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Learn Hardcore Hebrew: אני יכולה לשאת את התיק. - I can carry the bag.

Hardcore Hebrew
/Disputing rental-deposit deductions
/אני יכולה לשאת את התיק.

אני יכולה לשאת את התיק.

Word

אני יכולה לשאת את התיק.

Meaning

I can carry the bag.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Hebrew

Lesson

Disputing rental-deposit deductions

Breakdown of אני יכולה לשאת את התיק.

direct object marker

להיות יכול

Questions & Answers about אני יכולה לשאת את התיק.

Why is it יכולה and not יכול?

Because יכולה is the feminine singular form of יכול / יכולה (able / can).

So:

אני יכולה = I can / I am able said by a female speaker
אני יכול = I can / I am able said by a male speaker

Hebrew often marks gender in the present tense and in words like יכול/יכולה, so the form changes depending on who is speaking.

If a man says this sentence, how would it change?

It would be:

אני יכול לשאת את התיק.

Only יכולה changes to יכול.

Everything else stays the same:

אני = I
לשאת = to carry / to bear
את התיק = the bag

What exactly does לשאת mean here?

לשאת is the infinitive, meaning to carry, to bear, or sometimes to lift/transport depending on context.

In this sentence, it means something like to carry the bag.

A useful thing to know is that לשאת can sound a bit more formal or literary than some other everyday verbs for carrying, depending on context. But grammatically it works perfectly here.

You can think of the structure as:

יכולה = can / am able
לשאת = to carry

So together: אני יכולה לשאת... = I can carry...

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Why is there an את before התיק?

את is the direct object marker. Hebrew uses it before a definite direct object.

Here, התיק means the bag, which is definite, so Hebrew adds את:

את התיק = the bag as a direct object

Important: את usually does not have a direct English translation. You do not translate it as with here.

Compare:

אני יכולה לשאת תיק. = I can carry a bag
אני יכולה לשאת את התיק. = I can carry the bag

So את appears because the object is specific/definite.

Why does תיק become התיק?

Because ה־ is the Hebrew definite article, equivalent to English the.

תיק = a bag / bag
התיק = the bag

So in the sentence:

את התיק = the bag

This is why את is needed too: once the noun becomes definite (the bag), Hebrew marks it with את when it is a direct object.

Why do we need אני? Doesn’t יכולה already tell us the subject?

Not completely. יכולה tells you gender and number (feminine singular), but not clearly the full person by itself in every case.

For example, יכולה could refer to:

I can
you can (to one female)
she can

So אני is important because it tells you the subject is I.

Hebrew often uses subject pronouns when needed for clarity, and here אני יכולה is the normal clear way to say I can for a female speaker.

Is יכולה a verb?

It behaves a bit differently from a simple English verb like can.

In modern Hebrew, יכול / יכולה originally comes from a form meaning able, but in everyday use it functions very much like can / be able to.

So in practice:

אני יכולה לשאת = I can carry / I am able to carry

A learner can safely treat יכול/יכולה as the normal way to say can in Hebrew.

What tense is this sentence in?

It is in the present tense.

Literally, the structure is close to:

אני יכולה = I am able
לשאת את התיק = to carry the bag

In natural English, that becomes: I can carry the bag.

So Hebrew is using a present-tense form of יכול/יכולה plus an infinitive.

Is the word order the same as in English?

Yes, this sentence has a very straightforward word order:

אני = I
יכולה = can
לשאת = carry
את התיק = the bag

So the order is basically:

subject + can + infinitive + object

This is a very natural Hebrew sentence.

Hebrew word order can be flexible in some contexts, but אני יכולה לשאת את התיק is the standard, neutral way to say it.

How would this sentence change if it meant a bag instead of the bag?

It would be:

אני יכולה לשאת תיק.

Changes:

remove ה־ from התיק
remove את

Why?

Because תיק is now indefinite (a bag), and Hebrew does not use את before an indefinite direct object.

So:

תיק = a bag
התיק = the bag

And:

לשאת תיק = to carry a bag
לשאת את התיק = to carry the bag

How is this sentence pronounced?

A common pronunciation would be:

ani yekhola laset et ha-tik

More carefully:

אני = a-NI
יכולה = ye-kho-LA
לשאת = la-SET
את = et
התיק = ha-TIK

A couple of notes:

The kh sound in יכולה is like the Hebrew letter כ/ח, a throaty sound not found in standard English.
לשאת is pronounced la-SET in modern Hebrew.

Could the sentence be said without אני?

Sometimes in conversation, if the subject is already obvious from context, Hebrew speakers may drop words. But as a normal full sentence, אני יכולה לשאת את התיק is the clear and standard version.

Since יכולה could also mean you (feminine) can or she can, keeping אני avoids ambiguity.

So for learners, it is best to use:

אני יכולה לשאת את התיק.

Does לשאת only mean physically carrying something?

No. לשאת can also mean to bear, to endure, or to carry in a broader sense, depending on context.

For example, in other contexts it might refer to:

bearing responsibility
bearing pain
carrying a name or title

But in אני יכולה לשאת את התיק, the meaning is clearly physical: carry the bag.

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