די טוב / טוב מאוד

[Sidjanga]

,שלום

.הי יודעת אנגית תוב מאד
.הוא יןדע אנגית די תוב​

Is די always placed before the adjective and תוב always after it?
Can I use them invariably with any adjective?
​

​

תודה רבא​

 

[Mjolnir]

,שלום

.היא יודעת אנגלית תטוב מאוד
.הוא יןודע אנגלית די תטוב​

Is די always placed before the adjective and תטוב always after it?
Can I use them invariably with any adjective?
​

​

תודה רבאה​

Think of די like 'quite' or 'pretty'.

She knows English very well.
He knows English quite / pretty well.

The rules are the same as the English rules about 'quite'. There might be some exceptions, but I can't think of any right now.

 

[Sidjanga]

Thanks very much, Mjolnir, for your answer and the corrections.

Is there any difference (e.g. in pronounciation) between ט and ת, apart from the orthographic convention being that טוב, for example, is spelt with ט?

 

[Mjolnir]

No, there's no difference in pronunciation (in modern Hebrew at least).

 

[scriptum]

.הי יודעת אנגית תוב מאד
.הוא יןדע אנגית די תוב​

Is די always placed before the adjective and תוב always after it?​

Can I use them invariably with any adjective?

Hi Sigianga,
In your examples there are no adjectives; both טוב and די are placed after the verb.
Now די can be used both before and after the adjective. In the second case it means "enough" and takes either a pronominal suffix or the form למדי. Examples:
די מוצלח
מוצלח דיו
מוצלח למדי​

טוב cannot be used with an adjective. It is an adjective itself.​

 

[cfu507]

די טוב and טוב מאוד describe the verb יודעת so they need to be after the verb. In the sentence you gave, the word טוב is an adverb. Think about the word די like quantity, how much טוב. The word די in this case has to be before טוב.

In scriptum's examples, מוצלח is an adjective. I just want to add that the word די , as it is, without changes to למדי or דיו has to be before the adjective!
The words למדי and דיו will always come after what they describe, that is, after the adjective.

 

[Sidjanga]

Thanks very much to everyone!
Very good explanations and examples.

טוב cannot be used with an adjective. It is an adjective itself.

Well, I don't know how, but in the first post I accidentally wrote טוב instead of מאוד (as to if it could be placed before the adjective/adverb it modifies).

So, is מאוד always placed after the adjective/adverb it modifies, i.e., does it always have to be טוב מאוד, or is it possible say מאוד טוב?

 

[Mjolnir]

I think the rule is that מאוד always comes after an adjective, meaning it's always טוב מאוד.

However, I'm not really sure, because both אני שמח מאוד and אני מאוד שמח are common.

Let's wait for someone that actually remembers what he studied in school

 

[scriptum]

So, is מאוד always placed after the adjective/adverb it modifies, i.e., does it always have to be טוב מאוד, or is it possible say מאוד טוב?

In the Bible מאוד is placed after the adjective.
However, in Russian the word usually translated as מאוד is placed before the adjective.
In other words, the speaker should use מאד before the adjective and suffer from pangs of conscience after it...

 

[cfu507]

We usually say מאוד after the adjective in Hebrew, but you can say both ways. I would add that when you say מאוד before an adjective it's like that you emphasize it.
איך אתה מרגיש? טוב מאוד
איך אתה מרגיש? מאוד טוב –במצב זה גם אפילו מבטאים את המילה "מאוד" ארוך, אחרת זה נשמע קצת מוזר

However:
כמה קיבלת בבוחן? טוב מאוד
In this example you can’t say מאוד טוב, because that’s how we say this kind of grade.

 

[Sidjanga]

Many thanks again, especially to cfu507 for the examples!

Cheers,
S.