Breakdown of בסוף ביטלנו את הפגישה, כי היא לא יכלה להגיע.
Questions & Answers about בסוף ביטלנו את הפגישה, כי היא לא יכלה להגיע.
A common transliteration is:
Besof bitalnu et hapgisha, ki hi lo yakhla lehagia.
A slightly more precise version is:
Besof bitalnu et hapgishá, ki hi lo yakhla lehagi'a.
Notes:
- בסוף = besof
- ביטלנו = bitalnu
- הפגישה = hapgisha
- יכלה = yakhla
- להגיע = lehagia / lehagi'a
Here בסוף means in the end, eventually, or after all.
So it does not mean a physical ending like at the end of the meeting. It means something more like: after everything, that was the final outcome.
Compare:
- בסוף ביטלנו את הפגישה = In the end, we canceled the meeting
- בסוף הפגישה = at the end of the meeting
That little difference is very important.
ביטלנו is the past tense, first person plural form of the verb לבטל = to cancel.
So:
- ביטלתי = I canceled
- ביטלת = you canceled
- ביטל = he canceled
- ביטלה = she canceled
- ביטלנו = we canceled
The ending ־נו tells you the subject is we, so Hebrew does not need a separate word for we here.
את is the Hebrew direct object marker. It appears before a definite direct object.
Here, הפגישה means the meeting, which is definite, so Hebrew uses את:
- ביטלנו את הפגישה = we canceled the meeting
It does not translate into English as a separate word.
Compare:
- ביטלנו את הפגישה = we canceled the meeting
- ביטלנו פגישה = we canceled a meeting
So את is a grammar marker, not a word with its own meaning here.
The ה־ at the beginning is the Hebrew definite article, meaning the.
- פגישה = a meeting / meeting
- הפגישה = the meeting
So the sentence is talking about a specific meeting, not just any meeting.
Because the subject is היא = she, and the verb has to agree with that subject.
יכלה is the past feminine singular form of to be able / could.
So:
- הוא לא יכל להגיע = he couldn’t arrive
- היא לא יכלה להגיע = she couldn’t arrive
- הם לא יכלו להגיע = they couldn’t arrive
The ending ־ה in יכלה matches the feminine subject היא.
Yes. In this sentence, לא יכלה means could not or was not able to.
So:
- היא לא יכלה להגיע = she couldn’t come / she wasn’t able to arrive
A useful thing to remember is that Hebrew often expresses can / could with forms of the verb יכל plus an infinitive.
להגיע is the infinitive to arrive, to get there, or sometimes to come depending on context.
So in this sentence:
- היא לא יכלה להגיע literally = she could not arrive / get there
- In natural English, that often becomes she couldn’t make it or she couldn’t come
After verbs like יכל (can / be able to), Hebrew usually uses an infinitive:
- יכול להגיע = can arrive
- יכלה להגיע = could arrive
Because Hebrew verb endings already show the subject.
In ביטלנו, the ending ־נו already means we, so אנחנו is unnecessary.
You could say:
- אנחנו ביטלנו את הפגישה
But that usually adds emphasis, like:
- We canceled the meeting
In a normal sentence, just ביטלנו is enough.
Here כי means because.
So the structure is:
- ביטלנו את הפגישה = we canceled the meeting
- כי היא לא יכלה להגיע = because she couldn’t come
Together:
- We canceled the meeting because she couldn’t come
Important note: כי can also mean other things in some contexts, especially in more formal or literary Hebrew, but in everyday sentences like this, because is usually the right reading.
Yes, but the original order is very natural.
בסוף ביטלנו את הפגישה, כי היא לא יכלה להגיע.
This starts with בסוף to set the scene: in the end.
You could also hear:
- ביטלנו בסוף את הפגישה...
But that can sound a little different in emphasis, and the original sentence is the more straightforward, natural way to say it.
So for learners, the original order is a very good model:
- time/result expression first
- main verb
- direct object
- reason clause with כי
It sounds like normal, natural, everyday Hebrew.
Nothing in it is unusually formal or literary:
- בסוף is very common in speech
- ביטלנו את הפגישה is standard
- כי is a normal everyday word for because
- היא לא יכלה להגיע is a very natural way to explain why
So this is a useful sentence pattern to learn and reuse in conversation.