סבתא תשמח לקבל את המתנה.

Grandma will be happy to receive the gift.

Breakdown of סבתא תשמח לקבל את המתנה.

• את: direct object marker
• סבתא: grandma
• מתנה: gift
• לשמוח: to be happy
• לקבל: to receive

Questions & Answers about סבתא תשמח לקבל את המתנה.

How do you pronounce סבתא תשמח לקבל את המתנה?

A common pronunciation is:

savta tismach lekabel et hamatana

A few notes:

• סבתא = savta, not sabta. The letter ב here is pronounced v.
• תשמח = tismach. The final ח is the throaty Hebrew sound, not an English k or h.
• לקבל = lekabel
• המתנה = hamatana

The main stress is usually:

• savTA
• tisMACH
• lekaBEL
• hamataNA

What does each word do in the sentence?

Here is a word-by-word breakdown:

• סבתא = grandma / grandmother
• תשמח = she will be happy / she will be glad
• לקבל = to receive
• את = marker of a definite direct object
• המתנה = the gift / the present

So the structure is basically:

Grandma + will be happy + to receive + the gift

Where is the word will in Hebrew?

Hebrew usually does not need a separate word for will. The future meaning is built into the verb form itself.

Here, תשמח already means she will be happy.

So unlike English:

• English: Grandma will be happy
• Hebrew: סבתא תשמח

The verb ending and pattern tell you that it is future.

Why is the verb תשמח and not some other form?

תשמח is the future tense, third person feminine singular form of the verb שמח.

It matches סבתא, which is feminine singular.

So:

• הוא ישמח = he will be happy
• היא תשמח = she will be happy

Since סבתא is feminine, Hebrew uses תשמח.

Why does a form starting with ת- mean she will...? Doesn’t ת- sometimes mean you will...?

Yes. In Hebrew future tense, some forms are identical.

תשמח can mean:

• she will be happy
• you (masculine singular) will be happy

So how do you know which one it is? From context.

In this sentence, the subject is סבתא, so תשמח clearly means she will be happy.

Why is לקבל used after תשמח?

לקבל is the infinitive, meaning to receive.

After verbs like be happy, want, begin, try, and many others, Hebrew often uses an infinitive, just like English often uses to + verb.

So:

• תשמח לקבל = will be happy to receive

The ל־ at the beginning of לקבל is the normal marker that often corresponds to English to before a verb.

What is את doing here?

את is the Hebrew marker for a definite direct object.

It does not really translate into English, but it appears before a direct object that is definite, such as one with ה־ (the), a name, or a possessive.

Here:

• המתנה = the gift
• because it is definite, Hebrew puts את before it:
  • את המתנה

Compare:

• לקבל מתנה = to receive a gift
• לקבל את המתנה = to receive the gift

So את is not the word with, and it is not optional here.

Why does המתנה have ה־ at the beginning?

The ה־ is the Hebrew definite article, meaning the.

So:

• מתנה = a gift / a present
• המתנה = the gift / the present

Because the sentence refers to a specific gift, Hebrew uses המתנה.

And because the object is definite, it also needs את:

• את המתנה

Does סבתא mean grandmother or Grandma?

It can mean either, depending on context.

In real usage, family words like אמא, אבא, סבתא, and סבא are often used almost like names:

• סבתא תשמח can sound like Grandma will be happy

But it can also simply mean:

• The grandmother will be happy
• Grandmother will be happy

Context tells you which is most natural.

Why does סבתא end in א if it is feminine? I thought many feminine words end in ה.

Many feminine Hebrew nouns do end in ה or ת, but not all of them.

סבתא is just one of those feminine nouns that ends in א. It is still clearly feminine, and the verb agrees with it as feminine:

• סבתא תשמח

So the ending א does not make it masculine. Gender in Hebrew is something you learn word by word.

Is the word order normal here?

Yes. This is a very natural Hebrew word order.

The sentence is:

סבתא | תשמח | לקבל | את המתנה

That is:

• subject
• verb
• infinitive
• object

Hebrew word order is somewhat flexible, but this version is straightforward and neutral. It is a good standard way to say it.

Could this sentence also be said in another way?

Yes. A close alternative is:

סבתא תהיה שמחה לקבל את המתנה.

This also means Grandma will be happy to receive the gift.

The difference is roughly:

• סבתא תשמח לקבל את המתנה = more compact, very natural
• סבתא תהיה שמחה לקבל את המתנה = slightly more explicit, literally Grandma will be happy

Both are correct. The original sentence is perfectly normal.

Does לקבל mean only to receive, or can it also mean to get?

It can mean both, depending on context.

So לקבל may be translated as:

• to receive
• to get

In this sentence, English learners are often shown to receive because it sounds a little more natural with gift:

• Grandma will be happy to receive the gift

But to get the gift is not wrong in many contexts.

Would the sentence change if the object were not definite?

Yes. If you said a gift instead of the gift, you would usually remove both ה־ and את.

So:

• לקבל את המתנה = to receive the gift
• לקבל מתנה = to receive a gift

That is an important pattern in Hebrew:

• definite object → usually את
• indefinite object → no את