אתן רוצות לבוא ביחד, או שאתן רוצות ללכת לבד?

Do you (plural, feminine) want to come together, or do you want to go alone?

Breakdown of אתן רוצות לבוא ביחד, או שאתן רוצות ללכת לבד?

• לרצות: to want
• ללכת: to go
• לבוא: to come
• ביחד: together
• לבד: alone
• או: or
• אתן: you (plural, feminine)
• ש: that

Questions & Answers about אתן רוצות לבוא ביחד, או שאתן רוצות ללכת לבד?

What does אתן mean, and when is it used?

אתן means you when speaking to two or more females.

• אתן = feminine plural you
• אתם = masculine plural you, also used for mixed groups

Pronunciation: a-TEN.

In standard Hebrew, אתן is the correct form for a group of women. In everyday spoken Hebrew, some speakers use אתם even when talking to women, but אתן is still the proper feminine form.

Why does the sentence use רוצות and not רוצים?

Because Hebrew verbs agree with the subject in gender and number.

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

• אתן רוצות = you women want
• אתם רוצים = you men / you all want

This agreement is very important in Hebrew, much more than in English.

Why is there no separate word for do in the question?

Hebrew does not use an auxiliary verb like English do to form present-tense questions.

In English, you say:

• Do you want to come together?

In Hebrew, you simply use the normal sentence structure, and the fact that it is a question is shown by:

• intonation in speech
• a question mark in writing

So אתן רוצות... ? can mean You want...? / Do you want...? depending on context and intonation.

Why are לבוא and ללכת in this form?

They are infinitives:

• לבוא = to come
• ללכת = to go

After רוצה / רוצות = want / want to, Hebrew normally uses an infinitive, just like English often uses to + verb:

• רוצות לבוא = want to come
• רוצות ללכת = want to go

The prefix ל־ usually marks the infinitive, similar to English to.

Why does the sentence say לבוא in one part and ללכת in the other? What is the difference?

The difference is basically the same as in English:

• לבוא = to come — movement toward the speaker or the relevant place
• ללכת = to go — movement away or simply movement to another place

So the sentence contrasts two options from the speaker’s point of view:

• come together
• go alone

This is a normal and natural distinction in Hebrew.

What does the ש in שאתן do?

שאתן is really ש + אתן.

Here ש־ connects the second clause after או. In this kind of sentence, או ש... is a very common pattern meaning something like:

• or that...
• or whether...
• more naturally in English here: or do you...

So:

• או שאתן רוצות ללכת לבד
  means roughly or do you want to go alone?

Usually, ש־ is not translated as a separate word in natural English.

Why is אתן רוצות repeated in the second half of the sentence?

Because the sentence is built as two full parallel options:

• אתן רוצות לבוא ביחד
• או שאתן רוצות ללכת לבד

Repeating אתן רוצות makes the structure clear and balanced.

A shorter version is possible in some contexts, for example:

• אתן רוצות לבוא ביחד או ללכת לבד?

But the full repeated version sounds more explicit, and it avoids any ambiguity.

What is the difference between ביחד and יחד?

Both ביחד and יחד mean together.

In modern Hebrew:

• ביחד is very common
• יחד is also common and completely correct

In most everyday situations, the difference is small or nonexistent.

So לבוא ביחד and לבוא יחד both mean to come together.

What does לבד mean exactly?

לבד means alone, by oneself, or on one’s own.

So:

• ללכת לבד = to go alone / to go by yourself / to go on your own

Even though it starts with ל־, you should learn לבד as a whole word here. In this expression, it simply means alone.

Could אתן be omitted?

Sometimes, but not always naturally.

In Hebrew present tense, the verb form רוצות tells you:

• plural
• feminine

but it does not clearly tell you whether the subject is you or they.
So רוצות by itself could mean either:

• you women want
• they women want

Because of that, the pronoun אתן is often kept for clarity, especially in a sentence like this.

Is this sentence natural in everyday Hebrew?

Yes. It is natural and correct Hebrew.

A few notes:

• The sentence is fully standard.
• The feminine plural forms אתן and רוצות are grammatically correct for a group of women.
• In casual spoken Israeli Hebrew, some speakers might switch to masculine plural forms instead, but that is a matter of colloquial usage, not standard grammar.

So as a learner, this sentence is absolutely worth knowing.

How would the sentence look if I were speaking to a group of men or to a mixed group?

Then you would use the masculine plural forms:

אתם רוצים לבוא ביחד, או שאתם רוצים ללכת לבד?

Changes:

• אתן → אתם
• רוצות → רוצים

Everything else stays the same.