Prepare (yourself)

[airelibre]

I know that להתכונן means to prepare oneself for an action, such as getting ready for a race. Can it also be used in "prepare (yourself), this is not going to be nice"?. I suppose you could also say in English 'be prepared'. Is להתכונן, להכין or something else used?

 

[arielipi]

You can say lehitkonen for something bad.
The difference between lehachin and lehitkonen is that the first is active, second reflexive.

 

[origumi]

תתכונן לצרות sounds well.
תכין את עצמך לצרות is also good, less frequent I guess.
תהיה מוכן לצרות works too.

 

[airelibre]

Thanks very much.

 

[Ali Smith]

Are the root letters of התכונן k-w-n? If so why is the n doubled?

 

[Drink]

Are the root letters of התכונן k-w-n? If so why is the n doubled?

Yes. The hitpolel binyan is usually used for hollow roots, and it doubles the last root letter. Often it is used for geminate roots as well, in which case the last two root letters are already double. Sometimes other weird things happen like with התרוקן.

 

[Techref]

You can say lehitkonen for something bad.
The difference between lehachin and lehitkonen is that the first is active, second reflexive.

I guess you could also say היכונו to a group or היכן to an individual
להכין is mainly for preparing stuff, like breakfast, coffee and such. I'm not sure if it can be use for the above.

 

[Drink]

Yes, that's because להכין is transitive, while להיכון and להתכונן are passive/reflexive.

 

[Ali Smith]

But you might not want to use להתכונן because it can also be used to mean "to plan/intend (to do something)". For example,

X: היכן אתה גר?
Y: אני גר בינתיים במלון דן.
X: טוב מאוד. זה קרוב לשגרירות.
Y: כן, נכון.
X: ואיפה אתה מתכונן לגור? "And where do you plan to live?"

(From FSI Hebrew Basic Course)

 

[Drink]

People don't avoid words just because they have another meaning. Most people will not use להיכון. They will use להתכונן. The meaning is clarified by context.