הנשים רוצות להביא קפה לעבודה, והן באות מוקדם.

Breakdown of הנשים רוצות להביא קפה לעבודה, והן באות מוקדם.

קפה
coffee
לרצות
to want
אישה
woman
ו
and
ל
to
לבוא
to come
מוקדם
early
עבודה
work
הן
they
להביא
to bring
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Questions & Answers about הנשים רוצות להביא קפה לעבודה, והן באות מוקדם.

Why is it הנשים and not just נשים?

ה־ is the Hebrew definite article, meaning the. So הנשים means the women.

  • נשים = women
  • הנשים = the women

In this sentence, the speaker is talking about a specific group, not women in general.

Why are רוצות and באות in the feminine plural form?

Because the subject is הנשים (the women), which is feminine plural. In Hebrew, verbs in the present tense agree with the subject in gender and number.

So:

  • רוצות = want for a feminine plural subject
  • באות = come / are coming for a feminine plural subject

Compare:

  • הנשים רוצות = the women want
  • הגברים רוצים = the men want

The ־ות ending is a common marker of feminine plural in present-tense verb forms.

What kind of form is להביא?

להביא is the infinitive, meaning to bring.

The prefix ל־ often marks the infinitive in Hebrew, similar to English to:

  • להביא = to bring
  • ללכת = to go / to walk
  • לראות = to see

So רוצות להביא literally means want to bring.

Why is there no את before קפה?

Because את is used before a definite direct object, and קפה here is not definite.

In this sentence:

  • להביא קפה = to bring coffee

This means coffee in a general or indefinite sense, not the coffee.

Compare:

  • להביא קפה = to bring coffee
  • להביא את הקפה = to bring the coffee

So the absence of את tells you the object is indefinite.

What exactly does לעבודה mean?

לעבודה is ל־ + עבודה.

  • ל־ = to
  • עבודה = work

So לעבודה literally means to work or to the workplace, depending on context.

In Hebrew, לבוא לעבודה is a very natural way to say to come to work.

Why does the sentence say והן instead of repeating הנשים?

והן means and they for a feminine plural group.

So instead of saying:

  • הנשים רוצות להביא קפה לעבודה, והנשים באות מוקדם

Hebrew uses the pronoun:

  • הנשים רוצות להביא קפה לעבודה, והן באות מוקדם

This avoids repetition, just like English would usually say the women ... and they ...

What is the difference between הן and הם?

Both mean they, but they differ by gender:

  • הן = they for a feminine plural group
  • הם = they for a masculine plural or mixed group

Since הנשים is an all-female group, the matching pronoun is הן.

A useful note: in everyday spoken Hebrew, many speakers use הם very broadly, even where traditional grammar would expect הן. But in correct standard grammar, הן is the feminine plural form.

Is באות related to לבוא? They do not look exactly the same.

Yes. באות is the feminine plural present-tense form of לבוא (to come).

Here are some forms of the same verb:

  • לבוא = to come
  • בא = he comes / is coming
  • באה = she comes / is coming
  • באים = they come (masculine or mixed)
  • באות = they come (feminine)

So והן באות מוקדם means and they come early.

Why is it מוקדם and not a feminine plural form like מוקדמות?

Because מוקדם is functioning adverbially here. It describes when they come, not what the women are like.

So:

  • הן באות מוקדם = they come early

Here, מוקדם works like the English adverb early.

If you were describing a feminine plural noun with the adjective early, then agreement would matter more. But in this sentence, מוקדם is not describing the women; it is describing the action come.

Is the word order in this sentence normal for Hebrew?

Yes. This sentence uses a very common and straightforward word order.

  • הנשים = subject
  • רוצות = verb
  • להביא קפה = infinitive phrase / object idea
  • לעבודה = destination
  • והן באות מוקדם = second clause

So the overall structure is close to English:

  • The women want to bring coffee to work, and they come early.

Hebrew can be more flexible with word order than English, but this sentence is very natural and standard.

Why are there two different present-tense verbs, רוצות and באות, in the same sentence?

Because the sentence has two separate ideas joined by ו־ (and):

  1. הנשים רוצות להביא קפה לעבודה
    The women want to bring coffee to work

  2. והן באות מוקדם
    And they come early

Each clause needs its own verb:

  • רוצות = want
  • באות = come

So the sentence is simply combining two related facts about the same group.