Word
בלילה היה לי חלום ארוך על בית ליד הים.
Meaning
At night I had a long dream about a house by the sea.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Questions & Answers about בלילה היה לי חלום ארוך על בית ליד הים.
What does בלילה mean exactly, and why is it written as one word?
בלילה means at night or during the night.
It is made from the preposition ב־ (in / at) plus הלילה (the night), which contract into one written word in Hebrew: בלילה.
So literally, it is something like in the night, even though in natural English we usually say at night.
A native English speaker may expect two words, but in Hebrew this kind of combination is very common.
Why does the sentence start with בלילה?
Hebrew often puts a time expression at the beginning of a sentence, especially to set the scene.
So:
בלילה היה לי חלום ארוך...
= At night, I had a long dream...
This sounds very natural in Hebrew. Hebrew word order is more flexible than English, so starting with the time phrase is normal and often stylistically smooth.
What does היה לי literally mean?