
i agree with anipo, and thats why i used the word totally and not absolutely.


----------



## airelibre

Do you agree with what he said, that "it sounds quite awful"?


----------



## arielipi

airelibre said:


> Do you agree with what he said, that "it sounds quite awful"?


it sounds indeed as forcing english into hebrew, לגמרי could work for a child, but nothing more.


----------



## airelibre

Ok thanks.

If I was asked "?אתה רוצה לאכול עכשיו", I wouldn't naturally use לגמרי/לחלוטין. I would say בטח or בודאי. Would these sound mo natural or are they even worse?


----------



## ystab

Yes they would. It is exactly like the difference between completely/absolutely/totally and sure/of course.


----------



## airelibre

Ok thanks.


----------

