הבן בבית, והבת בעיר.

The son is at home, and the daughter is in the city.

Breakdown of הבן בבית, והבת בעיר.

• ו: and
• ב: in
• עיר: city
• בן: son
• בת: daughter
• בית: home

Questions & Answers about הבן בבית, והבת בעיר.

How do you pronounce the sentence?

A natural modern Israeli pronunciation is:

ha-BEN ba-BA-yit, ve-ha-BAT ba-IR

With vowel marks, it would be:

הַבֵּן בַּבַּיִת, וְהַבַּת בָּעִיר.

A few notes:

• הבן = ha-BEN
• בבית = ba-BA-yit
• והבת = ve-ha-BAT
• בעיר = ba-IR

The ע in עיר is usually not strongly pronounced in modern speech, so English speakers often hear it as something close to ba-eer or ba-ir.

Why is there no word for is in the sentence?

Because Hebrew usually leaves out the verb to be in the present tense.

So instead of saying something literally like the son is in the house, Hebrew normally says:

• הבן בבית = literally the son in the house / at home
• הבת בעיר = literally the daughter in the city

This is completely normal Hebrew. If you want was or will be, Hebrew does use a verb, but in the present tense it is usually omitted.

What does the ה at the beginning of הבן and הבת mean?

The prefix ה־ is the Hebrew definite article, equivalent to English the.

So:

• בן = son or boy
• הבן = the son or the boy
• בת = daughter or girl
• הבת = the daughter or the girl

In this sentence, both nouns are definite, so both take ה־.

Why is it בבית and בעיר instead of a separate word for in or at?

Because Hebrew often attaches prepositions directly to the beginning of a noun.

Here, ב־ means in, at, or sometimes inside depending on context.

So:

• בית = house / home
• בבית = in the house / at home
• עיר = city
• בעיר = in the city

Unlike English, Hebrew does not need a separate word before the noun here. The preposition is a prefix.

Why don’t we see the ה of the in בבית and בעיר?

Because when a preposition like ב־ attaches to a noun that already has ה־ (the), the two usually combine.

So conceptually:

• ב + הבית becomes בבית
• ב + העיר becomes בעיר

Even though the ה is no longer written separately, the noun is still definite.

That is why:

• בבית here means in the house / at home, not just in a house
• בעיר here means in the city, not just in a city

This is a very common Hebrew pattern.

Does ב־ mean in or at?

It can mean either one, depending on context.

For example:

• בבית can mean in the house or at home
• בעיר can mean in the city or sometimes in town

English usually forces you to choose one preposition, but Hebrew ב־ is broader.

Why is והבת pronounced ve-ha-bat?

The prefix ו־ means and.

So:

• והבת = and the daughter

In this sentence it is pronounced ve-ha-bat.

A helpful way to think about it is:

• ו־ = and
• הבת = the daughter
• together: והבת = and the daughter

Hebrew attaches and directly to the next word instead of writing it as a separate word.

Can בית mean both house and home?

Yes. בית is often broader than the English word house.

Depending on context, בבית can mean:

• in the house
• at home
• in the home

That is why translations may differ slightly, even though the Hebrew is the same.

Are בן and בת related words?

Yes. They are a common masculine/feminine pair:

• בן = son / boy
• בת = daughter / girl

They are not formed from each other by a simple ending change in this sentence; they are established vocabulary words. But learners often notice that they function as a natural pair.

Also notice their grammatical gender:

• בן is masculine
• בת is feminine

Is the comma before והבת necessary?

Not always. Hebrew punctuation is somewhat flexible here.

You may see both:

• הבן בבית, והבת בעיר.
• הבן בבית והבת בעיר.

The comma is used here to separate two short, parallel clauses:

• הבן בבית
• והבת בעיר

So the comma is understandable and natural, but not absolutely required in every context.