Estonian to Hebrew: tundma can describe familiarity or a feeling
Knowing a person and feeling pain are different meanings
Ma tunnen seda inimest says that the speaker knows or is familiar with a person. Ma tunnen valu says that the speaker feels pain. The Estonian Language Institute records both familiarity and sensory or emotional experience under tundma. Hebrew wording should identify which meaning is active rather than reuse one target verb for every occurrence.
The University of Vermont’s original Hebrew lesson distinguishes makir for acquaintance or familiarity from yodea for knowledge of an issue, subject or language. The University of Texas glossary separately lists מרגיש, margish, for feeling. Together these resources help separate familiarity, factual knowledge and a bodily or emotional experience.
What follows the Estonian verb identifies the relationship
Ma tunnen õpetajat concerns a relationship to the teacher as a person. Ma tean vastust concerns knowing an answer. Knowing the teacher does not imply knowing the answer to a question, and knowing the answer does not establish personal acquaintance with the teacher. The Hebrew rendering should preserve which knowledge relationship the writer actually claims. Knowing the teacher’s name alone does not establish a personal acquaintance.
Kuidas sa end tunned? asks about the listener’s condition or feelings. It is not normally a question asking how well the listener is acquainted with themself. A target acquaintance verb selected from the earlier teacher example would change the purpose of this ordinary check-in.
Likewise, Ta tunneb rõõmu reports an emotion rather than knowledge of a person named Joy. The source dictionary gives emotional expressions as another use of tundma. Hebrew should express the experienced emotion without treating every following noun as the object of acquaintance.
Recognition in a particular moment is not the same as lasting acquaintance
Ta tundis mind ära reports recognising the speaker. The particle ära belongs to the expression and should not be dropped merely because tundma can already describe knowing somebody. A person may be acquainted with the speaker but fail to recognise them in a photograph or an unfamiliar setting. The translation should retain the particular recognition event.
Ma ei tunne teda and Ma ei tundnud teda ära can therefore give different explanations. The first can deny acquaintance; the second denies recognition on an occasion. Turning the latter into never having known the person would add a stronger biographical claim than the Estonian provides.
Finally, the Texas glossary identifies the cited Hebrew feel form as masculine singular. Estonian Ma tunnen does not specify the speaker’s gender, so that example must not determine agreement for every writer. Selecting a Hebrew expression appropriate to the actual speaker, while keeping familiarity, factual knowledge, present feeling and momentary recognition distinct, preserves what the Estonian message communicates instead of allowing a broad English gloss such as know or feel to decide all the target wording.
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