מה את רוצה לעשות אחרי העבודה?

What do you want to do after work?

Breakdown of מה את רוצה לעשות אחרי העבודה?

• לרצות: to want
• את: you
• מה: what
• אחרי: after
• עבודה: work
• לעשות: to do

Questions & Answers about מה את רוצה לעשות אחרי העבודה?

Why is את used here?

את is the you form used when speaking to one female.

So:

• את = you (singular, feminine)
• אתה = you (singular, masculine)

This sentence is being said to a woman or girl. If you were speaking to a man, you would say:

• מה אתה רוצה לעשות אחרי העבודה?

This is one of the first things English speakers notice in Hebrew: Hebrew often marks gender in everyday sentences, even in words like you and want.

Why is it רוצה and not some other form?

רוצה is the present-tense form of to want that agrees with את.

In Hebrew, the verb usually matches the subject in gender and number.

For to want in the present tense:

• אני רוצה = I want (said by a man)
• אני רוצה = I want (said by a woman)
  
  • In writing, this form looks the same for masculine singular and feminine singular in many verbs like this one, but context tells you which is meant.
• אתה רוצה = you want (masculine singular)
• את רוצה = you want (feminine singular)

So את רוצה is the correct match for you addressed to one female.

What does מה mean here, and why is it at the beginning?

מה means what.

Hebrew often puts question words like what, who, where, and when near the start of the sentence, just like English usually does.

So the structure is:

• מה = what
• את רוצה = you want
• לעשות = to do
• אחרי העבודה = after work / after the workday

Literally, the sentence is very close to:

• What do you want to do after work?

Unlike English, Hebrew does not need a helping verb like do in this kind of question.

Why doesn’t Hebrew use a word like English do in this question?

English says:

• What do you want to do...?

Hebrew does not use an extra helping verb like do for this. It simply says:

• מה את רוצה לעשות...?
• literally: What you want to do...?

This is completely normal in Hebrew. In many cases, Hebrew question formation is simpler than English because you do not need do/does/did support.

What is לעשות exactly?

לעשות means to do or to make, depending on context.

It is the infinitive form of the verb עשה = he did / he made.

The ל־ at the beginning often marks the infinitive in Hebrew, similar to English to:

• לעשות = to do / to make
• ללכת = to go
• לאכול = to eat

So in this sentence:

• רוצה לעשות = want to do

That is a very common Hebrew pattern:

• רוצה + infinitive
• want + to + verb

Why is there no separate word for to before do?

There actually is one—but it is attached to the verb.

In לעשות, the first letter ל־ is the to part.

So:

• ל = to
• עשות is not used alone here; together the full infinitive is לעשות

English writes to do as two words, but Hebrew usually writes this kind of infinitive as one word.

What does אחרי mean, and is it a preposition?

Yes. אחרי means after, and here it functions as a preposition.

Examples:

• אחרי העבודה = after work
• אחרי הלימודים = after the studies / after class
• אחרי הסרט = after the movie

So the phrase אחרי העבודה gives the time context: after work.

Why is it העבודה with ה־? Why not just עבודה?

ה־ is the Hebrew definite article, meaning the.

So:

• עבודה = work / a job / labor
• העבודה = the work / the job / the workday

In this sentence, אחרי העבודה is a very natural Hebrew way to say after work.

Even though English often says simply after work without the, Hebrew commonly uses the here. So a more word-for-word rendering would be:

• after the work

But idiomatically in English, we usually say:

• after work

This is a very common difference between the two languages.

Does העבודה mean the job or work here?

Here it most naturally means work in the everyday sense of after the workday / after work.

The noun עבודה can mean several related things, including:

• work
• job
• labor
• assignment

In this sentence, the intended meaning is probably not after the assignment or after the labor in an abstract sense, but simply:

• after work
• after you finish work

Context decides the best translation.

What is the word order of the sentence?

The word order is:

• מה — what
• את — you
• רוצה — want
• לעשות — to do
• אחרי העבודה — after work

So literally:

• What you want to do after work?

Natural English adds do:

• What do you want to do after work?

Hebrew word order in questions is often fairly direct. You do not have to rearrange the sentence as much as in English.

Could this sentence be said without את?

Sometimes in Hebrew, the subject pronoun can be omitted because the verb already gives some information. But in the present tense, Hebrew often keeps the pronoun when needed for clarity.

Here, את רוצה clearly shows that the speaker is addressing one female.

If you removed את, you would get:

• מה רוצה לעשות אחרי העבודה?

That sounds incomplete or unnatural in normal modern Hebrew, because רוצה by itself does not clearly identify the subject enough here.

So in this sentence, keeping את is natural and expected.

How would this change if I were speaking to a man?

You would change the words that show feminine singular to masculine singular:

• מה אתה רוצה לעשות אחרי העבודה?

The main change is:

• את → אתה

The verb form רוצה stays the same in writing here, because you want for masculine singular is also רוצה.

So:

• to a woman: מה את רוצה לעשות אחרי העבודה?
• to a man: מה אתה רוצה לעשות אחרי העבודה?

How would I say this to more than one person?

You would use the plural forms.

To a group of males or a mixed group:

• מה אתם רוצים לעשות אחרי העבודה?

To a group of females:

• מה אתן רוצות לעשות אחרי העבודה?

Notice the changes:

• את → אתם / אתן
• רוצה → רוצים / רוצות

So Hebrew changes both the pronoun and the verb to match number and gender.

Is אחרי העבודה more natural than לאחר העבודה?

In everyday spoken Hebrew, אחרי העבודה is usually more common and natural.

• אחרי = after
• לאחר = after

Both are correct, but לאחר often sounds a bit more formal or written.

So:

• מה את רוצה לעשות אחרי העבודה? = very natural in speech
• מה את רוצה לעשות לאחר העבודה? = correct, but slightly more formal

How is this sentence pronounced?

A simple pronunciation guide is:

ma at ro-TSA la-a-SOT a-kha-REI ha-a-vo-DA

A few notes:

• מה = ma
• את is often pronounced close to at
• רוצה is pronounced ro-TSA
• לעשות is la-a-SOT
• אחרי is a-kha-REI, with kh like the ch in German Bach or Scottish loch
• העבודה is ha-a-vo-DA

The main stress is usually toward the end of these words:

• roTSA
• la-aSOT
• a-khaREI
• ha-a-voDA

Why does את sometimes mean you, but I’ve also seen את used differently in Hebrew?

Great question. Hebrew has two completely different words that are both written את.

1. את = you (feminine singular)
2. את = a grammatical marker used before a definite direct object

In this sentence, את means you, because it comes right after מה and clearly acts as the subject:

• מה את רוצה... = What do you want...

This is not the object marker here.

English speakers often get confused by this at first, but the role becomes clear from context.

Can לעשות mean make here instead of do?

Grammatically, לעשות can mean to do or to make, but in this sentence to do is the natural choice.

So:

• מה את רוצה לעשות אחרי העבודה? = What do you want to do after work?

If you translated it as make, it would sound odd in English unless the context were very specific.

This is one of those verbs whose exact English translation depends on the phrase and situation.

Is this sentence formal or informal?

This sentence is informal to neutral.

Hebrew does not have a formal you like French vous or Spanish usted. The choice here is mainly about:

• gender
• number
• tone of vocabulary

This sentence sounds natural and everyday. It would be fine in ordinary conversation with a friend, coworker, classmate, partner, and so on.

If you wanted it to sound more formal, you would more likely change the wording slightly, not switch to a special formal you form.