הן לא רוצות נעליים חדשות; הן רוצות רק קפה.

new

Breakdown of הן לא רוצות נעליים חדשות; הן רוצות רק קפה.

• קפה: coffee
• לרצות: to want
• לא: not

Questions & Answers about הן לא רוצות נעליים חדשות; הן רוצות רק קפה.

Why does the sentence start with הן? What does it mean?

הן means they when referring to an all-female group.

Hebrew distinguishes between:

• הם = they for masculine or mixed groups
• הן = they for feminine groups

So הן לא רוצות... means they (feminine) do not want...

In everyday spoken Hebrew, many speakers use הם for almost everything, even for feminine groups, but הן is the correct feminine form and is common in careful or written Hebrew.

Why is the verb רוצות and not רוצים?

Because the subject הן is feminine plural, the verb must agree with it.

The base verb is לרצות = to want.

In the present tense:

• רוצה = wants / wanting (masculine singular)
• רוצה = wants / wanting (feminine singular is pronounced differently in context? Actually the spelling is the same, but agreement shows elsewhere)
• רוצים = masculine plural
• רוצות = feminine plural

Since the subject is הן = they (feminine), the correct form is רוצות.

Why is לא used here? How does negation work in Hebrew?