אני לשה את החימר ומרטיבה אותו.

Because the speaker is feminine singular. In Hebrew present tense, verbs agree with the subject in gender and number.

So with אני:

• a woman would say אני לשה / אני מרטיבה
• a man would say אני לש / אני מרטיב

Unlike English, Hebrew often shows the speaker’s gender in the verb form.

No. אני just means I and does not show gender.

The gender appears in the verbs:

• אני לשה = a female speaker
• אני לש = a male speaker

So you learn the speaker’s gender from לשה and מרטיבה, not from אני.

Here את is the direct object marker. It does not have a separate meaning like an English word you would translate directly.

It appears before a definite direct object, especially one with ה־ = the.

So:

• את החימר = the clay as the direct object of the verb

In English, we usually do not need anything equivalent.

They are spelled the same in normal Hebrew writing, but they are different words.

• אֵת / את as a direct object marker is pronounced et
• אַת / את meaning you feminine singular is pronounced at

Since everyday Hebrew is usually written without vowel marks, you have to tell from context which one it is. In this sentence, it is clearly the direct object marker.

ה־ is the definite article, meaning the.

So:

• חימר = clay
• החימר = the clay

That also explains why את is used. The direct object is definite, so Hebrew normally says את החימר.

Because אותו means him/it for a masculine singular noun, and חימר is masculine.

So the sentence uses:

• את החימר = the clay
• מרטיבה אותו = wetting it

If the noun were feminine singular, you would use אותה instead.

Their dictionary forms are:

• לשה ← ללוש = to knead
• מרטיבה ← להרטיב = to wet / to make wet

Both forms in the sentence are present feminine singular.

A useful detail: ללוש is a bit unusual in the present tense:

• masculine singular: לש
• feminine singular: לשה

So לשה may look surprising if you expect a more regular pattern.

Yes. It is present tense.

Hebrew present tense often uses forms that historically behave like participles, and Hebrew does not use a separate word for am/is/are in the present.

So:

• אני לשה can mean I knead or I am kneading
• ומרטיבה can mean and wet or and am wetting

The exact English translation depends on context.

In Hebrew, ו־ means and, and it is normally written as a prefix attached to the next word.

So:

• ומרטיבה = and wetting

Its pronunciation can vary depending on the next sound. Here it is commonly pronounced u-, so the word is often said roughly as u-martiva.

No. A male speaker would normally change the verb forms to masculine singular:

אני לש את החימר ומרטיב אותו.

The rest of the sentence stays the same because החימר is still the same masculine noun.

Because the second verb also needs its object.

The structure is:

• I knead the clay
• and wet it

Hebrew, like English, uses a pronoun here to refer back to the object already mentioned. Without אותו, the second part would feel incomplete unless the context made the object extremely obvious.

On its own, unpointed Hebrew can sometimes be ambiguous, but in this sentence the meaning is clear from context and structure.

With אני, לשה is understood as present feminine singular: I knead / I am kneading.

A past meaning like she kneaded would normally need a different subject, not אני. So in this sentence there is no real confusion.