to dream ~ to have a dream

[Ser]

I was watching this lyric video of a Japanese electronic song when I noticed the line translated as "that I have a stupid dream", where the expression is literally "to see a dream" in the original Japanese. It reminded me of Arabic, where you also "see" a dream, and also of French and Mandarin where you don't "have" a dream but "do" a dream.

How do you translate intransitive "to dream" into your languages, in the sense of seeing unreal images in general? (Do not include the meaning that is close to "to hope".) Constructions with light verbs like "to have a dream" are especially welcome. Please provide a literal translation of light verb constructions.

---

Notes on my contributions below:

In Latin, somnium somniāre is attested twice in Plautus (mirum atque inscitum somniavi somnium--Rudens 597; somnium quod noctu hac somniavi--Miles Gloriosus 381), and somnium vidēre is indirectly attested in Seneca (molestus est iucundum somnium videnti--Epistulae 102.1).

Mandarin doesn't have a verb meaning "to dream", only using the verb-object compound zuo4-meng4 instead. (Well, unless you're aiming for a classical-sounding style, in which case you could use 夢 meng4 as a verb, I suppose...) It appears to me after checking a couple dictionaries that Japanese only uses the light verb construction (夢見る yumemiru appears to be transitive).

to dream, to have a dream

rêver, faire un rêve (do a dream)
somniāre, somnium vidēre (see a dream), somnium somniāre (dream a dream)
soñar, tener un sueño (have a dream)

حلم or رأى حلمًا
Halama, ra2aa Hulman (see a dream)

做夢，做個夢
zuo4-meng4 (do-dream), zuo4 ge meng4 (do a dream)
發夢
faat3-mung6 (send-dream)

夢を見る
yume o miru (see a dream)

[linguoboy]

Irish in interesting insofar as it often uses impersonal constructions:

(Munster) Deineadh taibhreamh dom. "It did a dream to me." (CO: Rinneadh...)
Taibhríodh dom. "It dreamed to me."

Periphrastic personal constructions are also possible:

Rinne mé brionglóid air. "I made/did a dream on it."
Bhí mé ag brionglóideach faoi. "I was dreaming about it."

As are possessive ones. (These may be relatively recent calques on English.)

Bhí taibhreamh/brionglóid agam. "I had a dream."

ETA: I don't know if it would be interesting to also include prepositions used to indicate the subject of a dream, since there's is a lot of variation there was well. As you can see from the Irish examples, you dream "on" ar or "under/about" faoi something. In Welsh, by contrast, you dream "about" am or "with" hefo something.

[linguoboy]

to dream, to have a dream

rêver, faire un rêve (do a dream)
somniāre, somnium vidēre (see a dream), somnium somniāre (dream a dream)
soñar, tener un sueño (have a dream)

breuddwydio, cael breuddwyd (get a dream)

حلم or رأى حلمًا
Halama, ra2aa Hulman (see a dream)

做夢，做個夢
zuo4-meng4 (do-dream), zuo4 ge meng4 (do a dream)
發夢
faat3-mung6 (send-dream)

夢を見る
yume o miru (see a dream)[/quote]

꿈꾸다
kkwum-kkwuta (dream a dream)

[voron]

+ru, ku, tr

to dream, to have a dream

rêver, faire un rêve (do a dream)
somniāre, somnium vidēre (see a dream), somnium somniāre (dream a dream)
soñar, tener un sueño (have a dream)

сниться, видеть сон (see a dream)

breuddwydio, cael breuddwyd (get a dream)

xewn dîtin (see a dream)

rüya görmek (see a dream)

حلم or رأى حلمًا
Halama, ra2aa Hulman (see a dream)

做夢，做個夢
zuo4-meng4 (do-dream), zuo4 ge meng4 (do a dream)
發夢
faat3-mung6 (send-dream)

夢を見る
yume o miru (see a dream)

꿈꾸다
kkwum-kkwuta (dream a dream)

[voron]

Irish in interesting insofar as it often uses impersonal constructions:

(Munster) Deineadh taibhreamh dom. "It did a dream to me." (CO: Rinneadh...)
Taibhríodh dom. "It dreamed to me."

The same in Russian:
Это мне приснилось. "It dreamed to me."

[h34]

Irish in interesting insofar as it often uses impersonal constructions:

(Munster) Deineadh taibhreamh dom. "It did a dream to me." (CO: Rinneadh...)
Taibhríodh dom. "It dreamed to me."

The same in Russian:
Это мне приснилось. "It dreamed to me."

Also in (poetic) German:
Es träumte mich. "It dreamed to me."

+ de, lv, mhr (The Latvian construction A (dative) is B (nominative) usually corresponds to the English A has B, so I translated it as 'have'.)

to dream, to have a dream
träumen, einen Traum haben (have a dream)

rêver, faire un rêve (do a dream)
somniāre, somnium vidēre (see a dream), somnium somniāre (dream a dream)
soñar, tener un sueño (have a dream)

сниться, видеть сон (see a dream)

sapņot, DATIVE ir sapnis (have a dream)

breuddwydio, cael breuddwyd (get a dream)

xewn dîtin (see a dream)

омым ужаш (see a dream)

rüya görmek (see a dream)

حلم or رأى حلمًا
Halama, ra2aa Hulman (see a dream)

做夢，做個夢
zuo4-meng4 (do-dream), zuo4 ge meng4 (do a dream)
發夢
faat3-mung6 (send-dream)

夢を見る
yume o miru (see a dream)

꿈꾸다
kkwum-kkwuta (dream a dream)

[linguoboy]

Irish in interesting insofar as it often uses impersonal constructions:

(Munster) Deineadh taibhreamh dom. "It did a dream to me." (CO: Rinneadh...)
Taibhríodh dom. "It dreamed to me."

The same in Russian:
Это мне приснилось. "It dreamed to me."

Also in (poetic) German:
Es träumte mich. "It dreamed to me."

But mich is accusative.

[Linguaphile]

+Estonian, Võro, Votic, Livonian, Veps, Ludic, Hmong. In the Finnic languages you can say either "to see sleep" (with "sleep" in the partitive case) or "to see in sleep" (with "sleep" in the inessive case).
The Estonian word for the noun "dream" itself is interesting: unenägu. I know that etymologically the second component must be related to sight (nägema means "to see") so it is a "sleep-vision," but in modern Estonian nägu on its own doesn't have a meaning related to sight or vision anymore, it means "face" or "facial expression"... so we are left with a word for "dream" that appears to mean "sleep-face."



to dream, to have a dream
träumen, einen Traum haben (have a dream)

rêver, faire un rêve (do a dream)
somniāre, somnium vidēre (see a dream), somnium somniāre (dream a dream)
soñar, tener un sueño (have a dream)

сниться, видеть сон (see a dream)

sapņot, DATIVE ir sapnis (have a dream)

breuddwydio, cael breuddwyd (get a dream)

xewn dîtin (see a dream)

омым ужаш (see a dream)

rüya görmek (see a dream)

حلم or رأى حلمًا Halama, ra2aa Hulman (see a dream)

unistama, unes nägema (see in sleep), und nägema (see sleep)
unistama, unõn nägemä (see in sleep), und nägemä (see sleep)
unes nähta (see in sleep), unt nähta (see sleep)
unes nähta (see in sleep), unt nähta (see sleep)
unõz nähä (see in sleep), unta nähä (see sleep)
uņštõ, unsõ nǟdõ (see in sleep), ūnda nǟdõ (see sleep)

做夢，做個夢 zuo4-meng4 (do-dream), zuo4 ge meng4 (do a dream)
發夢 faat3-mung6 (send-dream)

ua npau sauv (do [a] dream)

夢を見る yume o miru (see a dream)

꿈꾸다 kkwum-kkwuta (dream a dream)

[h34]

The same in Russian:
Это мне приснилось. "It dreamed to me."

Also in (poetic) German:
Es träumte mich. "It dreamed to me."

But mich is accusative.

You can use either the accusative (mich) or the dative (mir). Of course the version with the dative is even more similar to the Russian one: Es träumte mir. (I just found it interesting that in all these constructions the person who dreams is the 'object'.)

to dream, to have a dream
träumen, einen Traum haben (have a dream)

rêver, faire un rêve (do a dream)
somniāre, somnium vidēre (see a dream), somnium somniāre (dream a dream)
soñar, tener un sueño (have a dream)

сниться, видеть сон (see a dream)

sapņot, DATIVE ir sapnis (have a dream)

breuddwydio, cael breuddwyd (get a dream)

xewn dîtin (see a dream)

омым ужаш (see a dream)

rüya görmek (see a dream)

حلم or رأى حلمًا Halama, ra2aa Hulman (see a dream)

unistama, unes nägema (see in sleep), und nägema (see sleep)
unistama, unõn nägemä (see in sleep), und nägemä (see sleep)
unes nähta (see in sleep), unt nähta (see sleep)
unes nähta (see in sleep), unt nähta (see sleep)
unõz nähä (see in sleep), unta nähä (see sleep)
uņštõ, unsõ nǟdõ (see in sleep), ūnda nǟdõ (see sleep)

做夢，做個夢 zuo4-meng4 (do-dream), zuo4 ge meng4 (do a dream)
發夢 faat3-mung6 (send-dream)

ua npau sauv (do [a] dream)

夢を見る yume o miru (see a dream)

꿈꾸다 kkwum-kkwuta (dream a dream)

[Homine.Sardu]

+ Sardinian

to dream, to have a dream
träumen, einen Traum haben (have a dream)

rêver, faire un rêve (do a dream)
somniāre, somnium vidēre (see a dream), somnium somniāre (dream a dream)
sonniare, bìdere unu sonniu/sonnu (see a dream), faghere unu sonniu/sonnu (do a dream)
soñar, tener un sueño (have a dream)

сниться, видеть сон (see a dream)

sapņot, DATIVE ir sapnis (have a dream)

breuddwydio, cael breuddwyd (get a dream)

xewn dîtin (see a dream)

омым ужаш (see a dream)

rüya görmek (see a dream)

حلم or رأى حلمًا Halama, ra2aa Hulman (see a dream)

unistama, unes nägema (see in sleep), und nägema (see sleep)
unistama, unõn nägemä (see in sleep), und nägemä (see sleep)
unes nähta (see in sleep), unt nähta (see sleep)
unes nähta (see in sleep), unt nähta (see sleep)
unõz nähä (see in sleep), unta nähä (see sleep)
uņštõ, unsõ nǟdõ (see in sleep), ūnda nǟdõ (see sleep)

做夢，做個夢 zuo4-meng4 (do-dream), zuo4 ge meng4 (do a dream)
發夢 faat3-mung6 (send-dream)

ua npau sauv (do [a] dream)

夢を見る yume o miru (see a dream)

꿈꾸다 kkwum-kkwuta (dream a dream)

[Linguaphile]

Fixing the order (putting Mari with the Finnic languages). That was my fault from earlier - when I added mine I hadn't noticed there was already a language from the Uralic family listed.

to dream, to have a dream
träumen, einen Traum haben (have a dream)

rêver, faire un rêve (do a dream)
somniāre, somnium vidēre (see a dream), somnium somniāre (dream a dream)
sonniare, bìdere unu sonniu/sonnu (see a dream), faghere unu sonniu/sonnu (do a dream)
soñar, tener un sueño (have a dream)

сниться, видеть сон (see a dream)

sapņot, DATIVE ir sapnis (have a dream)

breuddwydio, cael breuddwyd (get a dream)

xewn dîtin (see a dream)

rüya görmek (see a dream)

حلم or رأى حلمًا Halama, ra2aa Hulman (see a dream)

unistama, unes nägema (see in sleep), und nägema (see sleep)
unistama, unõn nägemä (see in sleep), und nägemä (see sleep)
unes nähta (see in sleep), unt nähta (see sleep)
unes nähta (see in sleep), unt nähta (see sleep)
unõz nähä (see in sleep), unta nähä (see sleep)
uņštõ, unsõ nǟdõ (see in sleep), ūnda nǟdõ (see sleep)
омым ужаш (see a dream)

做夢，做個夢 zuo4-meng4 (do-dream), zuo4 ge meng4 (do a dream)
發夢 faat3-mung6 (send-dream)

ua npau sauv (do [a] dream)

夢を見る yume o miru (see a dream)

꿈꾸다 kkwum-kkwuta (dream a dream)

[linguoboy]

Fixing the order (putting Mari with the Finnic languages).

How did Celtic get stuck between Balto-Slavic and Indo-Aryan? We usually keep it next to Italic.

I purposely left Irish for Ser to add because I wasn't sure how to summarise it, but I'll give it a shot.

to dream, to have a dream
träumen, einen Traum haben (have a dream)

rêver, faire un rêve (do a dream)
somniāre, somnium vidēre (see a dream), somnium somniāre (dream a dream)
sonniare, bìdere unu sonniu/sonnu (see a dream), faghere unu sonniu/sonnu (do a dream)
soñar, tener un sueño (have a dream)

breuddwydio, cael breuddwyd (get a dream)
taibhrigh (IMPRS) do [SUBJ] (it dreams to), taibhreamh a dhéanamh (IMPRS) do [SUBJ] (a dream is done to), brionglóid a dhéanamh (do a dream), beith ag brionglóideach (be dreaming), taibhreamh/brionglóid a bheith ag (have a dream)

сниться, видеть сон (see a dream)

sapņot, DATIVE ir sapnis (have a dream)

xewn dîtin (see a dream)

rüya görmek (see a dream)

حلم or رأى حلمًا Halama, ra2aa Hulman (see a dream)

unistama, unes nägema (see in sleep), und nägema (see sleep)
unistama, unõn nägemä (see in sleep), und nägemä (see sleep)
unes nähta (see in sleep), unt nähta (see sleep)
unes nähta (see in sleep), unt nähta (see sleep)
unõz nähä (see in sleep), unta nähä (see sleep)
uņštõ, unsõ nǟdõ (see in sleep), ūnda nǟdõ (see sleep)
омым ужаш (see a dream)

做夢，做個夢 zuo4-meng4 (do-dream), zuo4 ge meng4 (do a dream)
發夢 faat3-mung6 (send-dream)

ua npau sauv (do [a] dream)

夢を見る yume o miru (see a dream)

꿈꾸다 kkwum-kkwuta (dream a dream)

hǫ́bre

[Linguaphile]

Fixing the order (putting Mari with the Finnic languages).

How did Celtic get stuck between Balto-Slavic and Indo-Aryan? We usually keep it next to Italic.

Idk, I just left it the way it was. All I did was put the Uralic languages together. ?

[IpseDixit]

to dream, to have a dream
träumen, einen Traum haben (have a dream)

sognare, fare un sogno (do a dream)
rêver, faire un rêve (do a dream)
somniāre, somnium vidēre (see a dream), somnium somniāre (dream a dream)
sonniare, bìdere unu sonniu/sonnu (see a dream), faghere unu sonniu/sonnu (do a dream)
soñar, tener un sueño (have a dream)

breuddwydio, cael breuddwyd (get a dream)
taibhrigh (IMPRS) do [SUBJ] (it dreams to), taibhreamh a dhéanamh (IMPRS) do [SUBJ] (a dream is done to), brionglóid a dhéanamh (do a dream), beith ag brionglóideach (be dreaming), taibhreamh/brionglóid a bheith ag (have a dream)

сниться, видеть сон (see a dream)

sapņot, DATIVE ir sapnis (have a dream)

xewn dîtin (see a dream)

rüya görmek (see a dream)

حلم or رأى حلمًا Halama, ra2aa Hulman (see a dream)

unistama, unes nägema (see in sleep), und nägema (see sleep)
unistama, unõn nägemä (see in sleep), und nägemä (see sleep)
unes nähta (see in sleep), unt nähta (see sleep)
unes nähta (see in sleep), unt nähta (see sleep)
unõz nähä (see in sleep), unta nähä (see sleep)
uņštõ, unsõ nǟdõ (see in sleep), ūnda nǟdõ (see sleep)
омым ужаш (see a dream)

做夢，做個夢 zuo4-meng4 (do-dream), zuo4 ge meng4 (do a dream)
發夢 faat3-mung6 (send-dream)

ua npau sauv (do [a] dream)

夢を見る yume o miru (see a dream)

꿈꾸다 kkwum-kkwuta (dream a dream)

hǫ́bre

[voron]

Fixing the order (putting Mari with the Finnic languages).

How did Celtic get stuck between Balto-Slavic and Indo-Aryan? We usually keep it next to Italic.

Idk, I just left it the way it was. All I did was put the Uralic languages together. ?

I added it this way. I never paid attention to where we placed Celtic languages in the other threads, and I placed Germanic, Romance and Slavic first as the most widely spoken and most well known branches of the Indo-European family, but seems like we're following a more geographic approach. (?)

[księżycowy]

to dream, to have a dream
träumen, einen Traum haben (have a dream)

sognare, fare un sogno (do a dream)
rêver, faire un rêve (do a dream)
somniāre, somnium vidēre (see a dream), somnium somniāre (dream a dream)
sonniare, bìdere unu sonniu/sonnu (see a dream), faghere unu sonniu/sonnu (do a dream)
soñar, tener un sueño (have a dream)

breuddwydio, cael breuddwyd (get a dream)
taibhrigh (IMPRS) do [SUBJ] (it dreams to), taibhreamh a dhéanamh (IMPRS) do [SUBJ] (a dream is done to), brionglóid a dhéanamh (do a dream), beith ag brionglóideach (be dreaming), taibhreamh/brionglóid a bheith ag (have a dream)

śnić
сниться, видеть сон (see a dream)

sapņot, DATIVE ir sapnis (have a dream)

xewn dîtin (see a dream)

rüya görmek (see a dream)

حلم or رأى حلمًا Halama, ra2aa Hulman (see a dream)

unistama, unes nägema (see in sleep), und nägema (see sleep)
unistama, unõn nägemä (see in sleep), und nägemä (see sleep)
unes nähta (see in sleep), unt nähta (see sleep)
unes nähta (see in sleep), unt nähta (see sleep)
unõz nähä (see in sleep), unta nähä (see sleep)
uņštõ, unsõ nǟdõ (see in sleep), ūnda nǟdõ (see sleep)
омым ужаш (see a dream)

做夢，做個夢 zuo4-meng4 (do-dream), zuo4 ge meng4 (do a dream)
發夢 faat3-mung6 (send-dream)

ua npau sauv (do [a] dream)

夢を見る yume o miru (see a dream)

꿈꾸다 kkwum-kkwuta (dream a dream)

hǫ́bre