עברנו לשכונה חדשה לפני שבוע.

We moved to a new neighborhood a week ago.

Breakdown of עברנו לשכונה חדשה לפני שבוע.

• חדש: new
• ל: to
• לפני: before
• שבוע: week
• לעבור: to move
• שכונה: neighborhood

Questions & Answers about עברנו לשכונה חדשה לפני שבוע.

What tense and person is עברנו?

עברנו is past tense, first-person plural: we moved.

A helpful way to break it down is:

• עבר = the verb base from the root ע-ב-ר
• -נו = the ending for we in the past tense

So עברנו already tells you both the action and the subject.

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Why is there no separate word for we in the sentence?

Because Hebrew verbs often already include the subject.

In עברנו, the ending -נו tells you the subject is we, so adding אנחנו is usually unnecessary.

You can say אנחנו עברנו לשכונה חדשה לפני שבוע, but that sounds more emphatic, like we moved, not someone else.

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Why does עברנו mean moved here? I thought עבר meant something like passed or crossed.

That is a very common question.

The root ע-ב-ר does often mean pass, cross, or go from one side/state/place to another. But in everyday Hebrew, עבר ל... can also mean move to... in the sense of relocating.

So:

• עברנו לשכונה חדשה = we moved to a new neighborhood
• עברנו את השכונה = we passed the neighborhood

The preposition after the verb helps determine the meaning.

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What does לשכונה mean, and why is the ל attached to the word?

The ל־ is a preposition meaning to. In Hebrew, short prepositions are usually attached directly to the following word.

So:

• לשכונה = to a neighborhood / to the neighborhood

This is normal Hebrew spelling. You do not write the ל as a separate word here.

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How do I know לשכונה means to a neighborhood here and not to the neighborhood?

In unpointed Hebrew spelling, לשכונה can actually be ambiguous by itself.

But the rest of the phrase makes it clear:

• לשכונה חדשה = to a new neighborhood
• לשכונה החדשה = to the new neighborhood

The adjective חדשה has no ה־, so the whole noun phrase is indefinite: a new neighborhood, not the new neighborhood.

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Why does חדשה come after שכונה?

Because in Hebrew, adjectives normally come after the noun they describe.

So Hebrew says:

• שכונה חדשה = literally neighborhood new

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

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Why is it חדשה and not חדש?

Because שכונה is a feminine singular noun, and Hebrew adjectives must agree with the noun in:

• gender
• number
• definiteness

So:

• שכונה חדשה = feminine singular
• בית חדש = masculine singular

If the noun were definite, the adjective would also be definite:

• השכונה החדשה = the new neighborhood

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Why isn’t there an את before שכונה חדשה?

Because שכונה חדשה is not a direct object here.

In this sentence, it is the destination of movement, introduced by ל־:

• עברנו לשכונה חדשה = we moved to a new neighborhood

The word את is used before a definite direct object, not before a destination.

Compare:

• עברנו לשכונה חדשה = we moved to a new neighborhood
• עברנו את השכונה = we passed the neighborhood

Those are different structures and different meanings.

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How does לפני שבוע mean a week ago?

לפני literally means before, but with an expression of time it often means ago.

So:

• לפני שבוע = a week ago
• לפני יומיים = two days ago
• לפני שנה = a year ago

This is one of the standard ways Hebrew talks about past time.

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Why is there no word for a in a week or a new neighborhood?

Because Hebrew has no indefinite article. There is no separate word for a / an.

So:

• שבוע can mean a week
• שכונה חדשה can mean a new neighborhood

Hebrew does have a definite article, ה־, for the:

• השבוע = the week
• השכונה החדשה = the new neighborhood

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Could I say שבוע לפני instead of לפני שבוע?

Usually, no, not if you mean a week ago in a simple neutral sentence.

The standard expression is:

• לפני שבוע = a week ago

שבוע לפני usually means a week earlier / a week before that, relative to some other point in time.

For example:

• פגשתי אותו ביום חמישי. שבוע לפני זה דיברנו בטלפון. = I met him on Thursday. A week before that, we spoke on the phone.

So the two expressions are related, but they are not used in exactly the same way.

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Can the word order of this sentence change?

Yes. Hebrew word order is fairly flexible.

You can also say:

• לפני שבוע עברנו לשכונה חדשה

That still means the same thing, but it puts the time expression first, which can give it a bit more emphasis.

The original order, עברנו לשכונה חדשה לפני שבוע, is completely natural and neutral.

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Does עברנו tell me whether the speakers are male or female?

No. In the first-person plural past tense, Hebrew does not distinguish gender.

So עברנו can mean:

• we moved — all male
• we moved — all female
• we moved — mixed group

The same form works in all those cases.