כמה שעות את עובדת בכל יום?

How many hours do you work every day?

Breakdown of כמה שעות את עובדת בכל יום?

• את: you
• ב: in
• לעבוד: to work
• יום: day
• שעה: hour
• כל: every
• כמה: how many

Questions & Answers about כמה שעות את עובדת בכל יום?

Why is את used here, and is it the same את as the direct-object marker?

Here את means you addressed to one female person.

It is not the direct-object marker את, even though they are spelled the same. In unpointed Hebrew, these two words look identical:

• אַתְּ = you (feminine singular)
• אֶת = the marker used before a definite direct object

In this sentence, את comes before the verb עובדת, so it is clearly the subject pronoun you.

Why is the verb עובדת and not עובד?

Because the sentence is addressed to a woman.

In Hebrew present tense, the verb agrees with gender and number:

• את עובדת = you (feminine singular) work / are working
• אתה עובד = you (masculine singular) work / are working

So עובדת is the correct present-tense form for a female singular subject.

How would this sentence change if I were speaking to a man?

You would say:

כמה שעות אתה עובד בכל יום?

The only changes are:

• את → אתה
• עובדת → עובד

Everything else stays the same.

What tense is עובדת?

It is the present tense form.

In Hebrew, forms like עובד / עובדת / עובדים / עובדות are present-tense forms and can express:

• a general habit: you work
• an action happening now: you are working

In this sentence, because of בכל יום (every day), the meaning is clearly habitual: How many hours do you work every day?

Why is there no word for do, like in English How many hours do you work?

Hebrew does not use do-support the way English does.

English asks:

• How many hours do you work?

Hebrew simply uses the question word plus the normal sentence:

• כמה שעות את עובדת?

So there is no separate helping word matching English do here.

Why is שעות plural?

Because כמה means how many, so the noun being counted is normally plural.

• שעה = hour
• שעות = hours

So כמה שעות literally means how many hours.

Why is it בכל יום and not just כל יום?

Both are possible, and both can mean every day.

• כל יום = every day
• בכל יום = on every day / every day

בכל יום is a little more explicit because of the preposition ב־ (in / on). In many everyday contexts, native speakers also say simply כל יום.

So this sentence could also appear as:

כמה שעות את עובדת כל יום?

Why is יום singular after בכל? Shouldn’t it be plural if the meaning is every day?

After כל (every / each / all), Hebrew often uses a singular noun when the meaning is every.

So:

• כל יום = every day
• בכל יום = on every day

This is normal Hebrew structure. Even though the meaning is repeated or habitual, the noun itself stays singular.

Is the pronoun את necessary, or could it be omitted?

It can sometimes be omitted, but here keeping it is very natural and helpful.

You could say:

כמה שעות עובדת בכל יום?

but that sounds incomplete or unusual in most normal conversation unless the subject is already very clear from context.

One important reason is that present-tense Hebrew verb forms do not clearly show person by themselves. For example, עובדת can mean:

• you (feminine singular) work
• she works

So using את makes the meaning unambiguous.

Is the word order important here?

Yes, but Hebrew also allows some flexibility.

The sentence is built like this:

• כמה שעות = how many hours
• את = you (feminine singular)
• עובדת = work
• בכל יום = every day

Putting כמה שעות first is natural because it is the question phrase. The full order sounds normal and straightforward.

How is this sentence pronounced?

A simple pronunciation guide is:

ka-MA sha-OT at o-VE-det be-KHOL yom?

Approximate parts:

• כמה = ka-MA
• שעות = sha-OT
• את = at
• עובדת = o-VE-det
• בכל = be-KHOL
• יום = yom

The stress is usually on the last syllable in כמה, שעות, and עובדת.