גם הוא רעב, אבל היא רק עייפה.

In Hebrew, the verb to be is usually not written or spoken in the present tense.

So:

• הוא רעב = he is hungry
• היא עייפה = she is tired

Literally, Hebrew is saying something like:

• also he hungry, but she only tired

This is completely normal Hebrew.
In the past or future, Hebrew does use forms of to be.

גם means also or too.

In גם הוא רעב, it means he is hungry too / he is also hungry.

Putting גם first is very natural in Hebrew. It gives the sense of also he... or he too...

So:

• גם הוא רעב = He is hungry too
• literally: Also he hungry

You may also hear other word orders in Hebrew, but this one is very common and natural.

Because Hebrew distinguishes clearly between:

• הוא = he
• היא = she

So:

• גם הוא רעב = He is also hungry
• אבל היא רק עייפה = But she is only tired

Unlike English, Hebrew often shows gender very clearly, not just in pronouns but also in adjectives.

Because adjectives in Hebrew must agree with the gender of the person they describe.

Here:

• רעב = masculine singular hungry
• עייפה = feminine singular tired

So:

• הוא רעב = he is hungry
• היא עייפה = she is tired

A native English speaker often notices this quickly, because English adjectives do not change for gender, but Hebrew adjectives often do.

They would be:

• רעב = masculine singular
• רעבה = feminine singular

and

• עייף = masculine singular
• עייפה = feminine singular

So you could also say:

• היא רעבה = she is hungry
• הוא עייף = he is tired

This is a very important Hebrew pattern: many adjectives have different masculine and feminine forms.

אבל means but.

It connects the two parts of the sentence:

• גם הוא רעב = He is hungry too
• אבל היא רק עייפה = but she is only tired

So אבל works very much like English but.

רק means only or just.

In this sentence:

• היא רק עייפה = she is only tired / she is just tired

The idea is that her condition is less serious or different from his:
he is hungry, but she is only tired.

Because רק usually comes before the word or idea it modifies.

Here it modifies עייפה:

• היא רק עייפה = she is only tired

That placement is very natural in Hebrew.
It tells us that tired is the only relevant description here.

They are very close, but the emphasis can feel slightly different.

• גם הוא רעב = he too is hungry / he is also hungry
• הוא גם רעב = also possible, often with a slightly different flow or emphasis

In many everyday situations, both can work.
But גם הוא רעב is especially natural when you are adding him to a group or contrast:

• She is tired, and he too is hungry
• Also he is hungry

So the sentence you were given sounds normal and idiomatic.

A common pronunciation guide would be:

gam hu ra-ev, aval hi rak ayefa

More carefully:

• גם = gam
• הוא = hu
• רעב = ra-ev
• אבל = aval
• היא = hi
• רק = rak
• עייפה = aye-fa

A very rough English-style rhythm is:

gam hoo ra-EV, a-VAL hee rak a-ye-FA

It is an adjective.

So הוא רעב literally means he hungry, where רעב describes him.

The same is true for עייפה:

• היא עייפה = she tired

Because Hebrew often omits is in the present tense, these adjective-based sentences can look strange to English speakers at first, but they are completely normal.

Not very naturally.

A word-for-word version would be:

Also he hungry, but she only tired.

That helps show the Hebrew structure, but natural English would be:

He is hungry too, but she is only tired.

So the Hebrew grammar is a little different from English, especially because Hebrew leaves out is.

Yes, fairly similarly in this sentence.

The comma separates the two parts:

• גם הוא רעב
• אבל היא רק עייפה

Since אבל means but, using a comma before it is natural here, much like in English.

Punctuation rules are not always identical between Hebrew and English, but in a sentence like this, the comma feels very familiar to an English speaker.