הכרטיס החלופי הגיע אחרי הזיכוי.

In Hebrew, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe.

So:

• כרטיס חלופי = a replacement card
• הכרטיס החלופי = the replacement card

This is different from English, where adjectives usually come before the noun.

Because in Hebrew, when a noun is definite (the ...), its adjective also usually becomes definite.

So:

• כרטיס חלופי = a replacement card
• הכרטיס החלופי = the replacement card

This is a very common Hebrew pattern:

• הספר החדש = the new book
• הילד הקטן = the small boy

So הכרטיס החלופי is not repetitive. It is the normal way to say the replacement card.

הגיע is the past tense, masculine singular form of the verb להגיע (to arrive).

It matches הכרטיס, which is a masculine singular noun.

So:

• הכרטיס הגיע = the card arrived
• החבילה הגיעה = the package arrived
  because חבילה is feminine singular

This kind of agreement is very important in Hebrew, especially in the past tense.

חלופי means something like alternative, substitute, or replacement, depending on context.

In הכרטיס החלופי, the most natural meaning is the replacement card.

For example, if an original card was lost, blocked, or canceled, כרטיס חלופי would be the new one sent instead.

So although חלופי can sometimes mean alternative, here replacement is probably the best English equivalent.

זיכוי often means credit, refund, or crediting of an account, depending on context.

In this sentence, it likely refers to some financial credit or refund that happened before the replacement card arrived.

So אחרי הזיכוי means after the refund/credit.

This word is common in banking, billing, and customer service Hebrew.

אחרי means after.

So:

• אחרי הזיכוי = after the credit/refund

It is a preposition, like English after.

You will often see it with nouns:

• אחרי השיעור = after the lesson
• אחרי העבודה = after work

Yes. לאחר also means after.

The difference is mostly about style:

• אחרי = more everyday and conversational
• לאחר = a bit more formal or written

So both can work, but אחרי הזיכוי sounds very natural in ordinary Hebrew.

Because there is no direct object here.

The sentence structure is:

• הכרטיס החלופי = subject
• הגיע = verb
• אחרי הזיכוי = prepositional phrase

את is used before a definite direct object, not before a subject.

For example:

• קיבלתי את הכרטיס החלופי = I received the replacement card

There, את appears because הכרטיס החלופי is the direct object of received.

But in הכרטיס החלופי הגיע, the card is the thing doing the arriving, so it is the subject.

Yes. This is a very normal word order in Hebrew:

• הכרטיס החלופי הגיע אחרי הזיכוי

It starts with the subject, then the verb, then the time-related phrase.

Hebrew can sometimes change word order for emphasis, for example:

• הגיע הכרטיס החלופי אחרי הזיכוי

That can still be correct, but the original sentence is the most neutral and straightforward.

A careful pronunciation would be roughly:

ha-kar-TIS ha-kha-lu-FI hi-GI-a a-kha-REI ha-zi-KUI

A few helpful notes:

• הכרטיס = hakartis
• החלופי begins with ח, a throaty sound that English does not really have
• הגיע is pronounced higi'a, with a small break before the last vowel
• זיכוי is zikui

The main stresses are usually:

• הכרטיס → -TIS
• החלופי → -FI
• הגיע → -GI-
• הזיכוי → -KUI

It can absolutely be used for things as well as people.

Hebrew uses להגיע for arriving in a broad sense:

• הוא הגיע = he arrived
• החבילה הגיעה = the package arrived
• הכרטיס הגיע = the card arrived

So using הגיע with כרטיס is completely natural.

You usually learn the gender of nouns as vocabulary, because Hebrew gender is not always predictable.

In this case, כרטיס is masculine, and you can see that from the agreement:

• כרטיס חלופי
• הכרטיס הגיע

If it were feminine, the adjective and past-tense verb would look different.

For example, with a feminine noun:

• החבילה החלופית הגיעה = the replacement package arrived

So the sentence itself helps confirm that כרטיס is masculine.