אם כואב לך הגרון, תשתי מים ותנוחי קצת.

If your throat hurts, drink water and rest a little.

Breakdown of אם כואב לך הגרון, תשתי מים ותנוחי קצת.

• מים: water
• לך: to you
• ו: and
• לשתות: to drink
• אם: if
• קצת: a little
• לכאוב: to hurt
• גרון: throat
• לנוח: to rest

Questions & Answers about אם כואב לך הגרון, תשתי מים ותנוחי קצת.

Why do תשתי and תנוחי end with -י?

That -י shows the sentence is addressed to one female.

Both תשתי and תנוחי are second person feminine singular forms.

For comparison:

• to a man: תשתה מים ותנוח קצת
• to a woman: תשתי מים ותנוחי קצת
• to more than one person: תשתו מים ותנוחו קצת

So this sentence is specifically speaking to you (feminine singular).

Are תשתי and תנוחי future tense, or are they commands?

Formally, they are future-tense forms. But in Modern Hebrew, future forms are very often used to give:

• commands
• instructions
• advice
• requests

So here they function like advice/instructions, even though the forms are technically future.

Hebrew does also have imperative forms:

• שתי = drink! (to a woman)
• נוחי = rest! (to a woman)

But in everyday Hebrew, the future forms תשתי and תנוחי often sound more natural.

Why is it כואב and not כואבת?

Because כואב agrees with הגרון, not with the person being spoken to.

גרון is a masculine singular noun, so the verb/adjective-like form is כואב.

Hebrew often expresses pain like this:

• כואב לי הראש = my head hurts
• כואבת לי הבטן = my stomach hurts

Notice how the form changes depending on the body part:

• ראש is masculine, so כואב
• בטן is feminine, so כואבת

So in your sentence, הגרון is masculine, which is why you get כואב.

Why is לך used here?

This is a very common Hebrew pattern for talking about pain:

כואב ל־...

Literally, it works more like hurts to someone than like English someone's X hurts.

So:

• כואב לך הגרון literally looks like the throat hurts to you
• natural English is your throat hurts

This pattern is extremely common:

• כואב לי הראש = my head hurts
• כואבת לה היד = her hand hurts
• כואבות לו העיניים = his eyes hurt

So לך is part of the normal Hebrew way to say who is experiencing the pain.

Why does הגרון have ה־ on it if English says your throat, not the throat?

Hebrew often uses the definite article with body parts when the owner is already clear from the sentence.

So:

• כואב לך הגרון literally looks like
• the throat hurts to you

But the natural meaning is:

• your throat hurts

This is very common with body parts:

• כואבת לי היד = my hand hurts
• שברתי את הרגל = I broke my leg

Hebrew often says the hand, the leg, the throat, while English prefers my/your/his/her.

Why is the word order כואב לך הגרון instead of something like הגרון כואב לך?

Because the pattern כואב ל... + noun is very natural in Hebrew.

Hebrew often puts the state or sensation first, especially in everyday speech:

• כואב לי הראש
• קר לי
• חם לה
• חשוב לי

So כואב לך הגרון sounds normal and idiomatic.

You can say הגרון כואב לך, but it sounds more marked, as if you are emphasizing the throat specifically.

Why is אם used here?

אם means if and introduces a condition.

So the sentence structure is:

• אם ... = if ...
• then advice/instruction follows

That is exactly how Hebrew commonly builds this kind of sentence.

Also, Hebrew uses כואב here in the present form because the condition is something like if your throat is hurting / if your throat hurts. Then the result/advice uses the future forms:

• תשתי
• ותנוחי

Why is there no subject pronoun like את?

Because Hebrew usually does not need subject pronouns unless you want emphasis.

The verb form already tells you who the subject is.

For example:

• תשתי already means you (feminine singular) will drink / should drink
• תנוחי already means you (feminine singular) will rest / should rest

So adding את would usually only be for emphasis or contrast.

What does the ו in ותנוחי mean?

It means and.

In Hebrew, very short words like ו־ are usually attached directly to the following word.

So:

• ו = and
• תנוחי = you (fem. sg.) will rest / should rest
• ותנוחי = and you should rest

This is completely normal Hebrew spelling.

Why is מים used like that? Doesn’t it look plural?

Yes, מים has a plural-looking form, but it means water.

It is one of several Hebrew nouns that are plural in form but function as a mass noun in meaning.

So even though English has singular water, Hebrew uses מים.

You will see the same thing in adjective agreement:

• מים קרים = cold water

So the form looks plural, but the meaning is simply water.

Why is there no the on מים?

Because the sentence is talking about water in a general sense, not a specific previously identified water.

So תשתי מים means drink water, not drink the water.

If you wanted to refer to specific water, Hebrew could use המים.

Compare:

• תשתי מים = drink water
• תשתי את המים = drink the water

In your sentence, the general version is the natural one.

What does קצת do in the sentence?

קצת means a little / a bit.

Here it modifies תנוחי, so it means rest a little or rest a bit.

Its position after the verb is very natural:

• תנוחי קצת

This is a very common word in Hebrew, and it can modify verbs, adjectives, or amounts depending on context.