כשהוא מתחיל לעבוד, הוא לא עונה לטלפון.

he

Breakdown of כשהוא מתחיל לעבוד, הוא לא עונה לטלפון.

• לא: not
• לעבוד: to work
• ל: to

Questions & Answers about כשהוא מתחיל לעבוד, הוא לא עונה לטלפון.

What does כשהוא mean, and how is it built?

It is made of כש־ + הוא.

• כש־ means when or as
• הוא means he

So כשהוא literally means when he. In Hebrew, short prefixes like כש־ often attach directly to the next word.

Why is הוא written twice in the sentence?

Because there are really two clauses:

• כשהוא מתחיל לעבוד = when he starts working
• הוא לא עונה לטלפון = he doesn’t answer the phone

Each clause has its own subject, so Hebrew naturally repeats הוא. In present-tense Hebrew, this is especially common because the verb form does not always clearly show the person the way English does.

What form is מתחיל?

מתחיל is the masculine singular present form of להתחיל (to begin / to start).

It matches הוא because the subject is masculine singular. If the subject were feminine, it would be מתחילה.

Why is it מתחיל לעבוד and not מתחיל עובד?