Learn Hardcore Hebrew: הם שמחו, כי הרבה זמן לא ביקרנו שם. - They were happy, because we had not visited there for a long time.

Hebrew often allows the subject pronoun to be omitted, because the verb form already tells you who the subject is. So שמחו by itself can already mean they were happy.

However, speakers may still include הם for clarity, contrast, or emphasis. So:

שמחו = they were happy
הם שמחו = they were happy, with the subject stated explicitly

This is similar to saying they were happy instead of just understanding were happy from context.

What does כי mean here?

Here כי means because.

So the structure is:

הם שמחו = they were happy
כי... = because...

Be aware that כי can also mean that in other sentences, so learners often have to decide from context which meaning fits.

In this sentence, it clearly introduces the reason, so it means because.

What does הרבה זמן mean literally, and why is it used this way?

Literally, הרבה זמן means a lot of time.

In natural English, that usually becomes:

for a long time
in a long time

So in this sentence, הרבה זמן לא ביקרנו שם means something like we hadn’t visited there in a long time.

This is a very common everyday Hebrew expression. A somewhat more formal alternative is זמן רב (a long time), but הרבה זמן is extremely common in speech.

Why is it לא ביקרנו and not something like a special form for didn't visit?

In Hebrew, negation in the past tense is usually very simple:

לא
- past-tense verb

So:

ביקרנו = we visited
לא ביקרנו = we did not visit / we didn’t visit

Hebrew does not need a separate helping verb like English did.

What tense is ביקרנו?

ביקרנו is past tense, first person plural: we visited.

It comes from the verb לבקר = to visit.

So:

ביקרתי = I visited
ביקרת = you visited
ביקר = he visited
ביקרה = she visited
ביקרנו = we visited
ביקרו = they visited

In this sentence, English may translate it as we hadn’t visited, but the Hebrew form itself is still just ordinary past tense. The past perfect idea comes from the context, not from a special verb form.

Why might English translate לא ביקרנו as we hadn’t visited instead of just we didn’t visit?

Because English often uses past perfect to show that one past event happened before another past event.

The sentence has two past ideas:

הם שמחו = they were happy
לא ביקרנו שם הרבה זמן = we had not visited there for a long time before that

Hebrew usually does not have a separate everyday verb form for had visited / hadn’t visited the way English does. It often just uses the regular past tense and lets context show the sequence.

So although the Hebrew says literally we didn’t visit there for a long time, the most natural English is often we hadn’t visited there for a long time.

Why is there no word for for before הרבה זמן?

Because Hebrew often expresses time duration without a separate word corresponding directly to English for.

So Hebrew can say:

הרבה זמן לא ביקרנו שם

Literally: a lot of time we did not visit there

But natural English needs for or a different phrasing, such as:

We hadn’t visited there for a long time
We hadn’t been there in a long time

This is a very common difference between Hebrew and English.

What does שם mean exactly?

שם means there.

So:

פה / כאן = here
שם = there

In the sentence, ביקרנו שם means we visited there. In natural English, we would usually say we visited there or more idiomatically we had been there depending on context.

Is ביקרנו שם the most natural way to say we visited there?

Yes, it is a normal and correct way to say it.

That said, English and Hebrew do not always package this idea in the same way. English might prefer:

we visited there
we had been there
we hadn’t gone there

depending on the exact context.

Hebrew לבקר specifically means to visit, so ביקרנו שם is straightforward and natural.

What is the root of ביקרנו, and does it have anything to do with morning or cattle because of similar-looking words?

The root here is ב־ק־ר.

In Hebrew, many roots can produce different words and meanings in different patterns, so a learner may notice that בקר can appear in unrelated-looking words. For example:

לבקר = to visit
בוקר = morning
בקר = cattle

These are not all the same meaning just because they look similar in unpointed writing. Hebrew roots and patterns can create words that look alike but function very differently.

In this sentence, ביקרנו clearly comes from לבקר = to visit.

Why is the word order הרבה זמן לא ביקרנו שם and not something closer to English word order?

Hebrew word order is flexible, but this order is very natural.

The phrase הרבה זמן is placed early to emphasize the duration: for a long time / in a long time.

So the clause feels like:

because for a long time we hadn’t visited there

Hebrew often allows this kind of time expression before the verb more naturally than English does.

Could this sentence be said in a more formal or literary way?

Yes. A more formal version might use זמן רב instead of הרבה זמן:

הם שמחו, כי זמן רב לא ביקרנו שם.

This means the same thing, but זמן רב sounds more formal or literary, while הרבה זמן sounds very natural in everyday speech.

How is ביקרנו pronounced?

It is pronounced approximately bee-KAR-noo.

With vowels fully marked, it is בִּיקַּרְנוּ.

A few useful pronunciation notes:

the first syllable sounds like bee
the stress is usually on KAR
נו at the end means we in this past-tense form

So the whole sentence would sound roughly like:

hem samekhu, ki harbe zman lo bikarnu sham

That is only an approximation in English letters, but it can help as a starting point.