השהייה הייתה קצרה.

A natural pronunciation is:

ha-shehiyá haytá ktsará

A slightly more detailed breakdown:

• השהייה = ha-shehiyá
• הייתה = haytá
• קצרה = ktsará

Notes for English speakers:

• ש here is sh, as in shoe
• צ is ts, as in cats
• The stress is usually on the last syllable in all three words:
  • shehiYÁ
  • hayTÁ
  • ktsaRÁ

Because the subject, השהייה, is a feminine singular noun.

In Hebrew, the past-tense form of to be agrees with the subject in gender and number:

• היה = he was / it was for masculine singular
• הייתה = she was / it was for feminine singular

Since שהייה is feminine, Hebrew uses הייתה.

Because adjectives in Hebrew usually agree with the noun in gender and number.

Here, השהייה is:

• feminine
• singular
• definite

So the adjective must match:

• masculine singular: קצר
• feminine singular: קצרה

That is why the sentence uses קצרה.

One clue is its ending: many Hebrew nouns ending in -ה are feminine.

Also, the rest of the sentence confirms it:

• הייתה is feminine singular
• קצרה is feminine singular

So even if you did not know the noun before, the agreement in the sentence shows that השהייה is feminine.

It is the definite article, meaning the.

So:

• שהייה = stay / duration / delay depending on context
• השהייה = the stay / the duration / the delay

This ה is very common in Hebrew. It attaches directly to the beginning of the noun.

Examples:

• ספר = book
• הספר = the book

Because the word is made of two parts:

• ה = the
• שהייה = the noun itself

So השהייה is simply:

ה + שהייה

This can look strange at first, because English does not usually attach the directly to the word. But in Hebrew, that is normal.

Because in Hebrew, descriptive adjectives usually come after the noun they describe.

So Hebrew says the equivalent of:

• the stay was short

and not:

• the short stay was ... in this sentence structure

Compare:

• שהייה קצרה = a short stay
• השהייה הייתה קצרה = the stay was short

This noun-then-adjective order is one of the most important word-order habits to learn in Hebrew.

Yes, but that would usually mean present tense, not past tense.

• השהייה קצרה = the stay is short
• השהייה הייתה קצרה = the stay was short

In Hebrew, the verb to be is often omitted in the present tense, but it is normally expressed in the past tense.

So:

• present: no is
• past: use היה / הייתה

השהייה הייתה קצרה is the normal, neutral word order.

It follows a common pattern:

subject + past form of "to be" + adjective

So:

• השהייה = subject
• הייתה = was
• קצרה = short

Other word orders are possible in Hebrew for emphasis or literary style, but this version is the standard one learners should use first.

The base noun is שהייה.

With the definite article added, it becomes:

• שהייה = a stay / a duration / a delay
• השהייה = the stay / the duration / the delay

The noun is related to the root ש־ה־ה, which has to do with staying, lingering, or remaining.

You do not need the root to understand the sentence, but it can help you recognize related words later.

Not necessarily. In Hebrew, as in English, short can describe time as well as physical length.

So in this sentence, קצרה refers to the duration of the stay, not to something physically small.

That is why the sentence sounds natural: it means the stay did not last long.