Hebrew has no verb for have. It says instead that something exists to someone: יש לי אח is, word for word, there-is to-me a-brother. Two pages already own the machinery of that sentence — the frame and its tenses are on יש לי, and the errors that come from treating יש as a verb are on trying to conjugate יש. What this page owns is the meaning side: which relationships Hebrew hands to יש ל־, how it splits the work with של, and the large set of English have sentences that are not this construction at all.
The frame, in one line
יש never changes; the ending on ל־ carries the possessor — יש לי, יש לך, יש לו, יש לה, יש לנו, יש לכם, יש להם. The negative swaps the whole word for אין — אין לי, אין לנו — and the past and future are supplied by היה and יהיה, which agree with the thing possessed, not with you. Those endings are the ordinary ones on לי, לך, לו, and the drill is on יש לי.
יש לי אופניים ישנים בחצר, אף אחד לא רוכב עליהם.
yesh li ofanáyim yeshaním bekhatsér, af ekhád lo rokhév aleihém
I've got an old bike in the yard and nobody rides it.
What יש ל־ actually covers
More than ownership, and this is the useful part: one construction absorbs six different relations that English also happens to lump under have.
| Relation | Hebrew |
|---|---|
| owning something | יש לי אופניים · יש לנו דירה קטנה |
| family and relationships | יש לי אחות · יש לו חברה חדשה |
| physical attributes | יש לה עיניים ירוקות · יש לו שיער מתולתל |
| states and symptoms | יש לי חום · יש לי כאב גב |
| things in the diary | יש לי פגישה בשלוש · יש לי תור לרופא |
| abstractions | יש לי רעיון · יש לי זמן · אין לי מושג |
יש לי כאב גב כבר שבוע, אני צריכה ללכת לרופא.
yesh li ke'év gav kvar shavúa, aní tsrikhá lalékhet larofé
My back's been hurting for a week, I need to see a doctor. (f. speaker — English uses a verb here, Hebrew keeps the possession frame)
יש ל־ announces; של identifies
This is the division of labour between the two constructions, and once you see it you stop having to choose.
יש ל־ is a whole sentence and its job is to put something into the conversation for the first time: there exists, belonging to me, a dog. של is a phrase, and its job is to pick out something already in view by saying whose it is. So a thing typically enters through יש ל־ and is referred to afterwards with של.
יש לנו כלב, והכלב שלנו לא סובל אף אחד.
yesh lánu kélev, vehakélev shelánu lo sovél af ekhád
We've got a dog, and our dog can't stand anybody. (introduced with יש לנו, referred back to with שלנו)
That is also why the thing after יש ל־ is normally indefinite. יש לי מכונית is natural because you are announcing a car; if the car is already known, Hebrew has other things to say about it. Everyday speech does produce יש לי את המכונית with a definite object, which is both extremely common and a long-running argument — it is settled, with its history, on יש לי. The possessive phrase itself is on של.
The English *have*s that are not יש ל־
Here is where an English speaker loses most of the marks, because have in English is really several words wearing one coat.
| English | Not this | Hebrew says |
|---|---|---|
| have a coffee | יש לי קפה | לשתות קפה |
| have a shower | יש לי מקלחת | להתקלח |
| have a look | יש לי מבט | להסתכל |
| have to go | יש לי ללכת | אני צריך ללכת · עליי ללכת (formal) |
| have a good time | היה לנו זמן טוב | היה לנו כיף · נהנינו |
| have a baby | יש לה תינוק | היא ילדה |
| have a nice day | יש לך יום טוב | שיהיה לך יום טוב |
| have you got the time? | יש לך זמן? | מה השעה? |
Two of those rows deserve a note of their own. The obligation row is the one to take seriously, because English have to and English have look identical and are unrelated. Hebrew puts obligation on צריך, or on the preposition עַל — עליי ללכת, (formal) — and the possession frame does not take that job.
אני צריך ללכת, יש לי אוטובוס בעוד עשר דקות.
aní tsaríkh lalékhet, yesh li ótobus be'ód éser dakót
I've got to go — I've got a bus in ten minutes. (m. speaker — two English 'have's in one sentence, and only the second one is יש לי)
The last row is a warning about idiom rather than about grammar. יש לך זמן? is a perfectly good question and it asks whether somebody is free — so ask it when you wanted the hour, and you will get a courteous answer to a question you did not mean.
There is one place where יש takes an infinitive directly, and it is worth recognising so it does not confuse you: the impersonal יש ל־, with no possessor at all, meaning "one must". It belongs to notices and formal prose — יש לציין, יש לשלם מראש, אין לעשן. (With a noun in between, יֵשׁ לִי הַרְבֵּה לַעֲשׂוֹת is ordinary everyday Hebrew and a different structure again: the infinitive there belongs to הרבה, not to יש.)
יש לציין שהנתונים חלקיים.
yesh letsayén shehanetuním khelkiyím
It should be noted that the data are partial. (formal, academic — no possessor anywhere, so this is not the possession construction)
Saying that something belongs to someone
For the opposite direction — starting from the object rather than the owner — Hebrew has the adjective שייך ל־ "belongs to". It is the natural answer when something turns up and nobody knows whose it is.
האופניים האלה לא שלי, הם שייכים לשכן מלמטה.
ha'ofanáyim ha'éle lo shelí, hem shayakhím lashakhén milmáta
This bike isn't mine, it belongs to the neighbour downstairs.
Common Mistakes
1. Translating the light-verb have. Have a coffee, have a break, have a look — in all of these English have is standing in for a verb, and Hebrew supplies the actual verb.
❌ יש לי קפה כל בוקר בשבע
Incorrect as 'I have a coffee every morning at seven' — here English 'have' means drink: אני שותה קפה כל בוקר. יש לי קפה is good Hebrew and means there is coffee in the house.
✅ אני שותה קפה כל בוקר בשבע ובלי זה אני לא אדם.
aní shoté kafé kol bóker beshéva uvlí ze aní lo adám
I drink coffee every morning at seven and without it I'm not human.
2. Wishing someone something with יש. Have a nice day, have a good trip, have fun — English uses have as an imperative, and Hebrew uses a wish clause built on שיהיה.
❌ יש לך יום טוב
Incorrect as 'have a nice day' — as written it is a statement, 'you have a good day'. A wish takes שיהיה: שיהיה לך יום טוב. Likewise שיהיה לך טיול נעים and תיהנו.
✅ שיהיה לך יום טוב, נדבר בערב.
sheyihyé lekhá yom tov, nedabér ba'érev
Have a good day — we'll speak this evening. (to a man)
3. Booking a person instead of an appointment. English I have a doctor on Tuesday is short for an appointment with a doctor; Hebrew will not fill that gap for you.
❌ יש לי רופא ביום שלישי
Incorrect as 'I've got a doctor's appointment on Tuesday' — as written it says you have a doctor of your own. An appointment is תור: יש לי תור לרופא ביום שלישי.
✅ יש לי תור לרופא שיניים ביום שלישי בבוקר.
yesh li tor lerofé shináyim beyóm shlishí babóker
I've got a dentist's appointment on Tuesday morning.
4. Having a good time, word for word. One of the most reliable calques there is, and Hebrew has a perfectly ordinary phrase waiting.
❌ היה לנו זמן טוב בים
Incorrect as 'we had a good time at the beach' — Hebrew says היה לנו כיף or נהנינו. As written it says the timing suited us.
✅ היה לנו ממש כיף בים, נחזור בשבוע הבא.
hayá lánu mamásh keif bayám, nakhazór bashavúa habá
We had a brilliant time at the beach — we'll go back next week.
Key Takeaways
- Hebrew has no verb meaning "have". Possession is existence plus a dative: יש לי אח, there-is to-me a-brother.
- One construction covers six relations English also merges: owning (יש לי אופניים), family (יש לי אחות), attributes (יש לה עיניים ירוקות), symptoms (יש לי חום), the diary (יש לי פגישה) and abstractions (יש לי רעיון).
- יש ל־ announces, של identifies. A thing enters the conversation through יש לנו כלב and is picked up afterwards as הכלב שלנו — which is also why the noun after יש ל־ is normally indefinite.
- שייך ל־ approaches the same fact from the object's side: האופניים שייכים לשכן.
- Several English haves are not this construction at all: **have a coffee is לשתות קפה, have a shower is להתקלח, have to go is אני צריך ללכת, have a good time is היה לנו כיף, and have a nice day is שיהיה לך יום טוב.
- יש plus an infinitive with no possessor — יש לציין, אין לעשן — is the impersonal "one must", and belongs to notices and formal writing.
Related Topics
- יש לי: Hebrew's Way of Saying 'Have'A1 — Hebrew has no verb meaning 'have'. It says instead that something exists to someone — יש לי אח — which makes the possessed thing the grammatical subject. That is why nothing agrees with the possessor, and why the past-tense forms look so alien to an English speaker.
- Trying to Conjugate ישA1 — יש has no person, no gender and no number, and the errors around it all come from treating it as a verb meaning 'have'. The tell is where the agreement lands: English conjugates have for the owner, and Hebrew — in the past, where there is finally something to conjugate — agrees with the thing owned.
- יש and אין: There Is and There Isn'tA1 — יש and אין assert that something exists or does not. In everyday Modern Hebrew each is a single unchanging word — no person, no gender, no number, no tense — though both keep an inflected set (ישנו, ישנם; אינני, אינו) in formal writing and careful speech. Past and future use היה: standard Hebrew shows agreement, while colloquial speech often defaults to masculine singular.
- לי, לך, לו: ל־ InflectedA1 — The first inflected paradigm a learner needs, drilled cell by cell. לי marks possession (יש לי), a recipient (תן לי), the argument of a whole class of verbs (עזר לי) — and the experiencer in several everyday state constructions: קר לי, כואב לי, נמאס לי.