בעל הכרטיס לא משתף את הקוד הסודי.

The cardholder does not share the PIN code.

Breakdown of בעל הכרטיס לא משתף את הקוד הסודי.

• לא: not
• את: direct object marker
• לשתף: to share
• בעל כרטיס: cardholder

Questions & Answers about בעל הכרטיס לא משתף את הקוד הסודי.

What does בעל הכרטיס mean literally, and why isn’t של used?

Literally, בעל הכרטיס means owner of the card.

This is a very common Hebrew structure called a construct chain. Instead of saying the owner of the card with a separate word for of, Hebrew often puts two nouns together:

• בעל = owner / holder
• הכרטיס = the card

So:

• בעל הכרטיס = the cardholder / owner of the card

Using של would sound less natural here. Hebrew usually prefers this compact noun+noun pattern in cases like this.

Why is בעל not written with ה if the phrase means the cardholder?

Great question. In a construct chain, definiteness is usually determined by the second noun.

So in:

• בעל הכרטיס

the second word is הכרטיס = the card

Because that second noun is definite, the whole phrase becomes definite:

• בעל כרטיס = a cardholder / holder of a card
• בעל הכרטיס = the cardholder / holder of the card

So even though בעל itself does not have ה, the whole phrase is still definite.

What does mean here?