Breakdown of אני לא שומע את המורה, כי היא מדברת בשקט.
Questions & Answers about אני לא שומע את המורה, כי היא מדברת בשקט.
Because שומע is the masculine singular present-tense form. In Hebrew, present-tense verbs agree with the speaker's gender when the subject is אני (I).
- A male speaker says: אני לא שומע
- A female speaker says: אני לא שומעת
So this sentence is being said by a male speaker.
In the present tense, Hebrew verbs usually show gender and number, but not person clearly enough by themselves.
For example:
- שומע can mean I hear (male), you hear (masc. singular), or he hears
- מדברת can mean I speak (female), you speak (fem. singular), or she speaks
So Hebrew often uses subject pronouns like אני and היא to make the meaning clear.
There is no separate word for am here, because in Hebrew the verb to be is usually not expressed in the present tense.
So:
- אני לא שומע literally looks like I not hearing/hear
- Natural English translation: I do not hear / I'm not hearing
This is completely normal in Hebrew.
No. Here את is not the pronoun you. It is the direct object marker.
Hebrew has two words spelled את in unpointed text:
- אַתְּ / את = you (feminine singular)
- אֶת / את = the marker used before a definite direct object
In this sentence, את המורה means that the teacher is the direct object of שומע.
Hebrew uses את before a definite direct object.
Since המורה means the teacher, it is definite, so Hebrew says:
- אני שומע את המורה = I hear the teacher
But with an indefinite object, את is usually not used:
- אני שומע מורה = I hear a teacher
So את is not translated directly into English, but it is an important grammatical marker in Hebrew.
Not by spelling alone. מורה can refer to either a male teacher or a female teacher in everyday unpointed Hebrew writing. The context tells you which one is meant.
In this sentence, we know the teacher is female because of:
- היא = she
- מדברת = feminine singular speaks/is speaking
So here המורה means the female teacher.
Because the subject is היא (she), and in the present tense the verb agrees with the subject's gender and number.
For לדבר (to speak):
- מדבר = masculine singular
- מדברת = feminine singular
- מדברים = masculine plural / mixed plural
- מדברות = feminine plural
Since the sentence says היא, the correct form is מדברת.
בשקט literally means something like in quiet or quietly.
It is made of:
- ב־ = in / with
- שקט = quiet, silence
In natural English here, היא מדברת בשקט means:
- she speaks quietly
- she is speaking softly
- she is speaking in a quiet voice
So it does not mean she is completely silent; it means her speech is quiet.
It can mean either one. Hebrew present tense often covers both the simple present and the present progressive.
So היא מדברת בשקט can mean:
- she speaks quietly
- she is speaking quietly
The context tells you which English translation sounds best.
Because לשמוע and להקשיב are not the same.
- לשמוע = to hear (to perceive sound)
- להקשיב = to listen (to pay attention actively)
In this sentence, the problem is that the speaker cannot hear the teacher because her voice is too quiet. That makes שומע the natural choice.
If you used מקשיב, the meaning would shift more toward listening/paying attention rather than simply being able to hear.
Here כי means because. It introduces the reason:
- אני לא שומע את המורה = I don't hear the teacher
- כי היא מדברת בשקט = because she is speaking quietly
So the whole sentence means that the second clause explains the first one.
A useful extra note: כי can also mean that in other sentences, but in this one it clearly means because.