Questions & Answers about לפני שאנחנו הולכים הביתה, אני רוצה להזמין קפה.
לפני means before.
In this sentence, לפני שאנחנו הולכים הביתה means before we go home or before we’re going home.
The pattern is:
לפני + clause = before + clause
So:
- לפני = before
- שאנחנו הולכים הביתה = that we are going home / we go home
In natural English, you would not translate the ש literally, but in Hebrew it helps introduce the clause.
A very similar pattern appears in many Hebrew sentences:
- אחרי שאנחנו אוכלים = after we eat / after we’re done eating
- לפני שאני יוצא = before I leave
The ש is short for אשר and often works like that in English, introducing a subordinate clause.
So שאנחנו is basically:
- ש = that
- אנחנו = we
Together: that we...
In this sentence, לפני שאנחנו הולכים הביתה literally feels something like before that we go home, though that is not how you would translate it naturally into English.
In modern Hebrew, ש is extremely common and very useful. You will see it in many structures:
- אני יודע שהוא כאן = I know that he is here
- אמרתי שאני עייף = I said that I’m tired
After לפני, Hebrew often uses ש to connect the next clause.