יש לי כסף לתת לחברה, אבל לא היום.

I have money to give to a female friend, but not today.

Breakdown of יש לי כסף לתת לחברה, אבל לא היום.

• יש: there is
• לי: to me
• חברה: female friend
• אבל: but
• לא: not
• היום: today
• ל: to
• כסף: money
• לתת: to give

Questions & Answers about יש לי כסף לתת לחברה, אבל לא היום.

Why does Hebrew use יש לי instead of a verb meaning I have?

Hebrew usually expresses possession with יש + ל־.

• יש לי כסף = literally There is money to me
• Natural English: I have money

So יש means there is / there are, and לי means to me. Together, they are the normal way to say I have.

The negative form is אין לי כסף = I don’t have money.

What exactly does לי mean here?

לי is the preposition ל־ (to / for) plus the pronoun י (me), so it means to me or for me.

In possession sentences, Hebrew marks the owner this way:

• יש לי = I have
• יש לך = you have
• יש לו = he has
• יש לה = she has

So in this sentence, לי tells you who has the money.

Why is לתת used here, and what does it connect to?

לתת is the infinitive to give.

Here it connects to כסף and describes what kind of money we are talking about: money to give.

So:

• יש לי כסף = I have money
• יש לי כסף לתת לחברה = I have money to give to the friend/company

In English, you might also think of it as I have money that I can give.

Why isn’t there a word like that I can in the sentence?

Hebrew often uses an infinitive where English uses a longer structure.

So instead of saying something like:

• I have money that I can give...

Hebrew can simply say:

• יש לי כסף לתת...
• literally: I have money to give...

This is a very common and natural Hebrew pattern.

What does לחברה mean here? Is it to a female friend or to the company?

Without vowel marks, לחברה can mean either:

• to a female friend
• to the company

So the spelling is ambiguous.

With vowels/pronunciation, they are different:

• לְחֲבֵרָה = to a female friend
• לַחֶבְרָה = to the company

In normal everyday writing, Hebrew usually leaves out the vowels, so you understand it from context.

Why is לחברה written as one word?

Because Hebrew prepositions often attach directly to the following noun.

Here, ל־ means to or for, so:

• ל + חברה → לחברה

That is completely normal in Hebrew.

Also, if the noun is definite, Hebrew combines ל־ with ה־:

• ל + החברה → לחברה

That is one reason why לחברה can be ambiguous in unpointed writing.

Why does the sentence say אבל לא היום instead of repeating the whole idea?

Because Hebrew, like English, often leaves out repeated words when they are obvious from context.

So אבל לא היום literally means but not today, and the rest is understood:

• ...but not today
• meaning something like ...but I’m not giving it today or ...but today isn’t the day

This kind of shortened ending is very natural.

Why is the negative word לא used here and not אין?

Because לא and אין do different jobs.

• אין is used for there isn’t / I don’t have
• לא is the regular word for not

Examples:

• אין לי כסף = I don’t have money
• לא היום = not today

In your sentence, the speaker does have money, so אין would be wrong there. The thing being negated is היום (today), not the existence of the money.

Why is it היום with ה־ if it just means today?

In modern Hebrew, היום is simply the normal word for today.

Even though it contains ה־, you usually learn it as one complete word:

• היום = today

So in אבל לא היום, it just means but not today.

Why is there no ה־ on כסף?

Because כסף here is indefinite: money, not the money.

So:

• יש לי כסף = I have money
• יש לי את הכסף = I have the money

In this sentence, the speaker means they have some money available to give, not necessarily a specific previously mentioned sum. That is why כסף appears without ה־.