חשבתי לקנות לה ספר בשוק, אבל אחרי זה בחרתי בתיק חדש.

I thought about buying her a book at the market, but after that I chose a new bag.

Breakdown of חשבתי לקנות לה ספר בשוק, אבל אחרי זה בחרתי בתיק חדש.

• ספר: book
• חדש: new
• אבל: but
• לקנות: to buy

Questions & Answers about חשבתי לקנות לה ספר בשוק, אבל אחרי זה בחרתי בתיק חדש.

What does חשבתי mean exactly, and is it just simple past?

חשבתי is the 1st person singular past form of לחשוב.

So grammatically it means I thought. But in a sentence like חשבתי לקנות..., it often means more than a simple thought:

• I thought of buying...
• I was thinking of buying...
• I intended to buy...

Hebrew past tense does not always separate these shades as clearly as English does, so context decides.

Why is לקנות used after חשבתי?

Because Hebrew commonly uses an infinitive after verbs like thought, wanted, decided, started, and so on.

• לקנות = to buy
• the ל־ here is part of the infinitive form

So:

• חשבתי לקנות = I thought of buying / I intended to buy

This is very normal Hebrew structure.

What does לה mean here?