אני רוצה שתנסי לקרוא את השאלה לבד.

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Breakdown of אני רוצה שתנסי לקרוא את השאלה לבד.

• לרצות: to want
• את: direct object marker
• לקרוא: to read

Questions & Answers about אני רוצה שתנסי לקרוא את השאלה לבד.

Why is there a ש־ attached to תנסי?

The ש־ means that and introduces a subordinate clause.

So אני רוצה שתנסי... is literally something like I want that you try.... In natural English, that becomes I want you to try....

This structure is very common in Hebrew after verbs like רוצה (want), especially when the second verb has a different subject from the first one.

• אני רוצה לקרוא = I want to read
• אני רוצה שתנסי לקרוא = I want you to try to read

In the first sentence, the speaker and the reader are the same person, so Hebrew uses the infinitive לקרוא. In the second, the speaker wants someone else to do the action, so Hebrew uses ש־ + a finite verb.

How do we know that תנסי is talking to a female?

תנסי is the second-person feminine singular form of the verb לנסות (to try).

That means the speaker is talking to one female.

If the speaker were talking to a male, it would be:

אני רוצה שתנסה לקרוא את השאלה לבד.

If the speaker were talking to more than one person, modern Hebrew would usually use:

אני רוצה שתנסו לקרוא את השאלה לבד.

So the ending on תנסי is one of the clearest clues in the sentence.

Does רוצה tell us whether the speaker is male or female?