המשקפיים שלה על השולחן מול המראה, ליד המסרק.

table

Breakdown of המשקפיים שלה על השולחן מול המראה, ליד המסרק.

• ליד: next to
• על: on
• שלה: her

Questions & Answers about המשקפיים שלה על השולחן מול המראה, ליד המסרק.

Why is there no word for are in this sentence?

In Hebrew, the verb to be is usually omitted in the present tense.

So instead of saying something literally like Her glasses are on the table, Hebrew says:

המשקפיים שלה על השולחן
literally: her glasses on the table

This is completely normal. In past and future tense, Hebrew does use forms of to be, but in the present tense it usually does not.

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Why is it המשקפיים? Isn’t that a plural form?

Yes. משקפיים is a word that looks like a plural/dual form and means glasses.

Hebrew often uses a special ending ־ַיִם / -ayim for things that come in pairs, and משקפיים is one of those words. So even though in English a pair of glasses can refer to one object, in Hebrew the word itself is grammatically plural-looking.

A learner should simply treat משקפיים as the normal word for glasses.

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Why is it שלה and not something plural, if משקפיים is plural?