אלה נשים, והן עובדות ביחד במשרד.

These are women, and they work together in an office.

Breakdown of אלה נשים, והן עובדות ביחד במשרד.

• אישה: woman
• ו: and
• ב: in
• לעבוד: to work
• ביחד: together
• משרד: office
• אלה: these
• הן: they

Questions & Answers about אלה נשים, והן עובדות ביחד במשרד.

Why is there no word for are in אלה נשים?

In Hebrew, present-tense sentences often do not use a separate verb for to be.

So אלה נשים literally looks like these women, but it means These are women.

This is very normal in Hebrew:

• זה ספר = This is a book
• היא מורה = She is a teacher
• אלה נשים = These are women

If you wanted past or future, Hebrew would use forms of היה:

• הן היו נשים... = They were women...
• הן יהיו... = They will be...

What does אלה mean here, and can it be used for people?

Yes. אלה means these, and it can refer to people or things.

In this sentence, it points to a group of women:

• אלה נשים = These are women

A useful thing to know: אלה is the normal plural demonstrative, and in Modern Hebrew it works for both masculine and feminine plural nouns.

Is אלה the same as אלו?

Pretty much, yes. Both אלה and אלו can mean these.

For most learners:

• אלה is extremely common and perfectly standard.
• אלו is also correct, and may sound a little more formal or literary in some contexts.

So you may see either:

• אלה נשים
• אלו נשים

Both are fine.

Why is the plural נשים? What is the singular form?

The singular is אישה = woman.

The plural is נשים = women.

This is an irregular plural, so it does not look like the singular in a simple way. It is just a form you need to memorize.

So:

• אישה = woman
• נשים = women

This is similar to English woman / women: also not a completely regular plural.

Why does the sentence say והן and not והם?

Because נשים is a feminine plural noun, so the matching pronoun is הן = they (feminine).

Compare:

• הם = they (masculine, or mixed group)
• הן = they (feminine group)

Since the sentence is about women, standard Hebrew uses:

• והן עובדות...

not

• והם עובדות...

In very casual spoken Hebrew, some speakers use masculine plural forms more broadly, but הן is the correct standard form here.

Why is the verb עובדות feminine plural?

Because Hebrew verbs in this kind of present-tense form must agree with the subject in gender and number.

The subject here is הן = they (feminine plural), so the verb must also be feminine plural:

• עובד = working / works (masculine singular)
• עובדת = working / works (feminine singular)
• עובדים = working / work (masculine plural)
• עובדות = working / work (feminine plural)

So:

• הן עובדות = they (fem.) work / are working

Why does the sentence repeat the subject with והן? Why not just say אלה נשים עובדות ביחד במשרד?

Because the sentence as written has two separate clauses:

• אלה נשים = These are women
• והן עובדות ביחד במשרד = and they work together in an office / in the office

Using והן makes the second clause clearly independent.

If you say אלה נשים עובדות ביחד במשרד, that can feel more like:

• These are women who work together in an office or
• These women work together in an office

So the pronoun והן helps keep the meaning as: These are women, and they work together...

What does ביחד mean, and how is it different from יחד?

ביחד means together.

It is very close in meaning to יחד, which also means together.

In many situations, both work:

• הן עובדות ביחד
• הן עובדות יחד

A simple learner-friendly distinction is:

• ביחד = very common in everyday speech
• יחד = also common, sometimes a bit shorter or slightly more formal/literary depending on context

In this sentence, ביחד is completely natural.

What is the ו־ at the beginning of והן?

The ו־ is the Hebrew word for and, attached directly to the next word as a prefix.

So:

• הן = they (feminine)
• והן = and they

This is extremely common in Hebrew. The conjunction is usually written attached to the following word:

• וילד = and a boy
• והיא = and she
• והן = and they

Here it is normally pronounced ve-hen.

Why is במשרד written as one word?

Because Hebrew often attaches short prepositions directly to the noun.

Here:

• ב־ = in / at
• משרד = office

So:

• במשרד = in an office / in the office

This is normal Hebrew spelling. The preposition is not written as a separate word.

The same happens with other common prepositions:

• בספר = in a book / in the book
• למורה = to a teacher / to the teacher
• מהבית = from the house

Does במשרד mean in an office or in the office?

In unpointed Hebrew spelling, במשרד can represent either one.

That is because Hebrew writes:

• ב + משרד = in an office
• ב + ה + משרד = in the office

But without vowel marks, both end up written the same way: במשרד.

In actual speech, the pronunciation can distinguish them:

• be-misrad = in an office
• ba-misrad = in the office

In normal reading, you understand the intended meaning from context.

Do native speakers really use feminine plural forms like הן and עובדות?

Yes. These forms are real, standard, and correct.

If the group is clearly all female, forms like:

• הן
• עובדות
• גרות
• לומדות

are completely appropriate.

That said, in very casual spoken Hebrew, some speakers may use masculine plural forms more broadly than the standard grammar would suggest. But for learning correct Hebrew, this sentence is a very good model:

• והן עובדות ביחד במשרד

Is the word order here special, or is it a normal Hebrew sentence?

It is a very normal word order.

The second clause follows a common pattern:

• והן = subject
• עובדות = verb/present-tense predicate
• ביחד = together
• במשרד = in an office / in the office

Hebrew does allow some flexibility, but this order sounds natural and straightforward. Putting ביחד before במשרד also makes good sense, because it first says how they work, then where they work.