אני רוצה שתבדקי אם יש נעליים במידה 38.

Breakdown of אני רוצה שתבדקי אם יש נעליים במידה 38.

אני
I
יש
there is
לרצות
to want
ב
in
נעל
shoe
אם
whether
ש
that
לבדוק
to check
מידה
size
38
thirty-eight
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Questions & Answers about אני רוצה שתבדקי אם יש נעליים במידה 38.

Where is the word you in this sentence?

Hebrew often leaves subject pronouns out because the verb already tells you who the subject is.

Here, תבדקי already means you check / you will check when speaking to one female. So Hebrew does not need a separate את unless you want emphasis.

If you added it, אני רוצה שאת תבדקי..., it would sound more emphatic, like I want you to check....

Why is the verb תבדקי feminine?

Because the speaker is talking to one woman.

Hebrew verbs agree with the person being addressed.
So:

  • שתבדקי = that you check, to one female
  • שתבדוק = that you check, to one male
  • שתבדקו = that you check, to more than one person

This sentence is something you might say to a female salesperson or clerk.

What does the ש in שתבדקי mean?

The ש is a shortened form of ש־, meaning that.

So אני רוצה שתבדקי is literally something like:

I want that you check

That is a very normal Hebrew structure. English usually says I want you to check, but Hebrew often uses ש־ plus a conjugated verb.

Why is תבדקי in a future form if the meaning is just check?

In Hebrew, after words like רוצה (want), a future-tense verb is often used to describe something the speaker wants to happen.

So although תבדקי is formally a future form, in this kind of sentence it works like:

  • that you check
  • for you to check

This is very natural Hebrew.

Why can’t I say אני רוצה לבדוק here?

You can say אני רוצה לבדוק, but it means I want to check.

That would change the subject. Compare:

  • אני רוצה לבדוק = I want to check
  • אני רוצה שתבדקי = I want you to check (to one female)

So the sentence uses שתבדקי because the person who wants something and the person who will do the checking are different people.

What does אם mean here?

Here אם means if in the sense of whether.

So אם יש נעליים... means:

  • if there are shoes...
  • more naturally in English, whether there are shoes...

This is not a conditional if like If it rains, I’ll stay home.
It introduces an indirect question.

What does יש mean?

יש means there is or there are.

Hebrew uses the same word for both singular and plural:

  • יש נעל = there is a shoe
  • יש נעליים = there are shoes

So in this sentence, אם יש נעליים means if there are shoes.

Why is it נעליים and not נעל?

נעל means one shoe.
נעליים means shoes / a pair of shoes.

In a store context, if you are asking about shoe sizes, נעליים is the normal word, because you usually mean shoes as a pair, not one single shoe.

Also, נעליים has the ending ־יים, which is often associated with things that come in pairs.

What does במידה 38 literally mean?

Literally, במידה 38 means in size 38.

  • ב־ = in
  • מידה = size

So Hebrew says shoes in size 38, where English usually says shoes in size 38 or more naturally just size 38 shoes.

This is a very common way to talk about clothing and shoe sizes.

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

Not in normal unpointed spelling.

The word is written רוצה for both:

  • masculine singular: רוֹצֶה
  • feminine singular: רוֹצָה

So from the spelling אני רוצה, you cannot tell whether the speaker is male or female unless you have vowel marks, audio, or more context.

How would the sentence change if I were speaking to a man instead of a woman?

You would change שתבדקי to שתבדוק:

אני רוצה שתבדוק אם יש נעליים במידה 38.

If speaking to several people, you would say:

אני רוצה שתבדקו אם יש נעליים במידה 38.

Everything else can stay the same.

Is the word order normal in Hebrew?

Yes. This is a very natural Hebrew sentence.

Its structure is:

  • אני רוצה = I want
  • שתבדקי = that you check
  • אם יש... = whether there are...

So Hebrew builds it as:

I want [that you check] [whether there are shoes in size 38].

That is a standard and common pattern.