הבניין ישן, אבל המעלית חדשה והמדרגות נקיות.

The building is old, but the elevator is new and the stairs are clean.

Breakdown of הבניין ישן, אבל המעלית חדשה והמדרגות נקיות.

• חדש: new
• ו: and
• אבל: but
• ישן: old
• נקי: clean
• מעלית: elevator
• מדרגות: stairs
• בניין: building

Questions & Answers about הבניין ישן, אבל המעלית חדשה והמדרגות נקיות.

How do you pronounce this sentence?

A natural pronunciation is:

ha-binyan yashan, aval ha-ma'alit chadasha ve-ha-madregot nekiyot.

Very roughly, the stress is near the end of each main word: binYAN, yaSHAN, avaL, ma'aLIT, chadaSHA, madreGOT, nekiYOT.

Why is there no word for is/are in the sentence?

In present-tense Hebrew, the verb to be is usually left out.

So: הבניין ישן literally looks like the building old, but it means the building is old.

The same thing happens in: המעלית חדשה = the elevator is new המדרגות נקיות = the stairs are clean

Why do the adjectives come after the nouns?

In Hebrew, adjectives normally come after the noun they describe.

So Hebrew says: building old not old building

That is true both in simple descriptions and in sentences like this one. So הבניין ישן is the normal Hebrew order.

Why are the adjective forms different: ישן, חדשה, and נקיות?

Because Hebrew adjectives must agree with the noun in gender and number.

Here are the matches:

• הבניין is masculine singular → ישן
• המעלית is feminine singular → חדשה
• המדרגות is feminine plural → נקיות

This kind of agreement is a very important part of Hebrew grammar.

How do I know that מעלית is feminine?

You mostly learn a noun's gender as part of the word.

In this case, מעלית is a feminine noun, so it takes the feminine adjective חדשה.

Also, nouns ending in ־ית are often feminine, so that ending is a helpful clue, though you still need to learn each word individually.

Why is נקיות feminine plural?

Because המדרגות is feminine plural.

The singular is מדרגה = step/stair, which is feminine.
Its plural is מדרגות, so the adjective also has to be feminine plural:

• מדרגה נקייה = a clean step
• מדרגות נקיות = clean stairs

What is the difference between הבניין ישן and הבניין הישן?

These mean different things:

• הבניין ישן = the building is old
• הבניין הישן = the old building

In הבניין ישן, ישן is the predicate adjective, so it does not take ה־.

In הבניין הישן, הישן is directly modifying הבניין inside the noun phrase, so it does take ה־.

Why does each noun begin with ה־?

ה־ is the Hebrew definite article, meaning the.

So:

• בניין = building

• הבניין = the building

• מעלית = elevator

• המעלית = the elevator

• מדרגות = stairs
• המדרגות = the stairs

In Hebrew, the is attached to the beginning of the word instead of standing alone as a separate word.

Why is ו attached to המדרגות, but אבל is separate?

Because ו־ is a prefix meaning and, while אבל is a separate word meaning but.

So:

• והמדרגות = and the stairs
• אבל = but

This is very common in Hebrew: short function words like ו־ are often attached directly to the next word.

Does ישן mean old or sleeping?

It can mean either, depending on pronunciation and context.

Without vowel marks, both are written ישן:

• yashan = old
• yashen = sleeping (masculine singular)

In this sentence, the meaning is clearly old, because it is describing a building.

What are the singular forms of מדרגות and נקיות?

The singular forms are:

• מדרגה = step / stair
• נקייה = clean (feminine singular)

So the singular version would be:

המדרגה נקייה = the step is clean

This is a useful way to see how the plural forms are built:

• מדרגה → מדרגות
• נקייה → נקיות