החבר עובד היום.

The friend works today.

Breakdown of החבר עובד היום.

• חבר: male friend
• לעבוד: to work
• היום: today

Questions & Answers about החבר עובד היום.

How do you pronounce החבר עובד היום?

A common pronunciation is:

ha-kha-VER o-VED ha-YOM

A few notes:

• ח in החבר is the throaty Hebrew sound often written as kh.
• The stress is usually on the last syllable in all three words:
  • החבר = ha-kha-VER
  • עובד = o-VED
  • היום = ha-YOM

A natural reading of the whole sentence is:

ha-kha-VER o-VED ha-YOM

Why does החבר start with ה־?

ה־ is the Hebrew definite article, meaning the.

So:

• חבר = friend
• החבר = the friend

In this sentence, the subject is definite: the friend.

Does חבר only mean friend?

Not always. חבר can mean:

• friend
• boyfriend in some contexts

So החבר could mean:

• the friend
• the boyfriend

Usually the context tells you which meaning is intended.

Why is there no word for is in the sentence?

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

So English says:

• The friend is working today

But Hebrew simply says:

• החבר עובד היום

Literally, word for word, that is closer to:

• the-friend working today

This is completely normal in Hebrew.

What tense is עובד here?

עובד is the present-tense form.

In Hebrew, the present tense can often cover both ideas that English separates:

• works
• is working

So החבר עובד היום could be understood as:

• The friend works today
• The friend is working today

The exact English translation depends on context.

Why is the verb עובד in this form?

Because it agrees with a masculine singular subject.

Here, החבר is masculine singular, so the present-tense verb is:

• עובד = masculine singular

Other forms would be:

• עובדת = feminine singular
• עובדים = masculine plural
• עובדות = feminine plural

So if the subject were feminine, you would say:

• החברה עובדת היום = The female friend is working today

What does היום mean here, and why does it have ה־ too?

Here היום means today.

Although it looks like ה־ + יום (the + day), in modern Hebrew היום is the normal word for today.

So in this sentence:

• היום does not mean the day
• it simply means today

This is a very common word, and learners usually just memorize it as a whole word:

• היום = today

Is the word order normal?

Yes. This is a very normal Hebrew word order:

• החבר = subject
• עובד = verb/predicate
• היום = time expression

So the pattern is:

subject + verb + time

Hebrew is often flexible with word order, but this version is straightforward and natural.

Could היום go somewhere else in the sentence?

Yes. Hebrew allows some flexibility, especially with time words.

For example, you may also hear:

• היום החבר עובד
• החבר היום עובד

These can all be grammatical, but:

• החבר עובד היום is a very neutral, standard way to say it.

Why isn’t there a word for on before today?

Because Hebrew does not use a preposition here.

English says:

• working today

and also says things like:

• on Monday

But with today, Hebrew simply uses היום by itself:

• עובד היום = working today

No extra word is needed.

How would I make this sentence feminine?

You would change both the noun and the present-tense verb form if you mean a female friend:

• החברה עובדת היום

That means:

• The female friend is working today

Changes:

• החבר → החברה
• עובד → עובדת

This is because Hebrew marks gender much more consistently than English does.

How would I say A friend is working today instead of The friend is working today?

Hebrew has no separate word for a/an.

So you would simply remove ה־ from החבר:

• חבר עובד היום

That can mean:

• A friend is working today

In many contexts, though, Hebrew speakers may prefer a fuller or more natural phrasing depending on what exactly they want to emphasize. But grammatically, removing ה־ is the basic idea.