יש מספיק סוכר לקפה, אבל אין מספיק מלח למרק.

There is enough sugar for the coffee, but there is not enough salt for the soup.

Breakdown of יש מספיק סוכר לקפה, אבל אין מספיק מלח למרק.

• יש: there is
• קפה: coffee
• אין: there is no
• אבל: but

Questions & Answers about יש מספיק סוכר לקפה, אבל אין מספיק מלח למרק.

Why does the sentence use יש at the start of the first clause and אין at the start of the second?

Because Hebrew commonly uses יש and אין to talk about existence or availability.

• יש מספיק סוכר = there is enough sugar
• אין מספיק מלח = there isn’t enough salt

So here, the sentence is not using a normal present-tense verb like English is / isn’t. Instead, Hebrew uses:

• יש = there is / there are
• אין = there isn’t / there aren’t

This is extremely common in Hebrew.

Why is the negative word אין and not לא?

Because אין is the special negative partner of יש.

In standard Hebrew:

• יש = there is / there are
• אין = there is not / there are not

You normally do not say לא יש.

Compare:

• יש זמן = there is time
• אין זמן = there is no time

By contrast, לא is used to negate regular verbs and many other sentence types:

• אני לא יודע = I don’t know
• הוא לא בא = he isn’t coming

So in this sentence, אין is exactly the right form.