Breakdown of חברת החשמל דחתה את מועד התשלום.
Questions & Answers about חברת החשמל דחתה את מועד התשלום.
Because חברת is the construct form of חברה, which means company.
In Hebrew, when two nouns are linked as X of Y, the first noun often changes form. Here:
- חברה = a company
- חברת = company of ...
So חברת החשמל literally means the company of the electricity, which is the normal Hebrew way to say the electric company or the electricity company.
This change from -ה to -ת is very common with feminine nouns in construct.
Because in a Hebrew construct chain, the definiteness usually appears only on the last noun.
So:
- חברת חשמל = an electricity company
- חברת החשמל = the electricity company
Even though חברת itself does not have ה, the whole phrase becomes definite because החשמל is definite.
The same thing happens later in the sentence with מועד התשלום.