לפני שאנחנו מזמינים, אני רוצה לראות את התפריט.

Before we order, I want to see the menu.

Breakdown of לפני שאנחנו מזמינים, אני רוצה לראות את התפריט.

• אני: I
• לרצות: to want
• לראות: to see
• את: direct object marker
• אנחנו: we
• לפני: before
• ש: that
• להזמין: to order
• תפריט: menu

Questions & Answers about לפני שאנחנו מזמינים, אני רוצה לראות את התפריט.

Why does the sentence start with לפני שאנחנו?

לפני means before. When Hebrew says before + a whole clause, it often uses לפני ש־....

Here, שאנחנו is really:

• ש־ = that / when / which in many structures, and here it helps introduce the clause
• אנחנו = we

So לפני שאנחנו מזמינים means literally something like before that we order, i.e. before we order.

In normal writing, the ש־ is attached to the next word, so:

• ש + אנחנו = שאנחנו

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Why is אנחנו needed? Can't Hebrew just say the verb?

In the present tense, Hebrew verbs usually do not clearly show person the way English does.

מזמינים can mean:

• we order / we are ordering
• you (plural, masculine/mixed) order
• they (masculine/mixed) order

So Hebrew often includes the subject pronoun in the present tense to avoid ambiguity.

That is why אנחנו מזמינים clearly means we are ordering / we order.

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Why is the verb מזמינים in the present tense if the English meaning is before we order?

This is a very common thing learners notice. Hebrew often uses the present tense in contexts where English uses a future-like meaning, especially in everyday speech when talking about something about to happen.

So לפני שאנחנו מזמינים can naturally mean:

• before we order
• literally, before we’re ordering

A more explicitly future version would be:

• לפני שנזמין

That also means before we order, and many learners will meet both patterns.
So:

• לפני שאנחנו מזמינים = very natural, conversational
• לפני שנזמין = also very common, often felt as more directly future

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What does מזמינים mean exactly here?

The verb comes from להזמין, which can mean:

• to order
• to invite
• sometimes to reserve

Here, because the sentence also has התפריט (the menu), the meaning is clearly to order food / place an order.

So אנחנו מזמינים here means we order or we are ordering.

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Why is it מזמינים and not מזמינות?

מזמינים is the masculine plural form. In Hebrew, masculine plural is used for:

• a group of men
• a mixed group
• a group of unspecified gender

If the group were all female, it would be:

• לפני שאנחנו מזמינות...

So the sentence as written is either:

• spoken by a man with others
• spoken by a mixed group
• or just using the default masculine plural

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Why is it אני רוצה? Does that tell us whether the speaker is male or female?

In unpointed Hebrew, רוצה is spelled the same for both:

• masculine singular: רוֹצֶה
• feminine singular: רוֹצָה

So from spelling alone, אני רוצה could mean:

• I want said by a male speaker
• I want said by a female speaker

The difference is mainly in pronunciation:

• male: rotze
• female: rotza

Without vowel marks, Hebrew usually leaves that to context.

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Why is there a ל in לראות?

The basic dictionary form of a Hebrew verb is often the infinitive with ל־, similar to English to + verb.

So:

• לראות = to see

After רוצה (want), Hebrew normally uses an infinitive:

• אני רוצה לראות = I want to see

This is just like English want to see.

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What is the job of את in את התפריט?

את is the Hebrew marker for a definite direct object.

It does not mean with here.
It appears before a direct object that is definite, such as:

• a noun with ה־ (the)
• a name
• a pronoun

So:

• לראות את התפריט = to see the menu

Because התפריט means the menu and is definite, Hebrew uses את.

Compare:

• אני רואה תפריט = I see a menu
• אני רואה את התפריט = I see the menu

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Why is it התפריט and not just תפריט?

The ה־ at the beginning is the Hebrew definite article, meaning the.

So:

• תפריט = a menu
• התפריט = the menu

Since the meaning is a specific menu, Hebrew uses התפריט.

And because it is definite, it also triggers את:

• את התפריט

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Can the word order be changed?

Yes. Hebrew allows some flexibility in word order.

The original sentence:

• לפני שאנחנו מזמינים, אני רוצה לראות את התפריט.

A very natural alternative is:

• אני רוצה לראות את התפריט לפני שאנחנו מזמינים.

Both mean the same thing. The difference is mostly about emphasis:

• starting with לפני שאנחנו מזמינים highlights the time condition first
• starting with אני רוצה highlights the speaker’s wish first

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Could you say לפני שמזמינים instead?

Yes, but it changes the feel a little.

• לפני שאנחנו מזמינים = before we order
• לפני שמזמינים = more like before ordering or before people order

Without אנחנו, the sentence becomes more general or less explicitly tied to we. In your sentence, אנחנו is useful because it clearly matches the meaning before we order.

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Is שאנחנו one word or two?

In standard Hebrew writing, it is written as one written unit:

• שאנחנו

That is because ש־ is a prefix attached to the following word.

So although it is helpful for learners to think of it as:

• ש + אנחנו

you normally write:

• שאנחנו

The same thing happens in many other combinations, for example:

• שאני = that I / when I
• שהוא = that he
• שאתם = that you (plural)

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How literal is the sentence structure compared with English?

Pretty close overall:

• לפני = before
• שאנחנו מזמינים = we order / we are ordering
• אני רוצה = I want
• לראות = to see
• את התפריט = the menu

A word-for-word style gloss would be:

• Before we order, I want to see the menu.

So this is actually a very learner-friendly sentence because the structure lines up fairly well with English, even though a few Hebrew features are different, especially:

• the use of ש־
• the present-tense form מזמינים
• the object marker את