יש קפה.

There is coffee.

Breakdown of יש קפה.

• יש: there is
• קפה: coffee

Questions & Answers about יש קפה.

How do you pronounce יש קפה?

It’s usually pronounced yesh ka-FE.

• יש = yesh
• קפה = kafe

The stress in קפה is normally on the last syllable: ka-FE.

What exactly is יש?

יש is the Hebrew word used to express existence: there is / there are.

So in a sentence like יש קפה, יש is doing the job that English does with there is.

A useful way to think about it:

• English: There is coffee
• Hebrew: Exists coffee / There-is coffee

It does not work like a normal verb such as eat or drink. It’s a special existential word.

Why doesn’t Hebrew use a word for there here?

Because Hebrew does not need a separate dummy word like English there in sentences of existence.

English says:

• There is coffee

But there here does not really mean a place. It is just part of the English structure.

Hebrew simply uses יש to express the same idea, so יש קפה is complete by itself.