Mission—Team—FAQ—Privacy—Terms—Sponsors—Grammar—Typing Course—Donate

© 2026 Elon Automation B.V.

Learn Hardcore Hebrew: היא רוצה לקנות בננה. - She wants to buy a banana.

Hardcore Hebrew
/Lesson 4
/היא רוצה לקנות בננה.

היא רוצה לקנות בננה.

Word

היא רוצה לקנות בננה.

Meaning

She wants to buy a banana.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Hebrew

Lesson

Breakdown of היא רוצה לקנות בננה.

Questions & Answers about היא רוצה לקנות בננה.

Why does היא mean she?

היא is the Hebrew third-person singular feminine pronoun, so it means she.

A few related pronouns:

הוא = he
היא = she
אני = I
אתה = you (to a male)
את = you (to a female)

Hebrew marks gender much more often than English does, so choosing היא tells you right away that the subject is female.

Why is רוצה translated as wants?

The base verb is לרצות = to want.

In this sentence, רוצה is the form that agrees with היא (she), so it means she wants.

Very common present-tense forms of לרצות:

אני רוצה = I want (said by a male)
אני רוצה = I want (said by a female)
- same spelling here, but often pronounced slightly differently in careful speech
הוא רוצה = he wants
היא רוצה = she wants
הם רוצים = they want (masculine/mixed)
הן רוצות = they want (feminine)

In Hebrew present tense, there usually is no separate word meaning am / is / are. The verb form itself carries the meaning.

Why is there a ל at the beginning of לקנות?

Elon.io is an online learning platform

We have an entire course teaching Hebrew grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Hebrew now

The ל at the beginning often corresponds to English to before an infinitive.

So:

לקנות = to buy
לרצות = to want
ללכת = to go

In this sentence:

רוצה לקנות = wants to buy

So the ל is a normal part of the infinitive form.

What is the base form of לקנות, and why doesn’t it look exactly like the root?

The dictionary form is לקנות = to buy.

Its root is ק-נ-ה, which is related to buying/acquiring. Hebrew verbs are built from roots plus patterns, so the full verb form does not always look like a simple root with endings added.

A useful thing for learners is just to memorize:

לקנות = to buy
past, present, and future forms will change shape according to standard Hebrew verb patterns

So even if the root is important, at first it is perfectly fine to learn לקנות as a whole word meaning to buy.

Why is there no word for a in a banana?

Hebrew normally has no indefinite article. English has a/an, but Hebrew usually just uses the noun by itself.

So:

בננה can mean banana or a banana, depending on context.

Compare:

בננה = a banana / banana
הבננה = the banana

That ה at the beginning is the definite article the.

If Hebrew has את, why isn’t it used before בננה?

את is used before a definite direct object, not an indefinite one.

Since בננה here means a banana, it is indefinite, so there is no את.

Compare:

היא רוצה לקנות בננה = She wants to buy a banana
היא רוצה לקנות את הבננה = She wants to buy the banana

So the rule is:

indefinite object → usually no את
definite object → use את

Why is the word order היא רוצה לקנות בננה and not something else?

This is a very natural Hebrew word order:

subject: היא
verb: רוצה
infinitive: לקנות
object: בננה

So literally:

she
- wants
  - to buy
    - banana

This is quite similar to English word order in this sentence. Hebrew can sometimes change word order for emphasis or style, but this version is the most straightforward and natural one.

How do I pronounce this sentence?

A common pronunciation is:

hi ro-TSA lik-NOT ba-NA-na

Word by word:

היא = hi
רוצה = ro-TSA
לקנות = lik-NOT
בננה = ba-NA-na

A few notes:

The stress is usually on the last syllable in רוצה, לקנות, and בננה.
Modern Hebrew is often written without vowel marks, so learners have to know the pronunciation from experience or context.

Is רוצה masculine or feminine here?

Here, רוצה is the singular form used with היא and means she wants.

In practice, learners often compare:

הוא רוצה = he wants
היא רוצה = she wants

So in this particular present-tense verb, רוצה is used with both he and she, even though other forms in Hebrew do show clearer gender differences.

For example, in plural:

הם רוצים = they want (masculine/mixed)
הן רוצות = they want (feminine)

So Hebrew does mark gender, but not always in the same way in every form.

Could בננה ever mean the banana here?

No, not by itself in this sentence.

בננה without ה usually means banana or a banana.
If you want the banana, you would normally say הבננה.

So:

בננה = a banana / banana
הבננה = the banana

Because this sentence has just בננה, the natural meaning is a banana.

Why doesn’t Hebrew add -s for wants the way English does?

Hebrew and English build verb forms differently.

In English:

I want
she wants

English adds -s in the third person singular.

In Hebrew, the verb changes according to Hebrew conjugation patterns, not by adding an English-style -s. So:

אני רוצה
היא רוצה
הוא רוצה
הם רוצים

The changes come from Hebrew grammar, not from a special ending equivalent to English -s.

Can this sentence also mean She would like to buy a banana?

Yes, in many contexts היא רוצה לקנות בננה can sound like She wants to buy a banana, and depending on tone or situation, English might also naturally say She’d like to buy a banana.

The basic meaning of רוצה is still wants, but when translating into natural English, would like can sometimes fit the context better. The Hebrew sentence itself does not automatically make that distinction as sharply as English sometimes does.

Your questions are stored by us to improve Elon.io