הפגישה הראשונה חשובה.

The first meeting is important.

Breakdown of הפגישה הראשונה חשובה.

• פגישה: meeting
• חשוב: important
• ראשון: first

Questions & Answers about הפגישה הראשונה חשובה.

How do you pronounce הפגישה הראשונה חשובה?

A common pronunciation guide is:

ha-pgi-SHA ha-ri-sho-NA kha-shu-VA

A few notes:

• ה at the start of a word is usually ha- = the
• פגישה = p'gishá / pgishá
• ראשונה = rishoná
• חשובה = chashuvá

The ch sound in חשובה is not like English ch in chair. It is the throaty sound heard in German Bach or Scottish loch.

The stress is usually on the last syllable in all three main words here:

• pgiSHA
• rishoNA
• chashuVA

Why does הפגישה start with ה־?

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

So:

• פגישה = meeting
• הפגישה = the meeting

In this sentence, the noun is definite: the meeting.

Why does הראשונה also have ה־?

Because in Hebrew, if a noun is definite, an adjective that describes it is usually definite too.

So:

• פגישה ראשונה = a first meeting
• הפגישה הראשונה = the first meeting

This is very different from English. In English, only the noun usually gets the:

• the first meeting

But in Hebrew, both the noun and its adjective typically show definiteness:

• הפגישה הראשונה

Why is ראשונה after פגישה? In English we say first meeting, not meeting first.

Because Hebrew adjectives normally come after the noun they describe.

So Hebrew word order is:

• פגישה ראשונה = literally meeting first
• פגישה חשובה = literally meeting important

This is the normal Hebrew pattern:

• noun + adjective

That includes ordinal numbers used adjectivally, such as:

• ראשון / ראשונה = first
• שני / שנייה = second

Why are ראשונה and חשובה feminine?

Because פגישה is a feminine singular noun, and adjectives in Hebrew must agree with the noun in:

• gender
• number
• definiteness

Since פגישה is feminine singular, the adjectives must also be feminine singular:

• ראשונה = feminine singular first
• חשובה = feminine singular important

If the noun were masculine, the forms would change. For example:

• הספר הראשון חשוב = the first book is important

Here:

• ספר is masculine
• so the adjectives are הראשון and חשוב

How can I tell that פגישה is feminine?

One strong clue is the ending ־ה.

Many Hebrew feminine singular nouns end in:

• ־ה
• or ־ת

So פגישה is feminine.

This is not an absolute rule for every noun in Hebrew, but it is a very common and useful pattern.

You can also see that the adjectives agree with it in the feminine:

• ראשונה
• חשובה

That confirms the noun is feminine.

Where is the word is in this sentence?

In Hebrew, the present tense often has no separate word for is / am / are.

So:

• הפגישה הראשונה חשובה literally looks like:
• the first meeting important

But it means:

• The first meeting is important

This is completely normal Hebrew.

In the past or future, Hebrew does use forms of to be:

• הפגישה הראשונה הייתה חשובה = The first meeting was important
• הפגישה הראשונה תהיה חשובה = The first meeting will be important

Could I say הפגישה הראשונה היא חשובה?

Yes, but the simple sentence הפגישה הראשונה חשובה is the most natural neutral version.

Adding היא can sound:

• more emphatic
• more contrastive
• or sometimes less natural in a basic statement

So for a straightforward sentence, learners should usually prefer:

• הפגישה הראשונה חשובה

rather than:

• הפגישה הראשונה היא חשובה

What is the difference between ראשונה and הראשונה?

The difference is definiteness:

• ראשונה = first
• הראשונה = the first

Examples:

• פגישה ראשונה = a first meeting
• הפגישה הראשונה = the first meeting

Because the noun in your sentence is definite (הפגישה), the adjective must also be definite (הראשונה).

Why is חשובה not חשוב?

Because חשובה is the feminine singular form, matching פגישה.

Compare:

• חשוב = masculine singular
• חשובה = feminine singular
• חשובים = masculine plural
• חשובות = feminine plural

Since פגישה is feminine singular, Hebrew uses:

• חשובה

not

• חשוב

Is הראשונה an adjective or a number?

It is an ordinal number, meaning first, but in sentences like this it behaves grammatically like an adjective.

That means it:

• comes after the noun
• agrees with the noun in gender
• agrees with the noun in definiteness

So in practice, you can think of ראשונה here as an adjective-like word meaning first.

What would the sentence look like without the?

It would be:

• פגישה ראשונה חשובה

This would mean something like:

• A first meeting is important
• or An initial meeting is important

Notice that when the noun is indefinite, the adjective is also indefinite:

• פגישה = a meeting
• ראשונה = first
• not הראשונה

So Hebrew keeps the noun and adjective matched in definiteness.

What is the root of פגישה and does that help?

Yes. פגישה comes from the root פ־ג־ש, which is related to meeting or encountering.

Related forms include:

• לפגוש = to meet
• נפגש = he met / met up
• פגישה = meeting

For learners, recognizing roots can help connect vocabulary families, though you do not need to know the root in order to understand this sentence correctly.