Questions & Answers about התגובה שלו הייתה שקטה, אבל הייתה לי תחושה שהוא מסכים.
Why is it הייתה and not היה?
Because the nouns it refers to are feminine singular:
- תגובה = response/reaction, feminine
- תחושה = feeling/sense, feminine
In the past tense, היה / הייתה agrees with the noun it goes with.
So:
- התגובה שלו הייתה שקטה = His response was quiet
- הייתה לי תחושה = literally There was to me a feeling, meaning I had a feeling
Both תגובה and תחושה are feminine, so הייתה is the correct form both times.
Why is הייתה used twice in the sentence?
The two instances do different jobs:
התגובה שלו הייתה שקטה
Here הייתה is the ordinary past form of to be:
His response was quiet.אבל הייתה לי תחושה
Here Hebrew uses a possession/existence pattern:
היה/הייתה ל־... = someone had... / there was ... to someone
So הייתה לי תחושה literally means There was a feeling to me, but in natural English it means I had a feeling.
Why does Hebrew say הייתה לי תחושה instead of a direct equivalent of I had a feeling?