Viewing a flat is where a learner's Hebrew stops being conversational and starts being technical. The sentences get longer, they start carrying relative clauses, and one small piece of Hebrew that English simply does not have becomes unavoidable: the preposition has to come back. This page is an original dialogue written for this guide — a prospective tenant (a man) and a letting agent (a woman) — read back line by line.
Nothing here is taken from a real listing. Israeli rental adverts are somebody's protected text and often carry personal details besides, so the wording below, including the money line, was written for this page.
The dialogue
זאת הדירה שדיברנו עליה בטלפון.
zot hadirá shedibárnu aléha batélefon
Agent: This is the flat we spoke about on the phone.
יפה. באיזו קומה היא?
yafé. be'éizo komá hi?
Tenant: Nice. What floor is it on?
קומה שלישית. הבניין ישן, ואין בו מעלית.
komá shlishít. habinyán yashán, ve'éin bo ma'alít
Agent: Third floor. The building is old, and there's no lift in it.
אין בעיה, אני רגיל. כמה חדרים יש בה?
ein be'ayá, aní ragíl. káma khadarím yesh ba?
Tenant: No problem, I'm used to it. How many rooms does it have?
זו דירת שלושה חדרים, עם מרפסת קטנה.
zo dirát shloshá khadarím, im mirpéset ktaná
Agent: It's a three-room flat, with a small balcony.
ויש בה מכונת כביסה?
veyésh ba mekhonát kvisá?
Tenant: And is there a washing machine in it?
יש. וגם המקרר נשאר, הדיירים הקודמים השאירו אותו.
yesh. vegám hamekarér nish'ár, hadayarím hakodmím hish'íru otó
Agent: There is. And the fridge stays too — the previous tenants left it.
כמה שכר הדירה?
káma skhar hadirá?
Tenant: How much is the rent?
חמשת אלפים שקל בחודש, לא כולל ועד בית וארנונה.
khaméshet alafím shékel bakhódesh, lo kolél vá'ad báyit ve'arnóna
Agent: Five thousand shekels a month, not including the building fee and the municipal tax.
ומתי אפשר להיכנס?
umatái efshár lehikanés?
Tenant: And when can I move in?
בראשון בספטמבר. אבל צריך לחתום על חוזה לשנה.
berishón beseptémber. avál tsaríkh lakhtóm al khozé leshaná
Agent: On the first of September. But a one-year contract has to be signed.
החוזה שחתמתי עליו בדירה הקודמת היה לשנתיים.
hakhozé shekhatámti aláv badirá hakodémet hayá lishnatáyim
Tenant: The contract I signed at my last place was for two years.
אצלנו זה שנה, עם אפשרות להארכה.
etslénu ze shaná, im efsharút leha'arakhá
Agent: With us it's a year, with an option to extend.
בבניין שגרתי בו קודם הייתה חנייה. יש כאן משהו כזה?
babinyán shegárti bo kódem haytá khanayá. yesh kan máshehu kazé?
Tenant: The building I lived in before had parking. Is there anything like that here?
אין חנייה בבניין, אבל אפשר להחנות ברחוב בלי בעיה.
ein khanayá babinyán, avál efshár lehakhnót barekhóv bli be'ayá
Agent: There's no parking in the building, but you can park on the street without any trouble.
The preposition has to come back
Three turns in this dialogue carry the construction that makes Hebrew relative clauses different from English ones, and it is the single most important thing on this page:
- הדירה שדיברנו עליה — the flat we spoke about it
- הבניין שגרתי בו — the building I lived in it
- החוזה שחתמתי עליו — the contract I signed on it
Every one of those has an English translation with nothing where the bold word is. That is because English relative pronouns carry case: which, that, whom stand in for the noun inside the clause, and a stranded preposition (the flat we spoke about) is enough to finish the job.
Hebrew's ש־ carries nothing at all. It is a pure clause-linker — it does not stand for the head noun, has no case, and cannot be the object of a preposition. So the preposition has to reappear inside the clause with a pronoun suffix attached to it, agreeing with the head noun in gender and number. Grammarians call it a resumptive pronoun; it is obligatory, not optional, and leaving it out does not make the sentence casual, it makes it incomplete.
| Preposition | Head is m. sg. | Head is f. sg. | Head is plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| עַל on, about | עָלָיו aláv | עָלֶיהָ aléha | עֲלֵיהֶם aleihém |
| בְּ in | בּוֹ bo | בָּהּ ba | בָּהֶם bahém |
| לְ to | לוֹ lo | לָהּ la | לָהֶם lahém |
| אֶל to, towards | אֵלָיו eláv | אֵלֶיהָ eléha | אֲלֵיהֶם aleihém |
| עִם with | אִיתּוֹ itó | אִיתָּהּ itá | אִיתָּם itám |
הבחורה שסיפרתי לך עליה גרה בקומה מתחת.
habakhurá shesipárti lekhá aléha gará bakomá mitákhat
The woman I told you about lives on the floor below. (to a man)
הכיסא שישבת עליו נשבר אתמול.
hakisé sheyashávta aláv nishbár etmól
The chair you were sitting on broke yesterday. (to a man)
המספר שהתקשרתי אליו לא עונה.
hamispár shehitkashárti eláv lo oné
The number I called isn't answering.
That last point is the boundary of the rule. A direct object leaves an ordinary gap — הדירה שראיתי, הספר שקראתי — with no resumptive pronoun and no את. It is only when a preposition is involved that the pronoun becomes obligatory. The full treatment, including the cases where a resumptive is optional, is on resumptive pronouns.
דירת שלושה חדרים
דירת שלושה חדרים is a construct chain (סמיכות) with a counted noun inside it: דירה shortens to the bound form דירת, and what it is bound to is the whole phrase שלושה חדרים. חֶדֶר is masculine, so the numeral takes its masculine marking — and Hebrew's masculine marking on numerals three to nineteen is the ending ־ה, which is exactly the ending an English speaker reads as feminine.
הם עברו לדירת ארבעה חדרים בקומה השנייה.
hem avrú ledirát arba'á khadarím bakomá hashniyá
They moved to a four-room flat on the second floor.
Written listings almost always use a digit — דירת 3 חדרים — which hides the agreement entirely. Read it aloud as dirát shloshá khadarím, because the digit is standing in for the masculine form even where nothing on the page says so. Construct chains in general are on smikhut.
קומה שלישית — the ordinal agrees
Ordinals are ordinary adjectives: they follow their noun and they agree with it. קוֹמָה is feminine, so it takes שלישית, רביעית, שישית — never the masculine שלישי. The definite versions repeat the article on both words: הקומה השלישית.
אנחנו גרים בקומה הרביעית, בלי מעלית.
anákhnu garím bakomá harevi'ít, bli ma'alít
We live on the fourth floor, with no lift.
Note the contrast the dialogue sets up between two kinds of number in one property description: the cardinal inside the construct chain is masculine because חדר is (שלושה חדרים), while the ordinal outside it is feminine because קומה is (קומה שלישית). Nothing agrees with the flat; everything agrees with the noun standing next to it.
יש בה, אין בו
Hebrew has no verb to have. What English does with have, Hebrew does with the existential יש / אין plus a preposition carrying a pronoun — and for a place, that preposition is usually ב: יש בה מרפסת, "there is in it a balcony"; אין בו מעלית, "there is in it no lift".
יש בה מרפסת קטנה שפונה לחצר.
yesh ba mirpéset ktaná shepóna lekhatsér
It has a small balcony that looks onto the courtyard.
אין במטבח תנור, רק כיריים.
ein bamitbákh tanúr, rak kiráyim
There's no oven in the kitchen, just a hob.
Two things worth holding on to. יש and אין never inflect — no gender, no number, no agreement with the thing that exists. And in careful Hebrew the noun that follows is the subject rather than an object, so it takes no את: יש בה מרפסת, בדירה יש מרפסת.
The parallel possessive construction with ל is on יש ל־ possession, and the wider existential on יש and אין.
The money line, and the modals around it
כולל and לא כולל are the standard way to say what a price does and does not cover. כולל is an ordinary present-tense form, and given a subject it behaves like one — המחיר כולל, המחירים כוללים. The agent's line has no subject at all, though: לא כולל ועד בית וארנונה simply hangs off the price, frozen, agreeing with nothing. That is the shape every listing and every quote uses.
המחיר כולל מים וחשמל, אבל לא ארנונה.
hamekhír kolél máyim vekhashmál, avál lo arnóna
The price includes water and electricity, but not the municipal tax.
ארנונה is the municipal property tax paid by the occupier, and ועד בית is the building's residents' committee and the monthly fee it collects; both are normally quoted separately from the rent, which is why the phrase לא כולל is doing real work in that sentence rather than being padding.
The agent's other two sentences are the modal pair every rental conversation runs on. אפשר להיכנס and צריך לחתום are both impersonal: neither names who may move in or who must sign, and both take a bare infinitive.
צריך לחתום על החוזה עד סוף השבוע.
tsaríkh lakhtóm al hakhozé ad sof hashavúa
The contract needs to be signed by the end of the week. (impersonal — nobody is named)
The same question in two registers
מהו גובה שכר הדירה החודשי?
máhu góva skhar hadirá hakhodshí?
What is the monthly rent? (formal — the register of a written enquiry, a contract or an official form)
כמה שכר דירה אתם מבקשים?
káma skhar dirá atém mevakshím?
How much rent are you asking? (everyday spoken register)
מהו is a fused what + he, and it belongs to writing and to formal speech; גובה "height, level" used of a sum is the same register. Neither is wrong in conversation, but both will sound as though you are reading from the lease. Say כמה and be understood immediately.
Common Mistakes
1. Dropping the resumptive pronoun. This is the error this page exists for. English strands the preposition or omits it entirely, so the Hebrew clause is left with nothing to attach it to.
❌ זאת הדירה שדיברנו בטלפון
Incorrect — ש־ carries no case, so the preposition must reappear inside the clause with a pronoun on it: זאת הדירה שדיברנו עליה בטלפון. As written, the relative clause has no role for הדירה at all.
זו הדירה שדיברת עליה עם המתווך?
zo hadirá shedibárta aléha im hametavékh?
Is this the flat you talked about with the agent? (to a man)
2. Reading the numeral's ־ה as feminine. חדר is masculine and takes שלושה; the ־ה that looks like a feminine ending is precisely the masculine marking on numerals three to nineteen.
❌ מצאנו דירת שלוש חדרים במרכז
Incorrect — חדר is masculine, so the numeral takes the ־ה form: דירת שלושה חדרים. The bare שלוש is the feminine.
מצאנו דירת שלושה חדרים במרכז, במחיר סביר.
matsánu dirát shloshá khadarím bamerkáz, bimkhír savír
We found a three-room flat in the centre, at a reasonable price.
3. Leaving the ordinal in its masculine form. Ordinals are adjectives and agree like any other; קומה, דירה and קופה are all feminine.
❌ המשרד נמצא בקומה שלישי
Incorrect — קומה is feminine, so the ordinal is too: בקומה שלישית. שלישי is the masculine form.
המשרד נמצא בקומה השישית, ליד המעלית.
hamisrád nimtsá bakomá hashishít, leyád hama'alít
The office is on the sixth floor, next to the lift.
4. Using יש as if it were the verb have. English puts the possessor in front of have; Hebrew puts it inside a preposition. A bare noun in front of יש leaves the sentence with no way to connect the two halves.
❌ הדירה יש מרפסת גדולה
Incorrect — יש needs the possessor inside a preposition: בדירה יש מרפסת גדולה, or לדירה יש מרפסת גדולה, or with the pronoun, הדירה — יש בה מרפסת גדולה.
בדירה יש מרפסת גדולה ומחסן קטן.
badirá yesh mirpéset gdolá umakhsán katán
The flat has a big balcony and a small storeroom.
Key Takeaways
- ש־ carries no case. When the head noun's role inside the relative clause involves a preposition, that preposition must reappear with a pronoun suffix: הדירה שדיברנו עליה, הבניין שגרתי בו, החוזה שחתמתי עליו. This is obligatory.
- The test: say the clause as a standalone sentence. Whatever preposition it needed, it needs again after ש־. A plain direct object leaves an ordinary gap and needs nothing — הדירה שראיתי.
- דירת שלושה חדרים — חדר is masculine, and the masculine marking on numerals three to nineteen is the ending ־ה. Listings write it as a digit, which hides the agreement.
- Ordinals agree: קומה שלישית, קומה רביעית, because קומה is feminine. The cardinal inside the chain and the ordinal outside it can therefore differ in gender within one description.
- יש / אין never inflect, and the thing that exists is the subject — so in careful Hebrew it takes no את, even though spoken Israeli says יש את constantly. Possession is expressed by a preposition: יש בה מרפסת, אין בו מעלית.
- כולל / לא כולל is frozen and does not agree. Rent is normally quoted לא כולל ועד בית וארנונה.
- מהו גובה שכר הדירה? and כמה שכר הדירה? share their syntax and differ only in vocabulary — which is where a great deal of Hebrew register lives.
Now practice Hebrew
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- Possession with יש ל־A1 — Hebrew has no verb meaning 'have' — it says a thing exists to someone, יש לי אח. This page is the semantic half of that: which relations Hebrew actually routes through יש ל־, how it divides the work with של, and the English 'have's that are not יש ל־ at all, from having a coffee to having to leave.
- סמיכות: The Construct ChainA2 — Two nouns pushed together with nothing in between — בית ספר, מיץ תפוזים, יום הולדת. The catch for an English speaker is the order: Hebrew names the thing first and the modifier second, so מיץ תפוזים is 'juice of oranges'. Three consequences follow from the welding, and each has its own page.
- Resumptive Pronouns: The Rule Nobody TeachesB1 — When the head noun of a relative clause is anything other than a subject or a bare direct object, Hebrew leaves a pronoun behind inside the clause — הבחור שיצאתי איתו, השכנה שהבן שלה מנגן בתופים. This page sorts the positions into obligatory, optional and forbidden, and settles the three competing ways to say the house I lived in.
- Using the Future: Prediction, Intention, RequestA2 — One prefix conjugation covers everything English splits between will, shall, going to and the polite question — and it supplies the everyday command on top. Nothing in the form separates those readings, so this page is about what does.