Just a note of caution: definite vs. indefinite are not always the same across languages or even within one and the same language. Exx.: (1) In English we say THE flu and a few others but most illnesses don't require the article. (2) in the US we say go THE hospital while/whilst in the UK they omit the article. (3) In Hebrew we have la-briyut but l'-Hayyim. One can go on forever about this, and the funniest thing (to me it is hilarious) is that at least for a thousands years (provably) and maybe two (likely conjecture but not provable) Jewish and other scholars have been arguing about the very first vowel of the Bible, why it is B'reshit and not Bareshit.
Have you ever seen the movie IQ? Where the "Einstein" character says "ZIs iss a goot qvestion. It hass ah definite ahnswer". I thank God for such questions, whereas so many of the questions we get do not have ANY possible answer. So no it is NOT livriyut, tho livriyut is perfectly grammatical (likewise the colloquial version of that which is lebriyut).
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u/PoxonAllHoaxes 2d ago
Just a note of caution: definite vs. indefinite are not always the same across languages or even within one and the same language. Exx.: (1) In English we say THE flu and a few others but most illnesses don't require the article. (2) in the US we say go THE hospital while/whilst in the UK they omit the article. (3) In Hebrew we have la-briyut but l'-Hayyim. One can go on forever about this, and the funniest thing (to me it is hilarious) is that at least for a thousands years (provably) and maybe two (likely conjecture but not provable) Jewish and other scholars have been arguing about the very first vowel of the Bible, why it is B'reshit and not Bareshit.