אני לא רוצה להשאיר את הספר בבית.

אני means I.

In many Hebrew sentences, subject pronouns can sometimes be omitted, but in the present tense they are often kept because the verb form does not clearly show the person. Here, רוצה tells you singular and gender in speech, but not clearly I vs. you vs. he/she in writing without context. So אני is very natural and helpful here.

לא is the normal Hebrew word for negating a verb, adjective, or whole clause.

So:

אני לא רוצה = I do not want

This is different from אין, which is used for there is not / there are not / do not have in certain structures.

Hebrew usually places לא directly before the verb or expression being negated.

So:

אני לא רוצה = I do not want

If you changed the placement, the meaning or emphasis could change. In this sentence, the idea being negated is the wanting.

רוצה is the present-tense form of the verb לרצות, meaning to want.

A useful detail: in normal unpointed Hebrew spelling, רוצה can represent both:

• masculine singular: rotze
• feminine singular: rotza

So this written sentence could be said by either a male speaker or a female speaker. The pronunciation tells you which one it is.

The ל at the beginning marks the infinitive, which often corresponds to English to before a verb.

So:

להשאיר = to leave / to leave behind

After רוצה, Hebrew normally uses an infinitive:

רוצה להשאיר = want to leave

Hebrew uses different verbs for different kinds of leave.

להשאיר means to leave something behind.

That makes it the right choice here, because the sentence is about leaving the book somewhere.

Other Hebrew verbs cover other meanings, for example:

• לעזוב = to leave, abandon
• לצאת = to go out, leave a place

So if you are leaving an object somewhere, להשאיר is the natural verb.

את is the direct object marker. It has no direct English equivalent.

It is used before a definite direct object, especially one with ה meaning the.

So in:

את הספר

the word את marks הספר as the direct object of להשאיר.

You can think of it as a grammar signal that says: this is the thing being acted on.

Because הספר means the book, which is definite.

In Hebrew, a definite direct object usually takes את:

• אני קורא ספר = I am reading a book
• אני קורא את הספר = I am reading the book

So here:

להשאיר את הספר = to leave the book

ספר means a book or just book.

הספר means the book.

The prefix ה־ is the Hebrew definite article, corresponding to English the.

So:

• ספר = a book
• הספר = the book

Because Hebrew often attaches short prepositions directly to the following noun.

Here:

• ב־ = in / at
• בית = house / home

So:

בבית = in the house or at home

Also, when a preposition like ב־ comes before a noun with ה־ meaning the, Hebrew often combines them into one written form.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Literally, בבית is in the house or in the home. But very often in natural English translation it becomes at home.

So this sentence could correspond to either idea depending on the situation, even though the Hebrew form is the same.

Yes. This is a very normal, neutral Hebrew word order:

אני | לא רוצה | להשאיר | את הספר | בבית

That is roughly:

I | do not want | to leave | the book | at home

Hebrew does allow other word orders for emphasis, but this version is the straightforward default.

Yes, sometimes. Hebrew can move parts of the sentence for emphasis.

For example, a speaker might move את הספר earlier to emphasize the book. But the basic sentence you have is the most neutral and standard version.

So for learning purposes, this is an excellent model of ordinary word order.

A common pronunciation would be:

• male speaker: ani lo rotze lehash'ir et hasefer babayit
• female speaker: ani lo rotza lehash'ir et hasefer babayit

The main difference is the pronunciation of רוצה:

• rotze for a male speaker
• rotza for a female speaker

Everything else stays the same.