המנגנון משתמש במגנט.

A natural pronunciation is ha-man-ga-NON mish-ta-MESH be-mag-NET.

A few stress notes:

• המנגנון → stress on the last syllable: -NON
• משתמש → stress on the last syllable: -MESH
• מגנט → usually stress on the last syllable: -NET

In faster speech, במגנט may sound a bit like b'magnet.

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

So:

• מנגנון = mechanism
• המנגנון = the mechanism

Unlike English, Hebrew attaches the directly to the beginning of the noun.

משתמש is the masculine singular present-tense form of the verb להשתמש.

It matches the subject המנגנון, which is a masculine singular noun. Hebrew present-tense forms change for gender and number, so the verb has to agree with the subject.

Because the verb להשתמש normally takes the preposition ב־.

So Hebrew says:

• להשתמש במגנט

Even though English uses use a magnet, Hebrew grammar requires ב־ after this verb. This is a very common thing in Hebrew: the preposition used after a verb does not always match the English one.

Normally, no.

With להשתמש, the standard construction is ב־, not עם, and not a direct object with את.

So:

• natural: המנגנון משתמש במגנט
• not natural for this meaning: המנגנון משתמש את המגנט

את is used for definite direct objects, but להשתמש does not usually take a direct object that way.

In this sentence, מגנט is indefinite, so it means a magnet, not the magnet.

If you wanted the magnet, Hebrew would combine the preposition ב־ with the article ה־. In normal unpointed writing, that often still looks like במגנט, so context has to tell you which meaning is intended. With vowel marks, the difference is clearer.

מנגנון is masculine.

That is why the sentence uses משתמש and not משתמשת. In Hebrew, present-tense verbs agree with the subject in gender and number.

Here are the main present-tense forms of להשתמש:

• משתמש — masculine singular
• משתמשת — feminine singular
• משתמשים — masculine plural
• משתמשות — feminine plural

For example:

• המערכת משתמשת במגנט — if the subject is המערכת, the verb becomes משתמשת because מערכת is feminine.

המנגנון משתמש במגנט is the most neutral and natural word order for everyday Hebrew: subject + verb + complement.

Hebrew can change word order for emphasis, but that usually sounds more marked or literary. For a learner, this sentence order is the safest and most standard one to use.

The root is ש־מ־ש, and the verb להשתמש belongs to the התפעל (hitpa'el) pattern.

That is why its present-tense forms look like:

• משתמש
• משתמשת
• משתמשים
• משתמשות

Recognizing the pattern can help you identify the verb more easily in other sentences.