Breakdown of היא מסיימת מהר, כי המחשב שלה חדש.
Questions & Answers about היא מסיימת מהר, כי המחשב שלה חדש.
היא means she. Hebrew verbs in the present tense do not usually include the subject inside the verb as clearly as English does, so the sentence often uses a separate subject pronoun when needed for clarity.
Here, היא מסיימת = she finishes / she is finishing.
If the subject were masculine, it would be הוא = he.
מסיימת is the present tense, feminine singular form of the verb לסיים = to finish / to complete.
So היא מסיימת can mean:
- she finishes
- she is finishing
- sometimes she gets done
Hebrew present tense often covers both the simple present and the present progressive, depending on context.
Because the subject is היא (she), the verb must be in the feminine singular form.
In the present tense:
- מסיים = masculine singular
- מסיימת = feminine singular
- מסיימים = masculine plural / mixed plural
- מסיימות = feminine plural
So:
- הוא מסיים = he finishes
- היא מסיימת = she finishes
מהר means quickly / fast. Here it functions like an adverb, describing how she finishes.
So:
- היא מסיימת מהר = she finishes quickly
A learner might expect something that agrees with gender, but מהר does not change here. It stays מהר.
In Hebrew, the verb to be is usually not expressed in the present tense.
So:
- המחשב שלה חדש literally looks like the computer her new
- but it means her computer is new
This is completely normal Hebrew.
In other tenses, Hebrew does use forms equivalent to was / will be, for example:
- המחשב שלה היה חדש = her computer was new
- המחשב שלה יהיה חדש = her computer will be new
כי usually means because in a sentence like this.
So:
- כי המחשב שלה חדש = because her computer is new
The comma before כי is very common in written Hebrew when introducing a reason clause, much like in English:
- She finishes quickly, because her computer is new.
In informal writing, punctuation can vary, but the comma here is standard and natural.
שלה means hers / of her / her, depending on context. In this sentence, it shows possession:
- המחשב שלה = her computer
A very useful pattern in Hebrew is:
- הספר שלי = my book
- הספר שלך = your book
- הספר שלו = his book
- הספר שלה = her book
So שלה agrees with the owner (her), not with the thing owned.
In standard Hebrew, when a noun is followed by a possessive phrase like שלי / שלך / שלה, the noun is usually definite, so it often takes ה־.
That is why:
- המחשב שלה = her computer
This is the normal way to say it.
Hebrew often treats possessed nouns as definite, similar to how English her computer refers to a specific computer.
Because חדש describes המחשב (the computer), not she.
The noun מחשב is masculine singular, so the adjective must also be masculine singular:
- מחשב חדש = a new computer
If the noun were feminine, the adjective would change:
- מכונית חדשה = a new car
So חדש matches המחשב, not שלה and not היא.
Yes. Hebrew word order is flexible, although this sentence is very natural as written.
For example, you could also say:
- כי המחשב שלה חדש, היא מסיימת מהר.
- היא מסיימת מהר כי המחשב שלה חדש.
All of these can work, though the version with the comma after מהר is a very standard written form.
Not always. Hebrew, like English, can leave the object unstated if it is obvious from context.
So היא מסיימת מהר can mean:
- she finishes quickly
- she gets done quickly
- she finishes it quickly, if the object is understood from context
If you wanted to state the object explicitly, you could:
- היא מסיימת את העבודה מהר = she finishes the work quickly
You would change the subject pronoun and the present-tense verb form:
- הוא מסיים מהר, כי המחשב שלו חדש.
Changes:
- היא → הוא (she → he)
- מסיימת → מסיים (feminine → masculine)
- שלה → שלו (her → his)
Everything else stays the same.