היא ילדה.

girl

Breakdown of היא ילדה.

• היא: she

Questions & Answers about היא ילדה.

How do you pronounce היא ילדה?

In everyday Modern Hebrew, it is usually pronounced hi yalda.

A useful warning: the same pronunciation can match two different meanings:

• היא ילדה = She is a girl
• היא ילדה = She gave birth

So context is very important.

What does היא mean?

היא means she.

It is the third-person singular feminine pronoun. In normal modern speech, it is usually pronounced hi.

Why is there no word for is in this sentence?

In Hebrew, the verb to be is usually not stated in the present tense.

So if the meaning is She is a girl, Hebrew says literally:

• היא ילדה
• she girl

but the real meaning is She is a girl.

This is normal Hebrew grammar, not missing information.

What is ילדה here: a noun or a verb?

It depends on the meaning you were shown.

• If the meaning is She is a girl, then ילדה is a noun meaning girl.
• If the meaning is She gave birth, then ילדה is a verb in the past tense, meaning gave birth.

So the same written form can belong to two different parts of speech.

Why can the same spelling mean both girl and gave birth?

Because standard Hebrew writing usually leaves out most vowel marks.

So ילדה can represent different words that share the same consonants. With vowel marks, they are written differently:

• יַלְדָה = girl
• יָלְדָה = she gave birth

In Modern Hebrew, these are usually pronounced the same as well, so context does most of the work.

Why is ילדה feminine?

If ילדה means girl, it is a feminine singular noun, which fits היא = she.

Compare:

• ילד = boy
• ילדה = girl

Hebrew nouns often show gender, and this is one very common masculine/feminine pair.

Why isn’t there ה־ before ילדה?

If the meaning is She is a girl, then ילדה means a girl, not the girl.

So:

• היא ילדה = She is a girl
• היא הילדה = She is the girl

Hebrew uses ה־ as the definite article, like the in English.

Can I leave out היא?

Sometimes, but it depends on the meaning.

• If the meaning is She is a girl, you normally need היא to show the subject.
• If the meaning is She gave birth, Hebrew can often drop the subject pronoun, because the verb form already shows third-person feminine singular. So ילדה alone can mean she gave birth, if the context is clear.

Is the word order normal Hebrew word order?

Yes. היא ילדה is a normal, neutral word order.

If the meaning is She is a girl, the structure is:

• subject
  • predicate

If the meaning is She gave birth, the structure is:

• subject
  • verb

In both cases, this is a very natural order for a beginner to learn and use.