אני מביאה קערה גדולה וכפית קטנה לקינוח.

Breakdown of אני מביאה קערה גדולה וכפית קטנה לקינוח.

אני
I
גדול
big
קטן
small
ו
and
ל
for
להביא
to bring
קינוח
dessert
קערה
bowl
כפית
spoon

Questions & Answers about אני מביאה קערה גדולה וכפית קטנה לקינוח.

Why is the verb מביאה and not מביא?

Because the speaker is feminine singular.

In Hebrew present tense, the verb agrees with the subject’s gender and number. So:

  • אני מביאה = I am bringing said by a woman
  • אני מביא = I am bringing said by a man

A useful thing to notice: in the present tense, Hebrew does not have a special first-person form, so מביאה can also mean she brings / is bringing depending on context.

Do I have to say אני, or could I just say מביאה קערה גדולה...?

You can sometimes omit אני if the context is clear, but keeping it is very normal.

Since present-tense Hebrew does not show person clearly, מביאה by itself could mean:

  • I am bringing if a woman is speaking
  • she is bringing

So אני helps remove ambiguity.

Why do the adjectives come after the nouns in קערה גדולה and כפית קטנה?

Because in Hebrew, adjectives usually come after the noun, unlike in English.

So:

  • קערה גדולה = a big bowl
  • כפית קטנה = a small spoon

This is the normal Hebrew word order for noun + adjective.

Why do גדולה and קטנה end with ?

Because they are feminine singular adjectives, matching the nouns they describe.

Hebrew adjectives must agree with the noun in:

  • gender
  • number
  • definiteness

Here:

  • קערה is feminine singular, so גדולה
  • כפית is feminine singular, so קטנה

Compare the masculine singular forms:

  • גדול = big
  • קטן = small

So:

  • קערה גדולה
  • כפית קטנה

but for masculine nouns you would get forms like:

  • קער גדול? No, because קער is not the noun here
  • for example: שולחן גדול = a big table
How do I know that קערה and כפית are feminine?

You usually learn the gender of each noun along with the word itself.

Some endings give clues:

  • קערה ends in , which is often feminine
  • כפית ends in -ית, which is also very often feminine

But Hebrew noun gender is not completely predictable, so it is best to memorize nouns together with their gender.

Where is the word a in this sentence?

There is no separate word for a/an in Hebrew.

A plain noun like:

  • קערה can mean a bowl
  • כפית can mean a spoon

Hebrew has a word for the, which is ה־, but not for a/an.

So:

  • קערה גדולה = a big bowl
  • הקערה הגדולה = the big bowl

Notice that with a definite noun, the adjective also becomes definite.

Why is there no את before קערה and כפית?

Because את is used only before a definite direct object.

In this sentence, the objects are indefinite:

  • קערה גדולה = a big bowl
  • כפית קטנה = a small spoon

So there is no את.

If you wanted to say the big bowl and the small spoon, you would say:

  • אני מביאה את הקערה הגדולה ואת הכפית הקטנה לקינוח.
Why is ו attached to כפית instead of being a separate word?

In Hebrew, the word and is usually written as a prefix attached to the next word:

  • ו־ = and

So:

  • וכפית = and a spoon

This is completely normal in Hebrew writing.

Its pronunciation changes a little depending on the sound that follows, but here it is basically ve-kafit.

Why is לקינוח one word, and what does it mean exactly?

Because the preposition ל־ attaches directly to the noun.

So:

  • ל־ = to / for / as
  • קינוח = dessert

Together:

  • לקינוח = for dessert, as dessert, or sometimes for the dessert, depending on context

In this sentence, the natural meaning is something like for dessert.

Is מביאה present tense or future tense?

It is present tense.

So אני מביאה literally means:

  • I am bringing
  • or sometimes I bring

In conversation, present tense can sometimes sound a bit like an immediate plan in English, but the basic form here is still present. A more clearly future form would be אביא = I will bring.

How would the sentence change if a man were speaking?

Only the verb would change:

  • אני מביא קערה גדולה וכפית קטנה לקינוח.

That is because the speaker is now masculine singular.

The nouns and adjectives stay the same, because קערה and כפית are still feminine nouns, so they still take:

  • גדולה
  • קטנה
How is this sentence pronounced?

A simple pronunciation guide is:

ani mevi'a ke'ara gdola ve-kapit ktana le-kinuaḥ

A few useful notes:

  • אני = ani
  • מביאה = mevi'a
  • קערה = ke'ara
  • גדולה = gdola
  • וכפית = ve-kapit
  • קטנה = ktana
  • לקינוח = le-kinuaḥ

The final sound in קינוח is the Hebrew letter ח, which is a throaty sound that English does not really have.

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