Four invariant words cover a remarkable amount of ordinary conversation: מתי asks about time, למה about reason or purpose, איך about manner, and כמה about quantity. Hebrew puts each question word at the front and leaves the rest of the clause in ordinary statement order — no auxiliary and no English-style inversion.
| Word | Core question | Typical answer |
|---|---|---|
| מתי matái | when? | בשמונה · בעוד שעה · אחרי העבודה |
| למה láma | why? / what for? | כי... · מפני ש־... · בשביל... |
| איך eikh | how? | ברכבת · לאט · ככה |
| כמה káma / kamá | how much? / how many? | עשרים שקל · שלושה ילדים |
Location questions belong on איפה, לאן, מאיפה, noun-selecting איזה on which, and rhetorical למה ש־ on rhetorical questions.
מתי: asking about time
מתי asks at what time or on what occasion something happens. An answer often begins with ב־ for a clock time or day, בעוד for time counted forward from now, or אחרי for one event following another.
מתי אתה מגיע לתחנה?
matái atá magía latakhaná?
When are you getting to the station? (to a man)
בשמונה ורבע, אם הרכבת לא תאחר.
bishmóne varéva, im harakévet lo te'akhér
At a quarter past eight, if the train isn't late.
מתי תחזרי? — בעוד שעה בערך.
matái takhzrí? be'ód sha'á be'érekh
When will you be back? — In about an hour. (to a woman)
נדבר אחרי העבודה, כשיהיה לי שקט.
nedabér akharéi ha'avodá, ksheyihyé li shéket
We'll talk after work, when I have some peace and quiet.
English when can introduce both a question and a time clause. Hebrew distinguishes interrogative מתי from subordinators such as כש־: מתי תחזרי? asks for missing information; כשיהיה לי שקט tells you when something will happen.
למה and מדוע: reason, purpose, and no invented register rule
The Academy's dictionary glosses למה with both reason and purpose: “for what purpose, for what reason.” Its entry for מדוע gives the reason sense, “for what reason.” That is the recorded semantic difference: למה covers both jobs, while מדוע is specifically causal.
למה לא ענית לי אתמול?
láma lo aníta li etmól?
Why didn't you answer me yesterday? (to a man; asking for a reason)
למה קנית עוד כבל? — כדי לחבר את המסך השני.
láma kaníta od kével? kdei lekhabér et hamasákh hashení
What did you buy another cable for? — To connect the second screen. (to a man; asking about purpose)
מדוע הבקשה נדחתה למרות שכל המסמכים צורפו?
madúa habakashá nidkhatá lamrót shekol hamismakhím tsorfú?
Why was the application rejected even though all the documents were attached? (careful written context)
Neither dictionary entry labels למה or מדוע by register. Many real contexts make one stylistically more likely — the last sentence sounds at home in an official enquiry — but מדוע is correct Hebrew, not an error to replace mechanically with למה.
A causal למה question has several legitimate clause answers. Everyday כי is especially common, but it is false that a reply can never contain ש־: מפני ש־, משום ש־, and everyday בגלל ש־ all introduce reasons. The Academy has explicitly not ruled בגלל ש־ incorrect; the dispute around it is about style and history.
למה יצאת מוקדם? — כי לא הרגשתי טוב.
láma yatsáta mukdám? ki lo hirgáshti tov
Why did you leave early? — Because I wasn't feeling well. (to a man; everyday reply)
הדיון נדחה משום שהשופטת הייתה חולה.
hadiyún nidkhá mishúm shehashofétet haytá kholá
The hearing was postponed because the judge was ill. (careful/formal)
איחרתי בגלל שהאוטובוס לא הגיע.
ikhárti biglál sheha'ótobus lo higía
I was late because the bus didn't come. (everyday speech; בגלל ש־ is not banned by the Academy)
The causal answer system is developed on כי. A purpose answer often uses כדי plus an infinitive, as in כדי לחבר.
איך and כיצד: manner and productive frames
איך asks how something happens or how an action is performed. It also forms two everyday frames worth learning whole: איך קוראים ל־...? “what is ... called?” and איך אומרים ...? “how do you say ...?”
איך הגעתם הביתה אחרי שהרכבת האחרונה יצאה?
eikh higátem habáyta akharéi sheharakévet ha'akhroná yats'á?
How did you get home after the last train had left? (to a group)
איך קוראים למכשיר הזה בעברית?
eikh kor'ím lamakhshír hazé be'ivrít?
What is this device called in Hebrew?
איך אומרים את זה בלי להישמע תוקפנית?
eikh omrím et ze bli lehishamá tokfanít?
How do you say this without sounding aggressive? (f. speaker)
כיצד asks the same broad manner question. It is traditionally analysed as כְּ־ + אֵי + צַד, roughly “in which way.” The dictionary evidence specified for this guide does not give it a formal or literary label, so the accurate contrast is not “איך correct, כיצד wrong.” כיצד is fully grammatical and particularly natural when the surrounding sentence is already careful or technical.
כיצד ניתן לשחזר את הסיסמה בלי גישה לטלפון?
kéitsad nitán leshakhzér et hasismá bli gishá latélefon?
How can the password be recovered without access to the phone? (careful technical context)
כמה: how much, a few, and how beautiful
The Academy records three distinct uses of כמה. First, it asks quantity. The noun follows directly and remains bare: כמה ילדים, not an English-style partitive equivalent of how many of children.
כמה זה עולה כולל משלוח?
káma ze olé kolél mishlóakh?
How much does it cost including delivery? (common everyday stress káma)
כמה ילדים יש לך?
káma yeladím yesh lekhá?
How many children do you have? (to a man; no partitive word before ילדים)
Second, in a statement כמה means “a few, several.” The Academy explicitly accepts this use; there is no defect in כמה זמן or כמה ילדות when the clause is not a question.
הבאתי כמה כיסאות מהחדר השני.
hevéti káma kis'ót mehakhéder hashení
I brought a few chairs from the other room.
כמה ילדות נשארו אחרי השיעור כדי לעזור.
káma yeladót nish'arú akharéi hashi'úr kdei la'azór
A few girls stayed after the lesson to help. (statement, not a question)
Third, כמה introduces an exclamation before an adjective or adverb: כמה יפה! “how beautiful!”
כמה יפה פה בשקיעה!
káma yafé po bashki'á!
How beautiful it is here at sunset! (exclamation)
The normative stress is final, kamá. Everyday Israeli speech commonly retracts it to káma, the pronunciation used in the conversational examples above. The spelling and niqqud do not change.
One planning exchange
The four words naturally chain together when people arrange to meet:
מתי ניפגש? — מחר. למה בערב? — כי אני עובדת עד שש. איך נגיע? — באוטובוס. כמה זמן זה לוקח? — בערך עשרים דקות.
matái nipagésh? makhár. láma ba'érev? ki aní ovédet ad shesh. eikh nagía? ba'ótobus. káma zman ze lokéakh? be'érekh esrím dakót
When shall we meet? — Tomorrow. Why in the evening? — Because I work until six. How will we get there? — By bus. How long does it take? — About twenty minutes. (f. speaker)
Common Mistakes
This page uses no ❌ examples because the tempting alternatives are genuine Hebrew with different meanings or settings. The skill is choosing the reading, not condemning a valid form.
1. Treating מדוע or כיצד as mistakes. They are correct question words; the surrounding context differs.
✅ למה סגרו את הרחוב?
láma sagrú et harekhóv?
Why did they close the street? (ordinary conversation)
✅ מדוע נסגר הרחוב לתנועה?
madúa nisgár harekhóv litnu'á?
Why was the street closed to traffic? (careful written context; still correct Hebrew)
2. Reading every כמה phrase as a question. Punctuation and clause shape decide among the three uses.
✅ כמה אורחים מגיעים הערב?
káma orkhím magi'ím ha'érev?
How many guests are coming tonight? (quantity question)
✅ כמה אורחים כבר הגיעו.
káma orkhím kvar higí'u
A few guests have already arrived. (statement)
3. Assuming a למה answer cannot contain ש־. כי is everyday, but the multiword causal linkers legitimately contain it.
✅ למה נשארתם בבית? — כי ירד גשם.
láma nish'artém babáyit? ki yarád géshem
Why did you stay home? — Because it rained. (to a group; everyday כי)
✅ נשארנו בבית מפני שירד גשם.
nish'árnu babáyit mipnéi sheyarád géshem
We stayed home because it rained. (careful alternative containing ש־)
Key Takeaways
- מתי asks when; answers commonly begin ב־, בעוד or אחרי.
- למה asks both reason and purpose. מדוע is specifically causal, and neither dictionary entry carries a register label.
- A למה reason can be answered by כי, מפני ש־, משום ש־ or everyday בגלל ש־; the Academy has not banned בגלל ש־.
- איך forms everyday frames such as איך קוראים ל־ and איך אומרים. כיצד is fully grammatical and traditionally analysed as כְּ + אֵי + צַד.
- כמה asks quantity, means “a few” in statements, and introduces exclamations. Normative stress is kamá; ordinary speech commonly has káma.
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- כי: BecauseA2 — כי is the everyday word for because — the natural answer to למה and the ordinary way to attach a reason mid-sentence, as in לא עניתי לך כי הטלפון היה על שקט. It is also a second thing that courses leave out: a complementiser meaning that, which is why נמסר כי and הודיע כי are standard news Hebrew rather than mistakes.
- כמה and איזה as DeterminersB1 — כמה asks 'how many' in a question and means 'a few' in a statement, with nothing but the clause type to tell them apart — which is why learners hear כמה שאלות and reach for a question mark. איזה has three jobs of its own, a three-form paradigm that everyday speech levels to one, and a plural spelled exactly like the word for 'if'.
- Manner Adverbs and Where They SitB1 — A manner adverbial's default home is the end of the clause — after the verb and after the object. Moving it earlier is not an error but a signal, and because a Hebrew manner adverb is often a bare masculine adjective, its position is what tells you which of the two it is.