Questions & Answers about המנה הזאת יקרה, אבל היא טעימה.
A natural pronunciation is:
ha-ma-NA ha-ZOT ye-ka-RA, a-VAL hi te-i-MA
A word-by-word guide:
- המנה → ha-ma-NA
- הזאת → ha-ZOT
- יקרה → ye-ka-RA
- אבל → a-VAL
- היא → hi
- טעימה → te-i-MA
The stress is mostly toward the end of the words, especially in יקרה and טעימה.
Because in Hebrew, words like this and that usually come after the noun, not before it.
So:
- המנה הזאת = this dish
- literally, something like the dish this
This is normal Hebrew word order. English says this dish, but Hebrew says the dish this.
The prefix ה־ means the.
In Hebrew, when you say this or that, the noun is usually made definite. So Hebrew says:
- המנה הזאת = this dish
- not מנה הזאת
So even though English does not say the this dish, Hebrew does use the definite form here.
Because מנה is a feminine singular noun, and Hebrew adjectives must agree with the noun in gender and number.
So with מנה, you get feminine singular adjectives:
- יקרה = expensive, feminine singular
- טעימה = tasty, feminine singular
If the noun were masculine singular, you would usually get:
- יקר
- טעים
This kind of agreement is a very important part of Hebrew grammar.
In Hebrew, every noun has grammatical gender, and מנה is feminine.
Sometimes you can guess gender from the ending, but not always with complete confidence. In practice, you usually learn a noun together with its gender.
In this sentence, the feminine adjective forms יקרה and טעימה also confirm that מנה is feminine.
Important point: this is grammatical gender, not natural gender. A dish is not female in the real-world sense; the noun is just treated as feminine in Hebrew grammar.
Because in Hebrew, the verb to be is usually omitted in the present tense.
So Hebrew often says:
- המנה הזאת יקרה
- literally: this dish expensive
- meaning: This dish is expensive
That is completely normal Hebrew.
You see the same pattern in many basic sentences:
- הספר מעניין = The book is interesting
- הילד עייף = The boy is tired
Here היא means she/it, and it refers back to המנה.
So אבל היא טעימה means something like:
- but it is tasty
It is not exactly the same as the English verb is by itself. It is a pronoun that refers back to the noun.
In this sentence, it makes the second clause more explicit. Hebrew can also sometimes leave it out, especially in informal speech:
- המנה הזאת יקרה, אבל טעימה
That would still be understood as This dish is expensive, but tasty.
Because יקרה here is a predicate adjective, not part of the noun phrase.
Compare these:
- המנה הזאת יקרה = This dish is expensive
- המנה היקרה = the expensive dish
In המנה היקרה, the adjective is directly describing the noun inside the noun phrase, so it takes ה־ too.
In המנה הזאת יקרה, the adjective comes after the whole noun phrase and means is expensive, so it does not take ה־.
This is a very common Hebrew pattern.
Yes. המנה הזו is also correct and very common.
Both mean this dish:
- המנה הזאת
- המנה הזו
Very roughly:
- הזאת can sound a bit fuller or more formal
- זו is very common in everyday usage
A learner should recognize both.
The words would change to match the masculine noun.
For example:
- הכריך הזה יקר, אבל הוא טעים.
- This sandwich is expensive, but it is tasty.
Notice the masculine forms:
- הזה instead of הזאת
- יקר instead of יקרה
- הוא instead of היא
- טעים instead of טעימה
So this sentence is a good example of how Hebrew words change to agree with the noun’s gender.
Both approaches help.
A rough word-for-word breakdown is:
- המנה = the dish / the portion
- הזאת = this
- יקרה = expensive
- אבל = but
- היא = she / it
- טעימה = tasty
But it is even more useful to learn the larger pattern:
- [definite noun] + [this/that] + [adjective]
- המנה הזאת יקרה = This dish is expensive
Once you know that pattern, you can build many similar sentences easily.